Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 14)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 13)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 12)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 11)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 10)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 9)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 8)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 7)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 6)

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 5)

For Esmeralda, I focused primarily on the winding bridges, streets, and rivers that make up the city. As it is called the "city of water", it was important to include rivers, boats, and bridges; for inspiration, I looked to the city of Venice. There also appears to be an emphasis on different routes that citizens take when traversing the city, wherein the excerpt mentions that bridges, steps, and platforms create "hanging streets".

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 4)

For Ersilia, I chose to use tents as the main type of structure; this is because it was mentioned that the inhabitants have abandoned the site - or sites - of the original city. If the residents have moved around and will continue to do so, it would make sense if their homes and other amenities were not constructed from wood or concrete and were easier to dismantle. I did, however, consider the use of technology similar to cable cars as a means of long distance transport between parts of the city.

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 3)

Diomira's excerpt describes the city as having "bronze statues", "silver domes", and a "crystal theatre" amongst other features apparently produced out of valuable minerals. This lead me to draw inspiration from Ancient Roman architecture to emphasize the city's grandness, as the structures tend to loom over the surrounding buildings.

Invisible Cities: Thumbnails (Part 2)

Baucis, the excerpt states, is set within a forest environment. As the houses are mentioned to be raised from the ground and the inhabitants don't have any contact with it, I thought about the ways in which they could sustain themselves; if they used fire as a means of fuel/power, it would make sense to have the buildings spaced further apart (especially if they are made out of wood) - bridges therefore seemed to be a suitable way of linking parts of the city together. Solar and hydropower also seemed to be power possibilities with the former moreso than the latter given the fact that the buildings are elevated.

Invisible Cites: Thumbnails (Part 1)

My thumbnails for Armilla allowed me to explore the ways in which water is central to the city's infrastructure. Given the information from the excerpt, I used the imagery related to the pipes and structures that can be found in the city (bathtubs, showers, etc) to imagine how it might look. I considered that inhabitants may travel around using the water in the pipes in a way that could be similar to a water slide, and that there would be the possibility of growing vegetation due to the amount of water. 

Steam was also something I thought would feature, as the excerpt describes "nymphs and naiads" bathing there - even though it would be natural if the water was hot, it also adds to the whimsical aspect of the city (I also drew inspiration of this from a visit to Iceland's Blue Lagoon). As well as this, I liked playing around with the idea of overflowing water cascading from sinks to bathtubs and vice versa.

I used the style that I was introduced to yesterday but with less detail - as these are only thumbnails, I wanted to take advantage of the bold shapes and harsh tones to quickly get the idea across instead of spending a long time on a single thumbnail.

Toolkit 1: Digital Painting: Tone Studies

For today's lesson in digital painting, we had to create some studies of a movie of our choice using three colours varying between black and white and the polygonal lasso tool. I chose to look at three different scenes from The Lion King (1994):

After we had completed these studies, we had to choose from a selection of pictures and complete another tone study. We weren't able to colour pick from the original picture; instead, we had to focus on our observation skills to make the correct choices.

Overall, I think that the tonal studies were successful and I am considering using the same style to complete my thumbnails, as it allows me to pick out simple shapes using a limited palette to convey ideas in a way that can be effective.

Invisible Cities: Perspective Exercises

Before I start on my thumbnails, I decided to look at the basics of one, two, and three point perspectives to get a quick grasp on the mechanics of it, which involved looking at different shapes and how perspective warps them. This could be used to enhance both my thumbnails and final exterior and interior shots as I could use these same mechanics to create dramatic and/or dynamic viewpoints (particularly with taller structures). 

Invisible Cities: Concept Artist Research