Invisible Cities Reflective Statement

  Delving into concept art, the bases of this project is gaining a beginning knowledge into planning world creation. As creating a new environment from imagination can be quite daunting, instead we were given several texts from Italo's Calvino's book, "Invisible Cities". Each passage of literature contains a description of a settlement, detailing it's construction, ambience and the inhabitants that live within. Following this, we were tasked with creating over 100 thumbnails. As 13 cities where given, this meant there had to be at least 10 designs each, stopping at 100 would not have been enough. Once completed, we were able to choose a city that invoked the most powerful thumbnails and develop influence maps. These influence maps (board boards) help in creating a more in-depth idea into the city, bringing in colour pallets and small details. I decided on Diomira, the city of silver domes. I chose this one as it was the most enjoyable to sketch and allowed some freedom in vision. Participating in perspective exercises gave a better understanding in composition, while participating in master painting studies and colour theory means we can understand how hues can create the illusions of distance. Having tutor input throughout our progress gave us insight to areas that was going well and support in ones that needed a little tweaking. With all these elements, we are presented with a starting point to create three final digital paintings of our chosen city. There is a criterion to what angles need to be illustrated for the concept. They are an exterior establishing shot, an interior one and a low angle establishing view.

   Thinking about what went well over this assignment, the quality of the thumbnails enabled a good amount of detail for later stages. At first, the prospect of creating so many designs seemed off-putting. However, I found once I had started doing the thumbnails, they began to come me quicker and developed more expression each time. In the final paintings, when doing the main sketches, I could see my perspective planning showed some improvement. doing the perspective exercises allowed for this. The Thumbnails and digital paintings gave room for experimentation in styles, and though this I found what worked best for me at this time. Originally starting in soft shading, I found that cell shading to be much more beneficial and created a better range in detail and tone. The second development of the interior shot showed a better understanding in creating a lived-in establishment, and the composition actually invites viewer in as part of the scene.

   However, there isn't as much detail as I would have liked in these final pieces. The first one (having done hardly any digital painting before) is far too symmetrical. The clouds, trees and statue have no presence, and the softly softly shading doesn't hold any presence. The mirror tool I learnt, is not the best for environment concept. I had used it far too much, making a boring and mundane composition. Also, I seemed to have underestimated how much time research can take, leaving me with much less time for the final paintings. Being unimpressed with my previous compositions meant a complete re-planning of my final two pieces, taking up more time the intended. Due to this, I didn't have time to create a new colour scheme or lighting plan for them, so it was a small case of hoping for the best and relaying on intuition.

   Although there is a lot wrong with the first digital painting, I have chosen not to change it. This is something to learn from, and acts as visual way of not making these errors again. To improve from this project, more practise in Photoshop will help gain better knowledge in blending modes and detailing. Also, the continuation of perspective exercises will help in creating more dynamic and natural environments. In my spare time, following some tutorials will continue these developments and boast my skills, eventually boast my productivity.