Reaserching animals and enviroments: Canada

I visited Canada with my Girlfriend and her family. These are some of the sights and animals we saw.

Comox, British Columbia.

The scenery in Canada was so spectacular, it is impossible to contain the beauty in a flat image. Some things simply have to be seen, but this is a glimpse of what we saw. Alot of this gave me inspiration for our new fictional world, getting our of the city and seeing the world as big and spectacular as this gave me the vision and scale to create a new one.

While here we also saw Black Bears, which would later become a character. 

and Bald Eagles, which would become a lead villain.

Although we have not yet explored much of the sea creatures in our world, we intend too, and seeing these dolphins was an amazing experience that gave me many ideas of where to take these as characters, who to anthro them, almost like mermaids, having them diving alongside pirate ships. 

And maybe a pirate character could have a pet to summon? or ride much like land creatures would ride steeds like horses? What better than a Killer Whale? 

Golden, British Columbia.

Here we saw more amazing sites, including Takkawaka Falls.

Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park.

Emerald Lake gave me insight into how to use colour, water is not always blue, nor a exact reflection of the sky, this being a beautiful example. 

Columbian Ice Fields.

I didn't know places like this exited until I saw them, massive planes of ice between mountains, sites like these will influence the look of our map. 

The Ice Fields Parkway.

These sites were breathtaking, the way the cloud move around the mountain and how they seemed so daunting yet peaceful was something I wanted to capture in my landscapes. We also saw another Black Bear cub.

Ontario.

In Ontario we visited Niagara falls. Which was beyond amazing, the scale and power was mesmerising, it's iconic and beautiful landscapes like this I want to include in my world and map. We also saw reconstruction of a Native American village in Oakville, which will no doubt come in useful in the future.   

Jasper, Alberta.

Also here we saw some Cayote pups from a distance, if you look closely at the top of the hill in the below image you can see them. 

And another Bald Eagle.

We saw many animals in Jasper, including more Black Bears picking berries.

We also saw Elk, which was so majestic, I knew it would become a character or steed for our story. 

We also saw these Horned sheep, which I thought would make a great steed for smaller characters. But these elements are yet to be thought out, why would one animal be a steed if others are anthro? is it only the extinct animals? this raises questions that we need to examine. 

And lastly we saw this beast. Bison, so strong and powerful, but so peaceful, so calm. This was a character I wanted to use, perhaps a retired sheriff? This trip gave me so much ideas and inspiration, I could see so much of my work that I needed to get down on paper. Its places like these that make you realise how beautiful the world is, and an opportunity to re-create this, without the deadliest force to our natural planet being a part of it (humanity) was a great opportunity. All I wanted to do was get further into the project. But I had a few more places yet to visit.