ABOUT WYLDHEART

Honestly, I didn't create the Wyldheart idea for the book first. I was a social media and business mentor for a while and wanted to create a logo or brand that focused on yourself and your own needs. The background was that there were a lot of rules in the scene, especially on social media, which made people insecure and dissatisfied and in the end they no longer did what actually fulfilled them, but only followed the stupid rules that changed per post anyway.

I myself was trapped in this for a while, but that's exactly why I started with “who am I actually”. I went through many generators until I came up with the name Wyldheart myself (I deliberately chose the “Y” instead of the I to emphasize the wild and rebellious a bit more.

Wyld stands for the creative itself, life and the adventures we experience. While the Heart stands for our soul, our self, what defines us, such as our beliefs, connectedness and society.

The color palette is also made up of earthy tones like the green, but adds a nice highlighter on top with the gold, which rounds off the whole thing. The green is for Mother Nature and spirituality, the gold for the soul, the self. Sounds round, doesn't it?

In the end, I adopted the word and the logo because it fits the essence of my novel perfectly. And I still think to myself today that I probably created the logo unconsciously. I myself say that my brand is very much about self-discovery. The characters in my book also step out of the system bit by bit to go their own way.

The world keeps turning, even if we follow our own path. We can be the protagonists and visionaries who change the world, piece by piece.

And we can't do that by always following the same path, can we? For me, Wyldheart means vision, tolerance and freedom. Exploring life and not being intimidated or even belittled by structures and rules. Especially as an LGBTQI+ member, I have experienced first-hand what the rules do to people's freedom and self-expression and it is all the more important for me to stand for tolerance with my brand, whether book or not, and that everyone feels comfortable, included and heard with me, for example during my shoots. No one should be discriminated against, regardless of body size, skin color, etc.

Be Wyld, be free, be yourself. That's the motto here.

Making-of LOGO

Of course, this also required a logo and I wanted to combine my own essence and the message of the word Wyldheart. Fantasy, nature and the soul combined in one logo. It shouldn't be too clean, because we as humans are complex and not straightforward. I've actually been asked if it's AI generated and I admit you would think so, but no I took inspiration and followed my normal composing workflow.

I was inspired by different platforms, actually had some suggestions generated by AI for inspiration and then slowly started to make the first drafts.

Just like with my character designs and composings, I also worked with photobashing and digital painting for my logo. I took different snippets (as is usual with photobashing and compositing), put them together to form a whole and then added and improved my own accents by painting over them.

Especially in times of theft by AI, I would like to give a little insight into photobashing here, but I will write a separate blog entry on this for those who want to read more about it.

Photobashing & AI

Short historical crash course.

In this technique, the artist combines photos or 3D assets to create a new image, such as backgrounds for the green screen. In my bachelor thesis, I also talked about whether photobashing is theft or an art form. Many in the gaming and film industry have been using this technique since the 19th century. Back then, as well as today, it is referred to as “matte painting” or compositing, especially in the film scene.

What was once only used in films has now become a unique design style for many artists to work faster and more efficiently. In the past, it was unthinkable to go to remote, exotic locations for filming or to capture worlds such as “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” using only scenery.

In the past, traditional methods had to be used. A photograph was combined with a painting to create a new setting. In the 1900s, however, the technique first became known through a filmmaker named Norman Dawn, who used the so-called glass-shot technique in his films.

Nowadays, matte painting is not only used for films. Especially in the video game industry, this technique is widely used by artists and is often referred to as “photobashing”. Artists use this technique to create more realistic character or landscape designs for video games by using photo elements or 3D assets. It creates a more efficient working style. You are faster and have more realistic results. For example, if you need to design a scene in a city, it's easier and faster to combine photo or 3D elements than to draw the scene from start to finish. It's a digital painting, which is only possible today with Photoshop and the like.

Isn't that also theft? I'm sure some of you are wondering.

The difference between AI and photobashing is that with photobashing, we can buy licenses for 3D assets, photographs and the like. There are also free Creative Commons licenses and also platforms like Envato that charge a monthly or yearly fee to use unlimited licenses and work from other artists. (Artists upload their art to these platforms, they are not involuntarily uploaded by Envato).

AI, on the other hand, takes information from a database. The Internet, or if you feed the AI with certain data, basically helps the program to create a collage from several pieces of data. No permission from the artist is involved. Of course, you could now debate for hours whether you are not automatically releasing your rights by posting, even Germany has not yet been able to create a legal basis for this. Basically, your intellectual property is YOUR intellectual property and should not simply be used or distributed without permission.

End

Unfortunately, I no longer have the files as my old hard disk finally gave up the ghost without warning last year, so I can't give you a detailed insight like I did with my Bachelor.

But here is a little insight.

I remember that I had already compiled the images in Photoshop and then, when I was on the road, I put the finishing touches on Procreate. The different components are made up of the following:

Ivy pngs

Golden ornaments

Leaves pngs (I drew over it again because it looked like shit haha)

The Wyldheart and my fantasy novel

In my first blog post about how it all began, I talked about the beginnings of the world, the characters and my novel idea. In the first script, it was the dragon scales that just had tremendous power, which is why all the nations had fought each other to get that power.

In the new script, the whole system has a more spiritual and deeper meaning through the Wyldheart.

The Wyldheart is the source of magic, your essence or soul, which is inherent in everyone and makes you who you are. When the Wyldheart is awakened, you have an awareness of your natural talents. These contain a unique magic that inspires the people around you and your environment.

Each Wyldheart contributes to the good of Ananthara in its own way, be it as an artist or, for example, as an inventor.

An awakened Wyldheart shows through your joy
when you are absorbed in what you are doing.

It is the same in the world of Ananthara.

The Wyldheart was given by the gods to their creation to honor and care for the planet and to live the life they have been given in a way that brings them joy and contributes to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants.

In Ananthara, however, the magic of the Wyldheart manifests not only through natural talents, but also through elemental and cosmic magic. Those who have been blessed with this kind of magic enjoy magical training at the Academy of Kilton to learn how to control it and best use it for the good of the people.

I hope this article has given you a deeper insight into the brand and the Wyldheart. I now also have my own language for the book called “Tehând”, which I will also be publishing information on.

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