Concept

The role of a concept artist is to imagine a great sense of

space and perspective from worlds we know, to world that are
yet to be conjured up within the minds of visionary directors
and artists alike.
My role within this project was to delve deep within Italo
Calvinos Invisible Cities. A new CG animated adaptation of
this is in pre-production. As a concept artist I must take
inspiration from one of Calvinos mystical cities and create 3
original concept paintings that showcase my chosen city in all
its glory.

Baucis
AFTER A SEVEN days march through woodland, the
traveller directed toward Baucis cannot see the city and
yet he has arrived. The slender stilts that rise from
the ground at a great distance from one another and are
lose above the clouds support the city. You climb them
with ladders. On the ground the inhabitants rarely show
themselves: Having already everything they need up
there, they prefer not to come down. Nothing of the city
touched the earth except those flamingo legs on which it
rest and, when the days are sunny, a pierced, angular
shadow that falls on the foliage. There are three
hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis; That they
hate the earth; that they respect it so much they avoid
all contact; that they love it as it was before they
existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed
downward they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf,
stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with
fascination their own absence.

Research

Abstract colour thumbnails

Thumbnails

Study

Plateau mountain studies

Exterior establishing development

Exterior establishing shot: Side by side comparison

Thumbnails

Study
Within 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