![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/9f674e2a-c5a7-45b5-a6da-88365aa41057/122382a3-3201-48d6-bbef-cb8ae6583f6f_rw_1920.jpg?h=da5a4165b1586575f2a2ae350cbcc70e)
Dark Ages theme was a nod to the classic tales of knights and archers faced against dragons, search of golden treasures and epic battles fought among medieval castles. For this I wanted to try an image that felt it had a real story to it. And of course we got to also do the big fight too! I started with composition sketches to find the right feel for the first image, and the most dynamic composition for the battle. Timo Hämäläinen then set the scenes in 3d and I did a compositing, color adjustment and painting passes on top adding skies, effects, atmosphere and extra details.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/9f674e2a-c5a7-45b5-a6da-88365aa41057/c95ee23e-d574-4917-aee1-e802a4ad1574_rw_1920.jpg?h=da82b8cb734cfe2efe6590a609dbf18c)
Second image
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/9f674e2a-c5a7-45b5-a6da-88365aa41057/4605bb55-2822-4676-a0b0-597ff317dbfb_rw_1920.jpg?h=5f68cdd335018680e393dcd06d93e9b2)
Sketches