Tackling Goliath, my first concept image for Scorpio's books. When I first started working on this project some three years ago, I had little idea just how vast it would come to be. Set across three books and telling the story of those whom are seldom mentioned in context of conflicts, Scorpio's story is purposed to tell the tales of those people at the very bottom of society who suffer the greatest in times of war. Scorpio's story focus heavily upon the unimaginable bravery of children who find themselves trapped in a world descending into hatred fueled chaos with them becoming accountable for actions which they have no involvement in beyond simply the lands in which they were born. With this test image I wanted to focus heavily on such a moment where Kaitlyn (Young Vishnekian Scout) is escorting Maura (Out of shot Vishnekian child) and they are stumbled upon by two Larahchan soldiers. Kaitlyn naturally rises to defend Maura, offering herself as a distraction so that Maura can escape and survive to forewarn the tribe that Larahchan soldiers are now approaching their camp. Kaitlyn is but a 12 year old child armed with little more than a stick with a sharpened stone grafted to the end but despite her humble weaponry she is a proud scout and perfectly willing to sacrifice herself in a bid to save Maura from being killed or the even worse fate of being captured. Originally the idea was to composed the shot to have Maura laying down having been ambushed, fallen backwards in shock and watching Kaitlyn defend her. With the shot taken from beside Maura but instead I decided to focus fully on the energy of the short lived duel between Kaitlyn and the Larahchan soldier. Kaitlyn is throwing everything that she is into her attack, her shoulder is fully pulled back, her left arm raised to clash with his shield and her entire body coiled like a spring as she throws herself fully into defending Maura, not through choice but because she has no other choice. I wanted to shoot form low down to heighten the energy but also to show the vast difference in height between Kaitlyn as a child scout and a Larahchan soldier. Where she has little more than a crude spear and barest the protection, but in truth these young scouts aren't meant to find themselves in combat, especially with a Larahchan soldier who has a shield, a well made sword and armour, couple with combat experience, can there only be one outcome? While I had no plan to shoot from above or in front of Kaitlyn, I did pose her face too with a desperately determined, ferocious if almost psychotic expression where even her eyes have widened as she loses control almost entirely trying to prevent the Larahchan soldiers killing or capturing her friend. Finally I moved the camera down and into a veil of leaves, firstly so that a line of focus is drawn roughly from the soldiers sword to the tip of Kaitlyn's spear whilst also embracing the energy of her movement, but secondly to obscure the sword just enough to make it more foreboding (I hope at least) while adding a natural distortion to the scene. The ground is a mix of 3 pieces made within Gaea and a ground plane made in Blender, plants have been manually placed, as after a while using scattering or particle systems, I would sooner spend time placing plants, gravel, grass etc manually so that they feel slightly less regimented and more chaotic as nature tends to be. Plant life in this scene but the region this stage of the book is set within is based on experience in countries with similar geographical locations to the forest of Vishnekiyah, namely Kefalonia, Sicily, Montenegro and Malta. There's a mix of small palms, olive trees, some Ficus variants and an invasive species of Fagus Sylvatica too, where the naturally rich soils of the Vishneki forest have proven to be a perfect ground for them to slowly ingress into the forest. Grasses are fairly tough variants as are most of the smaller plants too, with a few tough ferns buried amongst the shaded areas too. In the end I decided to focus purely on the energy of the scene, using a low angle and mid f stop to generate a gentle distortion to the scene.