commissioned by Hayden K.
A 16x9 banner of a ritual interior with robed figures arranged around an altar, pillars rising past the frame, and torchlight doing most of the storytelling. The brief was four lines long and that was on purpose. Hayden wanted atmosphere as a header image for a campaign hub, not a portrait, so the figures stay anonymous and the eye keeps moving across the composition.
We pitched two altar treatments before settling on the low stone block with a single offering bowl, since busier altars kept pulling focus from the silhouettes. The torches were placed last and went through three rounds of warming up the palette, because the first pass looked more haunted house than fantasy temple. The final read is calm but watched, which was the note Hayden kept circling back to.
SKETCH V1
