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World Below 05. Foreword

07. Summary
40. The Salt Desert 08. Environment Exploration
42. Salt Desert People World Above
44. The Old Lady
45. Salt Desert Props 12. Home
46. Salt Desert Creatures 14. The House
47. The Sand Desert 18. Props
49. Sand Desert People 21. Cave Entrance
50. The Third Land 22. First Brother
53. The Monkey King 23. Second Brother
54. The Dragon 24. The Third Brother (Yordan)
58. The Fourth Land - Meeting Giants 28. Third Brother Progression
59. The Fourth Land Creatures 29. The Knife & The Crook
62. The Eagle 30. The Ala (Gale)
63. Props 34. The Cave

*The rights to ALL images in this document belong to Nikola Yordanov

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 In the heart of this project is the Bulgarian folktale The Three Brothers and the Golden
Apple. It is a story very dear to myself and many other Bulgarians who have grown up
hearing it from their mothers at the bedside, learning about it in kindergarden, partici-
pating in school plays as children. Stories like this one bring ages of culture and memory
with them. From mouth to mouth, from heart to heart, these stories transcend language,
race, politics, hatred. This is true not just of The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple,
but of all folktales from around the world. With this project, I wanted to acknowledge
just that truth. I wanted to interpret this beloved story in my own way, based on my own
experiences and influences.

To further explore the potential of such storytelling, I chose to merge the The Three
Brothers and the Golden Apple with the amazingly rich and magical story, dearest to
the Chinese people, Journey to the West. From this amazing story, I take inspiration for
a large part of the environments, characters and creatures, explored in the World Be-
low.

I have tremendously enjoyed creating this book and I sincerely hope for it to bring at
least a small bit of joy in the readers, whoever they might be.

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 There was a woman with three sons. They had a wonderous tree in their garden. Every
year, it would bear one golden apple. However, every year an ala would steal the fruit. Af-
ter his brothers fail, the youngest brother (whom I have named Yordan, after my great
grandfather) leaves in pursuit of the Ala. After he finds and defeats the Ala, freeing the
imprisoned girls in her house, Yordan ends up stranded in the World Below. He wonders
until he finds an old woman kneading dough for bread with spit instead of water. The old
woman had no choice since a dragon had been stealing all of the water from the land and
asking for the life of the kings daughter in return for the water. Yordan, after getting direc-
tions from the old woman, leaves in search for the Kings Palace in hope that the King can
help him return home. After a treturous journey, the youngest brother finally reaches the
palace. He decides to save the princess, before asking for the Kings help. After he does so,
the king (The Monkey King in this book) tells him to go to the giant Eagles astheyre the
only ones who can make that dangerous trip and return safely. Yordan leaves, but when he
finds the Eagles nest, he notices a giant snake wrapping itself around the tree atop which
the nest lies, about to dine on the eaglets. The Youngest Brother saves the babies, making
the Eagle indebted to him. The Eagle tells him to bring 100 cases of meat and 100 barrels
of wine and put them in a cage for the trip. The King provided what was asked for and the
Eagle brought Yordan back home safely.

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 In the beginning stages, I tried to explore different envi-
ronments. I wanted to get a sense of the overall look for the
project. At this point, I wasnt sure about the full scope of the
project, but i knew the feel I wanted present inside it.

The only two things i had in mind is that the places Yordan
travels to need to be epic, but believable.

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 I liked the idea of a winter
environment for the project, so
I decided to explore it further.
I put in a castle in the back-
ground, imagining it to be the
Kings Palace from the story. At
that point in development I was
thinking that the Third Land
would be in heavy winter.
The footsteps in the image above
made me think about what the
involvement of Yordan would be
with the scene. At this point in
the story, the character is going
to the Palace. I thought that it
would be good for people to see
him as more of a real person,
enduring the hardships of travel.
I hadnt gone through the design
process of Yordan yet, but I had
a general idea of what he might
look like.
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A very humid, swamp-like envi-
ronment was something I had in
mind for where the family would
live in the beginning of the story.
I ended up following a different
ide, but nonetheless it was an
interesting route to explore.
I was content with the visual di-
rection the project was taking, so
I wanted to test myself and see if
I actually dont prefer something
completely different. So I came
up with a concept that was com-
pletely different. It was definitely
a fun idea to delve into, but ul-
timately it served the purpose of
cementing my thoughts on what
the project should look like.
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 I wanted to place the family house in a typical
bulgarian mountainous environment. I chose
the Balkan mountains as my primary reference
source. I have hiked the woods of the central
Balkan many times with my dad and I wanted
to bring the feel of that beautiful mountain
through to my own designs.

