Futuristic Thumbelina - Mother

For my Advanced Concept Art class we have to choose a story to genre switch.

Storytime!!!

It will be set on an alien planet filled with organic creatures of colossal size. One of these creatures, a lonely female creature longs for a companion, a child. She requests the help of the civilization’s “witch” or wise woman. This witch blesses her with a gift, an artifact preserved from another world in the form of a seed. The witch tells her that she has been entrusted with a great responsibility by accepting this gift and she must protect it at all costs. The motherly creature plants the seed and as the pod from the plant blooms, from it emerges the last human in existence, Thumbelina. Thumbelina is raised by this motherly creature despite her relatively miniature size. The mother teaches her all about this world and the other creatures that inhabit it. All the creatures of this planet are interconnected to the energy force of the planet itself, the “Bloodflow.” The Bloodflow is managed by the royal squadron paralleled to the Fairy court from the original story. They govern the planet and ration the energy the planet provides, considering that every life form on the planet needs energy from the planet to survive. In exchange, the creatures of the planet must return energy to the planet during the time of year the Royals call the “harvest.” The “smaller” creatures (which are about Thumbelina’s size) all retreat underground to escape this time of ritualistic slaughter despite that it will one day be every life form’s duty to return their energy to the Bloodflow. Thumbelina is naturally curious about the world around her despite the dangers and encounters a variety of creatures such as the Mole who preys upon smaller creatures hiding underground to hoard his own energy source, and the Beetle, who acts as a mob leader for the insects that hoard their own pool of energy. She is protected by characters such as her creaturely mother, winged companion (Jockimo) and her guardian (Dog). Along her adventures, she stumbles upon the descendant of the Royal Elite (the prince) who no longer wishes to take part in his ancestor’s sacrificial ritual.

The first character I designed was the mother creature, who I envisioned to be almost tree-like.