So here is a piece I did for my Creative perspective class last semester. The theme was "Villain's Lair" and the teacher had the following specifications:
1. had to be in two point perspective
2. had to include Romanesque architecture
3. had to be dirty and cluttered
So I looked to creating a lair made for a Dracula-like character. He was a vampire working on a large doomsday machine. Around his lab, he had remains form other experiments lying about (or scampering about) where he had either forgotten or abandoned them. I brainstormed with other artists, and that's where the idea for the steam powered skeletons came from, little pets of evil he created for no reason except to be cruel. The tentacles come from some reality-distorting, forsaken Being that he either serves, or was summoned by the fell energies being generated by his latest doomsday machine.
I decided to put the lair in a basement/crypt/dungeon setting after seeing some Romanesque altar rooms on Google. I thought it added a nice touch, having the place feel slightly cramped and claustrophobic.
