Tag: art as inspiration

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

This mysterious glowing gate is hidden away in the most unlikely of places.  Stone steps curve upwards to a door that looks as if it doesn’t belong to this time or place. Surrounded by rough rock, and primitive pillars and ladders, its glow dimly illuminates the crumbling cavern which seems barren of all other life. If you could avoid the gaping holes in the floor, and wind your way up the ladders and out of this place, what would you find beyond it? Sunlight and fresh air? A dying world? Perhaps you’d be better off risking the gate and hoping there is something good on the other side. But that doorway could go absolutely anyplace. Why was it built, and who built it? Was it intended to be a simple mode of transportation, or a unique wonder? Was is built to provide a way home…or a way to escape?

"Blue Gate" by Lakehurwitz

“Blue Gate” by Lakehurwitz

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

Night has fallen on the old quarter of the city. Far in the distance a castle rises up to meet the moon; two equally unattainable destinations. This is, after all, the poor quarter, and I am not here by chance. Only the brazen and the rats–including the worst of human vermin–dare to emerge at night. Or the desperate, like myself. I watch the guards as they pass below, crossbows raised and ready. They’re always on edge during night patrol; a state that often leaves behind tragic consequences. I hope not to be one of them, though I am as like to find one of their arrows in my back as I am the dagger of a thief. But travel I must, to someplace far beyond this hell. Beyond even that castle in the distance. A new life, a new destiny awaits me out there, if I can but escape. There are many who would keep me here by force if they had any suspicions about my flight. I must elude them all…

"Night Over the Poor District by ortsmor

“Night Over the Poor District
by ortsmor

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

With cautious anticipation, the adventurer steps forward. What is he expecting to find in this open tomb? Long forgotten, the structure that once housed it is slowly being reclaimed by nature. Yet something important lies in that chest on the dais before him–at least, that is his fervent hope.

He has endured much, and traveled a very long way to get here. Large birds are the only visible guardians; still he remains alert. Surely he’s not the only one who knows of this place, though perhaps the tomb has already been picked clean by another. Will his hopes be fulfilled once he kneels down and opens the lid?  Could it be that easy? Or is there a trap waiting for him. His adventure may have only just begun…

"Into the Tombs" by Fantasy Art Engine

“Into the Tombs” by Fantasy Art Engine

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

Take a stroll down this gorgeous path…the tile, “This Way,” pulls you right along.

I could get lost in a place like this, surrounded by breathtaking beauty, bathed in a soft, filtered sunlight that illuminates the mist around me. Perhaps it’s just me, but does anyone else smell fairy magic on the breeze? I sense that I’m being gently lured into another realm. “Come further in,” the leaves whisper. “Follow me,” fingers of mist curl and beckon. Am I being led to the heart of the fairy kingdom, or is it all just an illusion? Once I am there, will I ever be able to leave again? Will I ever want to? You decide…

"This Way" by Ninjatic

“This Way” by Ninjatic

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

This beautiful image goes along well with this week’s Medieval Monday post about travel. While the carriage isn’t one from the medieval era, it’s certainly from a time long gone. A slower time, before cars and planes could quickly whisk us away to any destination of our choosing.

Instead of whizzing by this beautiful scene, with the hum of the motor vibrating, windows rolled up tight, and the radio blaring, the person in this carriage hears only the roar of the falls, the calls of birds, and the steady clip clop of horse hooves on stone. A leisurely, peaceful ride through a dreamy, majestic landscape. The horse’s head is down–there is no sense of urgency in his pace–and the rider doesn’t seem to be trying to press him on faster. Sometimes the journey matters more than the destination.

But this is still a writing prompt, so where’s the story, you ask?  Today the story is the setting itself. Part of writing is world building–creating places that your readers can love, where they can escape from our world into another one for a time. When you can express places full of wonder, like this one, they remember it. They come back time and time again to visit, in their minds, if not by re-opening the pages themselves. What striking landscapes can you create with just words? What unforgettable places can you paint onto your reader’s imaginations?

"Waterfall" by Jordi Gonzalez Escamilla

“Waterfall” by Jordi Gonzalez Escamilla

 

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

I don’t know who made this week’s fantasy artwork, but it caught my eye. This intriguing looking place seems like the inside of a cocoon or hive rather than a forest. Is it human-sized, or tiny? The dwellings, if that’s what they are, seem extraordinarily bright. Do beings of light live here? Or at least beings with the capacity to tolerate greater levels of light than we can? What does your imagination conjure up when you look at this picture? This tangled, glowing world can be the foundation of a great story.

image-unknown

 

Fantasy Art Wednesday

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Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.

 

It’s not much fun getting caught in a downpour, especially when you’re carrying a bunch of stuff. That was me today–the minute I had to leave the house, the skies just opened up. I will admit, there was some grumbling as I, and all my belongings, got thoroughly drenched by a cold rain. This image made my soggy toes feel toasty again…and then hot, dry, dust-covered, thirsty. Very, very, thirsty. Looking at it for a while, and imagining myself there, I gained a sudden appreciation for the rain.

If a drop of rain has ever fallen in this place, there is no sign of it. Yet it seems that there was once a civilization, now buried beneath the shifting sands. Those stone fingers reaching upward, just breaking the surface, are full of longing and desperation. If they could only break free. Whom did this carved figure represent, and what else lies with him in his desert tomb?

Carrion birds seem to be following the poor person trudging along the barren landscape. How did he find himself here? Is he lost? Seeking treasure? Was he abandoned here as a form of punishment? Perhaps he found respite in the shade of those carved fingers for a while, but to stay there too long is certain death; there is no food or water to sustain him, and the birds know it. Can he make it to that rocky mountain he sees ahead? If there is anyone living in this desert, perhaps it is there–the entrance to an underground society with access to a spring. There must have been something good in this place, once up on a time, to warrant the carving of such a statue. Does that good remain, yet to be found, or is there now nothing but dust, unbearable heat, and eventual death?

desert