Luke Bash

The Ruins of the Parthenon was an easy choice. I was looking for a view that stayed away from the blocks around the Temple of Athena, but I really like this angle. I think the tile is better for it.

Sometimes, it's not the image you struggle with, but the slight shade tones to perfect. I had decided to not use gradients, and this is technically not, but doing this is much more tedious. I like the result, but part of me wonders if this is too close to using gradients. On a side note, I have challenged myself to recreate some of the US National Park hex tile as a fun way to challenge myself and learn to use just black and white.

I traveled to South Korea last year and really enjoyed it. Coming from Beijing, the people and food is definitely different. However, when deciding on an image for the tile, I struggled to find a good building that didn't look Chinese or Japanese. Finally I found this one with good lightning.

The name Timbuktu means the middle of nowhere. Its a name that stuck with me and so I needed to search the internet to find out why. The old mosques in the area have a unique style and I knew I needed to make a tile. With only a few colors and a lot of time, the final result looks very realistic.

I was very tempted to make a tile of Cappadocia, especially during their balloon festival. I was worried that it would look iconic and clearly Turkish. So, I\instead I looked around the Istanbul for some options; Hagia Sophia, Grand Bazaar, Basilica Cistern. I decided on a sunset view of the Blue Mosque. The final result is much more Turkish.

Sometimes its not about knowing what to do, but rather how to do it. Egypt has an easy choice and I just needed the right angle. I wanted both the pyramid and the sphinx in the same frame. After that, the rest is just adding detail and choosing the color palette. So, here it is:

When thinking of Moscow, there is one cathedral I think of. Unfortunately, its not a simple design and a quick tile. After one simplified attempt, I decided to to go into more details and take more time. It was tedious, but a good final result.

With Brazil, I decided to try a more stylistic approach. I thought I could use the statue and beaches with many tiles. I used squares and quarter circles to get this: I was unhappy with the result and decided to ditch this method and go back to what I had done previously. It uses the same scene, same color palette but a more natural brush stroke. Still unhappy, I look for other sources and color palettes and I simplified down to this (my current version): Better, but I think I still need to tweak this one more. I leave it here for now.

When starting Mexico, I wanted to combine the pre-Colombian culture with modern Mexico. I had an idea to have an aztec warrior with a dia de los muertos style skull. When I finished it and started working on the rest of the tile, it was more distraction than complementing. I really like the skull, but it had to go. The bacground, that became to focus of the tile, was a pyramid of Chichen Itza. With no warrior, I spent more time on the shadows down the front. It is a simple design, but iconic. Enjoy.

I attempted Hong Kong long before. I wanted to showcase the skyline at night. I picked my buildings to focus on and diligently added a lot of detail. I used some gradients for the glow. (This was before I decided against gradients on tiles.) I was still using the trim and adding the location name. The end result was this: Immediately I was unhappy with it but I couldn't figure out what to do. I looked for good pictures of the advertisements hanging across the streets like what you would find in Yau Ma Tei or Mong Kok but couldn't settle on one. Finally, I looked at the skyline picture with the Star Ferry in the foreground. This is when I found what I wanted. With a little detail and shadows, I ended up with this: