Akvila Conquest – Visual Development Phase - Creative Reset & The Future of my World

I've experienced a personal and artistic crisis.

The truth is, I still don’t know which direction to take, but the goal remains clear:
to finish my worldbuilding project: the Unknown World as it was originally envisioned — as an artbook containing all the stories, the history of the world, and illustrations of warriors and battles.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been re-evaluating both my creative direction and workflow.

I’ve returned to one of my earlier story pillar - Akvila Conquest — now approached as a reimagined storyline within the broader framework of the Unknown World of Ida. Originally conceived as semi-legendary history, it has since evolved into a central axis of the world’s timeline.

This phase focuses on rapid character exploration. Instead of highly polished, research-heavy illustrations, I’m producing fast iterations of warrior designs inspired by historical archetypes (Celtic, Iberian, Etruscan, etc.), emphasizing silhouette, color identity, and symbolic elements such as shields and heraldry.

The objective is not finalization, but ideation — extracting visual language and rediscovering the core aesthetic foundations of the world.

This shift was partly driven by creative fatigue. Large-scale pieces remain essential, but their production cycle is intensive. This lighter, iterative approach allows for higher output and more immediate feedback between concept and execution.

These works represent an early-stage visual development process rather than finished assets. A necessary step toward refining the next iteration of the project.

If you’re interested, I’ve shared a full blog post and more work-in-progress on my Patreon.
In the video, I open up about a personal crisis and the future of my YouTube channel.