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 With the design of the house, I was looking
for something simple, I wanted it to feel like a
family house. I looked to include subtle design
ideas, suggesting elements from the story.

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 The house needed to feel lived in. It needed to feel like there
have been people using everything in this house and have
been doing so for generations. It needed to feel like a home.

I was playing with the idea that the family actually lives in
quite a big and beautiful house. That is because it was built
there by a shepherd, who accidentally found the golden apple,
sold it and lived happily. Unfortunately word got around,
the Ala heard about the tree and started stealing the Golden
Apple every year.

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 Each step of the way, I was
thining about the function of
the props. All of the concepts are
based on real tools that existed
and were used in this region
For the props, I wanted to design at earlier times. The research
things that feel old, but when needed for this was extensive, but
looked at a person knows that it extremely valuable in bringing
would last, like going to a second believability to the designs
hand shop. The idea of memory
was strong for me. I was imagin-
ing kids chipping away the wood
on the furniture when bored, the
adults sitting heavily on a chair
after a long day of working, wine
and grease stains here and there.
I wanted a stranger to be able to
get an idea of the family, just by
looking at the inside of the house.

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 The look of the First Brother was
always very clear in my mind. As the
firstborn, he would feel like the re-
sponsible, grown-up one. I decided
to reflect that by making him bigger
the his brothers. Hes stronger, but
also chubbier as he felt entitled to
more of the food at meals.

For the Second Brother I wanted

to go with the more sly, scrony, shy
look. After all hes the one in the
middle. Neither the youngest nor
oldest, he never got the attention he
needed, but he remained loyal to
his family.

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 I was experimenting with different
looks for Yordan. Older, younger, with
moustache, full beard, shaved etc - I
just wanted to see what fits him the
most. This iteration process was im-
mensely helpful in figuring out other
parts of the project later on.

I wanted the Third Brother (who I

named Yordan) to have a standard
hero look, but with typical Bulgarian
traits. I started with silhouettes to
quickly go through and come up with
different ideas. At one point I was
considering making him a child, but I
quickly scrapped that idea.

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 After figuring what I wanted for the character, I came up with the different acces-
sories he might have, like a gourd to drink water or wine from and a dried sausage
handily tied to his crook to enjoy on his travels.

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The Youngest Brother is the main
character in the story. As such, he
goes through the biggest amount
of change in appearance. As he
travels through the various places
in the World Below, he changes
and the design needed to reflect
that.

He still hasnt eaten his sausage

though...

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 The Ala is a female creature from slav
mythology. In The Golden Apple the Ala
looks like a three headed dragon-like
beast. I imagined it to be a huge creature,
almost 10 metres tall.

On the winged designs, I gave her hand-

like claws, with which it could grab the
golden apple

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 Thinking of the fact that the Ala has been
living in a cave most of the time, I made her
skin very desaturated. The tone of the scales
and skin is also reminiscent of thunderous
clouds, playing on the fact that she is a
stormbringer.

The Ala is very old and has probably had

other battles in the past, so I tried to reflect
that in the designs, by giving her scars.

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 Making quick environment
thumbnails helped me
establish the mood of the
paintings early on. I was
considering that Yordan
wasnt the first adventurer
to go looking for the Ala.
Maybe one of his ancestors
did the same?

Imagining different parts of the cave and where the character might
end up in search of the Ala.

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 The idea that the cave, the Ala
was inhabiting is one made of
ice came early in development. It
was somewhat logical. Consider-
ing that the Ala was such a foul
creature, bringing cold and wind
wherever she goes, I thought that
where she lives must be way worse
than the storms she brings. The
whole cave froze in weird shapes
because of the sudden cold that
came by when the Ala settled in.

I wanted the two rams to feel

oddly normal, as if to show that
nature in itself is ancient and full
of undiscovered potential. The
design of the room theyre in was
changed many times in my mind.
At first it was going to be a dark,
green, luminescent place, but I
decided that that environment
Various challenges would befall was too much of a stretch from
Yordan as he tries to find the Alas the established cave look.
house

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I wanted the house to look like its been built by the Ala
herself. Its similar to what a birds nest would look like, but
instead of small sticks, the Ala would use huge trees.
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While thinking of the design of the cave chamber where the
Alas house is, I decided that there would be three massive
bridges that lead up to it. It makes sense and it corresponds
well to the three brothers, the three princesses, the three
beasts that Yordan fights etc.
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 For the designs of the Salt Desert,
I wanted to go for a completely
different look. I had the idea of salt
igloos, however, I needed to some-
how make them look different.

