Okay - well I have a couple of questions to throw at you which might help you fix on a more concrete visual concept, and perhaps help you think more creatively about the full potential of all Diomira might have to offer your role as a concept artist.
Let's look at some of the implied questions in Calvino's text: he mentions 'bronze statues of all the gods'... Simple question? Which gods? If you think about this question your world will start to open up: Calvino cites 'gods' - so more than one: belief systems that believe in more than one god are known as polytheistic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism
If you look at the examples of religions and cultures that worship multiple deities, you might be able to shift Diomira into a completely different cultural/architectural/decorative space - for example, Hinduism is defined by its multiple gods, and suddenly, if we're looking now at those silver domes, might we be thinking about a city that is a bit more like this?
My broad point is by looking more closely at the text (and the clues inside it) you can get into the job of conceptualising your city less generically and thinking much more about the city's special character (and the ideas of the people who live there).
In terms of thinking about some of the actual shots - Calvino gives you that crystal theatre as perhaps a clear choice for the building we might be looking at in more detail re. the low exterior shot, but I wonder too what's inside those domes? What is the purpose of those domes, I wonder? Are they all churches? Or temples? Are they churches dedicated to each of the culture's individual Gods? I do think that a bit of research and creative thinking around the idea of this city's 'polytheism' is the way forward for opening up the 'design-y-ness' of this project (I think you'll have more fun too!).
It does seem as if all those fine line pencil thumbnails might not be helping you to create some of the more 'impressionistic' qualities of your city - the colour, the reflective surfaces, that 'crystal theatre' ... my advice would be to stop working in pencil and stop thinking about line. I'd like to see you exploiting the opportunities in Photoshop much more because I think working digitally will free you up and stop you thinking too much about the details. Diomira has such an emphasis on light, colour, and atmosphere, that I do think you should look at impressionism in terms of painting (and concept painting) as a means to get some sensuality into your paintings: remember the work of Thomas Moran from the briefing?
Figure 1. Kill Bill Movie Poster (2003) Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill (2003) is a crime and mystery film that is iconic for it's postmodern film design due to the use of many different film types combining together to create the film. 1. Intertextuality - Kill Bill is created using film conventions from many different films. This is shown through Tarantino's use of Japanese style fighting scenes and mystery. Figure 2. Fight scene 2. Non-linear narrative - There is a strong use of non-linear narrative through the film, meaning that the film's story line and narrative are disjointed. This is shown in the film with flash backs, for example, when 'The Bride' (Uma Thurman) see's Vernita Green (Vivica. A. Fox) and the siren sounds. Figure 3. Flash back 3. Challenging gender stereotypes - The main character in action films are usually muscular men with a woman as either their lo...
OGR 05/10/2017,
ReplyDeleteHey Tia,
Okay - well I have a couple of questions to throw at you which might help you fix on a more concrete visual concept, and perhaps help you think more creatively about the full potential of all Diomira might have to offer your role as a concept artist.
Let's look at some of the implied questions in Calvino's text: he mentions 'bronze statues of all the gods'... Simple question? Which gods? If you think about this question your world will start to open up: Calvino cites 'gods' - so more than one: belief systems that believe in more than one god are known as polytheistic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism
If you look at the examples of religions and cultures that worship multiple deities, you might be able to shift Diomira into a completely different cultural/architectural/decorative space - for example, Hinduism is defined by its multiple gods, and suddenly, if we're looking now at those silver domes, might we be thinking about a city that is a bit more like this?
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/hindu-temple-dome-detail-sri-subramaniar-batu-caves-malaysia-38102954.jpg
My broad point is by looking more closely at the text (and the clues inside it) you can get into the job of conceptualising your city less generically and thinking much more about the city's special character (and the ideas of the people who live there).
In terms of thinking about some of the actual shots - Calvino gives you that crystal theatre as perhaps a clear choice for the building we might be looking at in more detail re. the low exterior shot, but I wonder too what's inside those domes? What is the purpose of those domes, I wonder? Are they all churches? Or temples? Are they churches dedicated to each of the culture's individual Gods? I do think that a bit of research and creative thinking around the idea of this city's 'polytheism' is the way forward for opening up the 'design-y-ness' of this project (I think you'll have more fun too!).
It does seem as if all those fine line pencil thumbnails might not be helping you to create some of the more 'impressionistic' qualities of your city - the colour, the reflective surfaces, that 'crystal theatre' ... my advice would be to stop working in pencil and stop thinking about line. I'd like to see you exploiting the opportunities in Photoshop much more because I think working digitally will free you up and stop you thinking too much about the details. Diomira has such an emphasis on light, colour, and atmosphere, that I do think you should look at impressionism in terms of painting (and concept painting) as a means to get some sensuality into your paintings: remember the work of Thomas Moran from the briefing?
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/278167714458276872/
Me again - I thought some of the ideas here might be of interest to you too :)
ReplyDeletehttps://frankiesuttonuca.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/my-ogr-invisible-cities.html?showComment=1507229640355