The role of a concept artist is to imagine a great sense ofspace and perspective from worlds we know, to world that areyet to be conjured up within the minds of visionary directorsand artists alike.

My role within this project was to delve deep within ItaloCalvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’. A new CG animated adaptation ofthis is in pre-production. As a concept artist I must takeinspiration from one of Calvino’s mystical cities and create 3original concept paintings that showcase my chosen city in allits glory.

Concept

BaucisAFTER A SEVEN days’ march through woodland, thetraveller directed toward Baucis cannot see the city andyet he has arrived. The slender stilts that rise fromthe ground at a great distance from one another and arelose above the clouds support the city. You climb themwith ladders. On the ground the inhabitants rarely showthemselves: Having already everything they need upthere, they prefer not to come down. Nothing of the citytouched the earth except those flamingo legs on which itrest and, when the days are sunny, a pierced, angularshadow that falls on the foliage. There are threehypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis; That theyhate the earth; that they respect it so much they avoidall contact; that they love it as it was before theyexisted and with spyglasses and telescopes aimeddownward they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf,stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating withfascination their own absence.

Research

Abstract colour thumbnails

Thumbnails

Study

Plateau mountain studies

Exterior establishing development

Exterior establishing shot: Side by side comparison

Thumbnails

StudyWithin this study I wanted to test both colour and texture, both of which are of high importance within my final paintings

Over growth of plants and foliage growing upon the buildings was something that I wanted to add as an aesthetic as I felt that this would give a building with such harsh edges a more natural feel. As if the buildings themselves had grown from the earth.

Low exterior establishing shot: Side by side comparison

Low exterior development

Thumbnails

Study

Study

Within this shot I added a cave painting which I looked at during my studies of certain aspects of the city.

I wanted it to symbolise the inhabitants ancestors celebration of the city they had created

Interior development

Low exterior establishing shot: Side by side comparison