Another idea I had is for Y-shaped

sticks to be around. Those would
beput there by the inhabitants, to
remember the people who died in
search of water, which is why they
are shaped like a dowsing rod.

In the salt desert, the weather is stale. There is no wind, rain or fog, only the scorching heat. The
sun reflects off of the surface of the salt on the ground.

The Grandmas hut, as the others around it, is made entirely out of salt. It resembles an iglu in
shape. The grandmas hut is slightly bigger than the rest. That signifies that shes being regarded
as the leader. Her two sons went to find water years ago, but never came back. It is because
she sees them in the main character, that she helps him on his journey.

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 The people of the Salt Desert are hard people. Theyre used to a
hard life and they dont like to ask for help. Because of the nature of
their environment, the people of the salt desert usually stay in their
huts when theyre not working or hunting. To protect themselves
from the sun, they wear large flat hats, made by coiling a tight rope,
hardened with salt. They wear very thick sandals, so that they dont
step on the salt barefoot, as that would damage their feet over time.
The thick sandals resemble the japanese geta. The clothes they
wear are made of light materials.

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 The design of the Old Lady was
always somewhat clear in my mind.
The main thing to look out for was to
keep her close to the general design
of the Salt Desert people, but add
something extra.I had to remember
that her skin wouldve hardened and
dried a lot over the years, because of
the salt and lack of water.

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The creatures in the Salt Desert have
nothing fantastical about them.
Camels and other sorts of animals
are often used in salt deserts in the
real world as well.
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As the hero continues on his journey,
he goes through the second part of
the first land - the sand desert. As
the name suggests, this desert is
made out of sand, although it is not
as flat as its salty sister. This desert
is full of big sandy hills and steep
drops.
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 The people of the Sand Desert are very scarce. In fact,
there are no natives in the Sand Desert. The only
Inhabitants of that place are monks, who have been
sent there to repent for something theyve done
wrong or monks, who seek enlightenment in solitude.

The weather seems softer at first. Every month or so, soft rain falls on the ground for half an hour. That is
enough to replenish the energy of some of the more tenuous plants that grow in the desert (although they
arent too common), as well as of some of the queer things living underneath the sands. The creatures
sleeping in the sands are not the only problem the character faces in this desert. Almost everyday, theres
a big sandstorm. That makes survival very difficult, not only because its incredibly dangerous to be in a
sandstorm, but also because it changes the layout of the desert. That makes people loose their bearings and
they end up dying in the desert, wondering aimlessly, trying to find their way out.

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 The second land of the World Below has the typical Chinese nature - large mountains, grassy fields, forrests. This land is very humid. Its
easy to grow crops and to take care of the land. The weather is temperate.

The Kings Palace is as the name suggests huge. It is set atop the Five Finger Mountain, under which, the Monkey King was trapped for 500
years by Buddha, in Journey to the West. I tried to recreate the atmosphere I had in my mind when imagining the palace for myself.
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 For the people of the third land, I was
imagining a vaste mixture of both super-
natural and normal beings. Every design
still needed to remain with an obvious
asian influence

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 This creature is very big, but its not as
big as the Ala.
Its also less snake like.
The Dragon in The Golden Apple is a mixture in design
between the chinese design for a dragon and the western
design. I tried to keep true to that in my final designs. As
with everything however, I went to many different places in
order to find the right fit. Sometimes even outside the brief
I had given myself.

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 Its neck is still elongated, but its not as long
as the Alas. Unlike the Ala, this dragon can
breath fire. I tried to incorporate that in the
final designs. I made the dragon a dark red
with a blue tint to contrast the green, lush
environment well.

As the dragon breathes in to breath fire, bits of

light shine through his scales all throughout
his body. He likes to toy with his food, which is
ultimately what brings him down.

The Third Brother and the princess had come up with a

plan. They knew of the dragons desire to show his power
and toy with his supper and they used it to their advantage.
Yordan had hidden in the tall branches of the tree and was
ready to strike when the moment was right.
The Dragon didnt know that...

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 The Fourth Land hides all of the fantastical creatures, from giants to phauns to
creatures created just for this project.

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