Oy traders!
Our Summer mini-serie shows all of our key art characters' creation processes. Learn more about the references, artists' inspirations, and even discover the first drafts!
Fifth episode: Amara
As the game is located (supposedly) in the Mediterranean area, we had to take inspiration from South cultures and populations. We mainly look at Renaissance and Tudor era paintings to design our characters. Amara is a self-made woman and her position in the Fiefdom is central. She is the Mistress of Coin and manages all the expenses and trades for Camilla and Letizia's family.
Amara's face and outfit references
There were not a lot of black people in the Renaissance Occidental art. If they were represented in paintings, they were mostly slaves, servants, or "enemies". Since we are located in the Mediterranean area, we wanted to have at least a black character, but in a different position. The reference used to draw Amara is a portrait of an African slave by Annibal Carrache from the end of the XVIth century.
To design an outfit, we selected two paintings of costumes from the Tudor era:
- Joan Tuckfield, wife of John Tuckfield, Mayor of Exeter, British school, 1560
- Portrait of the merchant Hieronymus Sulzer and his wife Maria, Christoph Amberger, 1544
Amara's accessories references and the final look
Since Amara is the Mistress of Coin of Camilla and Letizia's family, we added some jewels to make her stand out with the gold and stone earrings and rings. The earrings needed to be impressive and show Amara is in charge of the wealth of the family, even if they are broke as mentioned in the Story Trailer. We used the Six designs for Pendant Jewels, Ink and Washes on Paper from the British Museum in London to draw her earrings.
The paintings used for the ring references are:
- Jane Seymour's portrait by Hans Holbein le Jeune in 1537
- Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Part 1: Young Elizabeth by William Scrots in 1546
Amara in the key art
During the wedding feast, she is seen trading something against gold coins. She works for the bride's family and is very careful with their expenses since they had a hard time with money. She is here as their advisor, but also to reduce suspicions among the Duke's family regarding the wedding.
We also wanted to age her since she is in a very important position. No one could have been a Mistress or Master of Coin at a young age, reaching this status requires time, confidence from a family, and experience. In the accessories image, there are two Amaras: one with light wrinkles and the second one with more. We kept the left one.
We hope you enjoyed diving into our creation processes. We really like to share some "behind-the-scene content". Please, tell us if you're interested to see more, we plan to post one character per Friday during Summer!
To be part of the development process of Great Houses of Calderia or simply chat with the devs, join us on Discord!
Great Houses of Calderia Discord: https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
- Great Houses of Calderia Team -