Red Hill art challenge 2023

Red Hill art challenge 2023

I participated in the Red Hill Art Challenge 2023. The brief was to model Baba Jaga’s hut and the surroundings. All techniques were allowed, but it was instructed to take a stylized approach. I wasn’t able to complete the image in time and that is why it wasn’t posted among the other entries, but I really liked the subject and wanted to complete the image anyways. View the full resolution image here.

About the background:

Baba Jaga is a character from slavic mythology; she is said to be the “mother of all witches” and to live in a forest in a hut standing on chicken legs. Her character has a lot of duality; she is known to have a fence made of bones and eat children, but she may also decide to help people she finds are pure at heart.

Inspiration

My image pulls inspiration from the old finnish wooden churches and slavic summer cabins (“datsa”.) There is something really eerie about a wooden chuch in a forest. I wanted my image to whisper: “You are in the presense of something” to the viewer. It’s intentionally vague if the presense is malevolent or not. This feeling was also fueled by the dualism of the Baba Jaga. I wanted her house to have a push and pull- feeling; there are warm and cozy candles on the porch, but also a fence made of human skulls in the yard.

• Trees & plants were made in Speedtree

• Main scene modelled in Blender and rendered with Eevee