This project was created for a Blender Artists Weekend in November 2017.
"Europe" was the challenge theme, and it was a true challenge to try to do something large-scale in keeping with the relative epic-ness of the topic.
Ultimately, I wanted to approach this from a historic perspective, to celebrate, in a cumulative and somewhat vertical chronological manner, some creative aspects of European history, particularly the Renaissance experienced after the Middle Ages and classical antiquity, and the countless intellectual and artistic advancements and influences to follow, up through and beyond the Age of Enlightenment / Age of Reason and the Copernican Revolution, which eventually would displace the outdated Ptolemaic perception of the universe (a theme I would revisit more directly in a later work of mine, "Mundus Parvus Est - Or, The Astronomy Lesson").
The shell motif is intended to serve primarily as an homage to Sandro Botticelli, a key Early Renaissance artist.
The topmost portion also endeavors to allude visually, in part, to the evermore inventive and liberating influences from post-Impressionist artists such as Van Gogh, Cubist Picasso, and, further, abstract Kandinsky.)
Technical notes: this image was rendered and finalized within Blender (Cycles render nodes), and only procedural textures were used.
Thank you for viewing my work.
