Local Colour...

One of the benefits of living where I do is that the environment is very picturesque and also extremely varied. The Blue Mountains of New South Wales was a barrier to the spread of the Sydney settlement for over thirty years after the first Europeans landed here. After it was crossed, towns sprang up all along the line created by the first road from Parramatta out to the Western Plains. All of these towns now comprise the City of the Blue Mountains, known as the “City in a National Park”.

Building started up here in the early 1800s and reflected the styles of construction at the time. The first people to settle down here were afflicted with the horror of the Bush which was so prevalent among Europeans coming to live Down Under. To combat this, they planted all of the trees and bushes which they remembered from their younger days in the Northern Hemisphere. Consequently, we have an odd and very eclectic mix of foliage up here, with native species sprouting up side-by-side with all kinds of colourful immigrants.

The basic native foliage ranges through several types, from Alpine on the high bluffs to Rainforest in the deep valleys. The majority conforms to two basic types – wet and dry sclerophyll forest, but there are pockets of almost every sort of Australian standard Bush.

What this means is that, if you’re looking for a particular type of scenery, you’re pretty much sure to be able to find it. In fact, the scenery can go from "Jungle" to "Northern Europe" often by just turning your head.

The other day I was walking the dog when I came across this little corner of a local park:

It looked a bit exotic, what with all the tree ferns. What you don't get from the image is that the ambient temperature was only about 10⁰C (that's, apparently, 50⁰ Fahrenheit).

This is the edge of a little wilderness area, criss-crossed by walking trails, but as it looked kind of jungle-y, I took a shot of it.

Throwing the image in Photoshop, I decided to play around with it. First, I removed the colour and tweaked the contrast. Then I fired up Google Images and went looking for a Victorian-era explorer: I could have picked Speke, looking emaciated with his Piccadilly weepers, or Richard Burton with his lugubrious walrus moustache, but I decided to go with the ever-dependable Percy Fawcett. I just copied the image and cut him out roughly before pasting him onto my park shot.

The next bit got pretty fiddly, but soon I was able to plant Percy right into the shot, tweaking the image to make it look as natural and real as possible. Then I built in a photograph frame and some other imagery and - voila! - instant Call of Cthulhu visual aid.

(The irony, of course, is the idea of pulling Fawcett out of a jungle just to dump him back into another one, but whatever.)

It just goes to show that inspiration is all around us and can be a great way to bring your games to life.