This is a collection of western research that I have been doing, I have been Looking into different sections of the western theme and have made a mindmap to have all of these themes more expanded upon the base theme of western. After making the mind map I began choosing some key points of western to base some mind maps off this allows me to look more into what some of the subjects mean and what they can entail, I made 6 mood boards in total and these will be used to help generate ideas for my work later on in this project and hopefully give me some inspiration of how to set out some things in my work. I also modeled some dynamite that using some art we were handed for homework but added some extra parts to make it flow more in the western theme by adding some crates of dynamite as well as adding a lighter to show how it would be lit. This was also textured with dirt and grime added as well as a light splash of sand to give it that western feel.

What is the wild west?
The wild west was a time in western america where lawlessness and freedom rained supreme. it was during the frontier period which started around 17th century and continued on until 1959.

When making this mind map I thought about 3 major subjects and then linked other things of it , this made making the connections easier to get a larger picture of what the theme of western actually means and contains. I will be using this mind map to help generate my ideas for my unit 9/10 work this will be how I choose what goes into my project and how it links to my theme.

Western Landscapes
This mood board was made to show what types of landscapes that are matched with the theme of western, this consisted of rocky mountains and desert terrain with cactus and little bits of life that live in these harsh lands. The images selected below all were chosen because of how they link to the theme they all show how a barren landscapes are so powerful with small amount of things in them and yet they are still one of my favourite types of landscape due to how they can look so dead but so alive at the same time. I will be using these to build terrain around either a set of assets or to give me example of rocks and object such as this into the scene to add more to it.

Western Town
I made this mood board about western towns and collected images of them, focusing on 3 major points modern, Sci-fi and steampunk trying to show a wide verity of how the towns could look in different settings. I chose all of these images because how they linked back to the theme but also how they showed how western could look from different views and periods. While I was finding images I found it really interesting that most of the buildings look similar but they have their own flare or distinct mark that makes the person looking at it know what that building does and what profession it follows. I really liked the steam punk and sci-fi style on one or two of the images and gave me some ideas for work I could do in the future or maybe for our project.

Western Weapons
I made this mood board about western weapons, while looking into western weapons I found lots of revolvers (Most commonly used in the west in movies depictions) as well as rifles and other short to long range rifles. Some other weapons used in the western front would include bow and throw able weapons such as hatchets, knives and spears. but the most destructive not only used as a weapon but also as a tool would be dynamite, I used some of these images to make my dynamite for my work I was asked to do during summer. I chose because of how they represent and show how westerns weapons would look and while looking at them each individual weapon tells its own story.

Western Building Interiors
I gathered a collection of images of western themed interiors that I collected to give myself a better understanding of what western interiors are and how they look. All of the the interiors were either bars or stores due to there not being a large amount of other interiors, due to bars and store being something you see a lot of these have given me some good ideas of how to structure interiors and how to make them flow in a scene. I tried to find 2 different visions of interiors one of them being old and rugged old bar and a more newer version with that furnished and clean look, I will be using these to help generate interiors environments better and add variation to my project.

Western Buildings
Looking into the western themed buildings is one of the parts of generating these mood boards that I really liked, I really liked the way the buildings all had there own characters with the grooves and curves and some of them seemed to be almost clones but its the marks or signage that tell them apart from each other. I look into all sizes so I could get a larger idea of sizes and looks of what each type of building would have on it for which role it had like a black smith in most images had big black text saying black smith on the front of it or a anvil inside some kind of signage that would have been placed on what building.

Western Vehicles
While researching vehicles I started developing a mood board collecting images from this to be used for reference and idea generation later for my unit 9/10 work. Looking into western vehicles I found that the main types of transportation are trains and carriages, they were both used to transport cargo across the harsh environments of the desert. The trains were extremely limited to the tracks meaning that could not change cause if there was a problem but the carriages could take short cuts and cut through valleys the main risk for this transportation method is bandits and wild animals.