At the start of the year, Crystal Dynamics announced that they were collaborating with a group of eleven artists to bring a reimagined twist to the Tomb Raider game covers we all love and grew up with. Throughout June, the studio has been celebrating Tomb Raider Chronicles! For the fifth instalment, Crystal worked with Megan Lara, an artist based in Chicago who is best known for her art nouveau artwork. Over the years Megan's work has focused on empowerment and female boldness with subjects from Princess Leia to Rose Tyler to Agent Carter.
Describing her first steps in her latest project, Megan stated, "when asked to reimagine the cover for Tomb Raider: Chronicles, I jumped at the chance to illustrate it in the art nouveau style. I felt that the juxtaposition art nouveau provides was perfect for Lara Croft: soft, often feminine subjects against harsher, solid lines; realistic forms against flat shapes and patterns; fine art combined with commercial design."
For the game, Core Design gave Lara a new wardrobe, one that saw her in a form-fitting catsuit to infiltrate Von Croy Industries and a deep blue evening gown to attend a night at the opera. The latter especially was used in a lot of marketing at the time, portraying the adventurer in a James Bond-style scenario. It was the same level that Megan drew inspiration from. "The opera scene in Chronicles was particularly memorable and lent itself well to the style by showcasing her femininity and resolve, so that is what I chose as the main focus. Inspired in particular by Alphonse Mucha's illustrated commercial advertisements of Sarah Bernhardt, I picked several integral scenes and locations from the game to include as vignettes around the drawing of Lara. As I like to do in my work, I used many easter eggs and visual references from the game to turn into patterns and design elements to tie the piece together. The God Stones' symbols, Iris, Bestiary, Spear of Destiny and the Philosopher's stone are a few of the more prominent ones that I hope fans of Lara's recognize and enjoy."
You can download the full asset pack with Megan Lara's Tomb Raider Chronicles design, HERE!
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