Wednesday 14 October 2015

Despina: Three Key Angles

Reading OGR feedback from Phil Gomm and understanding main ideas from his comments: Despina is not necessarily light-hearted, colourful and family-friendly as I mistakenly quickly assumed, but really it's about capturing smoky, industrial and mucky seaport environment and ideally exaggerate its proportions - sense of modernity and massiveness, rather than village-like seaside resort town. Examples such as Art Deco, Bauhaus, Fernand Leger, Port of Shanghai, cruise line ships, London Docklands - remember: not working for yourself, but for the client mentioned in the project brief:

Images and artworks based upon Phil's comments - "ship-ness" and industrial power:

 
 
Examples of ship architecture in buildings - focus on exterior shells and not just surrounding pathways and alleyways:
 
 
Sydney Opera House [1973], Sydney - Jorn Utzon [1918-2008, Denmark]
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao [1997], Spain - Frank Gehry [b.1929, Canada]

Becoming really eager to set in stone the three key angles I want to advance into even more thumbnails - Exterior Establishing Shot, Exterior Low Angle Shot, and Interior Establishing Shot - note on interior, not simply small tavern room, but perhaps experiment with floors, levels and staircases.
Making use of B/W thumbnails showing developing skills of layering and shading. Wanted to lasso most important shapes I had created and recreate into ideal key three concept painting plans. Hoping to get feedback from others to make sure I am heading in appropriate direction, and that those plans properly reflect Calvino's Despina text:

Wanting to quickly visualise three key angles on sketchbook paper first - huge focus on energetic strokes to create  exciting exterior ship-like shells:


Left - Exterior Establishing Shot - passenger and camel at edge of boardwalk/pavement ramping downwards into centre of factory-ship town
Right - Passenger & Camel Shot [with focus on crane/cargo-like shapes, Low-Angle Brazil Favela shot [closer look at centre of town - e.g. town hall façade], and Interior Cargo Warehouse/Factory shot [large indoor area in able to play with space and composition:
 

Lassoing most interesting shapes and components made from previous B/W thumbnail exercises -e.g. funnels, crooked triangles, pipes, pathways and coral-like shapes - collecting altogether into one PS file - to use for all three key thumbnails:

 
 
Looking back to influence maps created and really influenced by not just the snapshot of the Brazilian city favela [multicolour wall paints, dangling wires and surrounding neighbourhood features], but exciting dynamic worm's eye view, experiencing collection of jolting cubes as if they are about to fall on you.
Decided to choose this snapshot to build basis for Low-Angle Shot for Despina - lassoing key components of cul-de-sac, then digital painting on top to create building blocks for thumbnail - fascinated with cramped factory town atmosphere, creating many alleyways:
 

Left - Exterior Establishing Shot - entrance to town:
Right - Exterior Low Angle Shot - town centre:
Massive improvement on cutting, layering and brushing, eventually will develop on perspective and more detailed components - not necessarily flat tapestry with only some sense of depth

 
For Interior Shot, looked up to recent architectural place I experienced when visiting Leeds earlier this year - Leeds City Market. This place can ultimately prove that interior design need not be single low-ceiling room with furniture and other components, but clash between exterior and interior design. Exploring multiple floors held up by metal pipes and glass window ceilings, seeing buildings inside buildings, multiple archways and pathways - seriously great inspiration for building up Interior Shot:
 
 
Interior Shot thumbnail - square tool, collection of cargo boxes inside one of warehouse buildings seen in Exterior Shot with two holes for conveyor belt to travel through in and out again:
 

Interior Shot thumbnail - square tool, cargo boxes build up so much they eventually create cargo city (e.g. NDSM, Amsterdam), slowly progressing to idea of crossover between fish-market and cargo warehouse - large window porthole seen in far distance, alongside indoor cranes - mist and fog slightly builds up on ground:
  
 
Established interior angle - crossover of fish-market, cargo warehouse and building-up cargo city - conveyor belts sliding through boxes, some boxes develop into shops as part of fish-market, coral-like shapes build up in far distance, vertical lifts and stairwells at far-distance, man on cargo vehicle in foreground, conveyor belt connects to funnel-shaped pipe, large glass window porthole in far distance (either on wall or on ceiling):

1 comment:

  1. This is an engaging and exciting post, Robin :) It must be said that you write about your ideas more successfully than you sometimes communicate them verbally - and that's a strength worth reflecting on. I very much like your collaged 'crammed' compositions and I like too your conceptualisation and the way in which you've absorbed the OGR feedback and have moving things on a bit. Well done. I'm genuinely excited to see you further rationalise your response into your 3 compositions. Stay focused and expend your energies judiciously! I await new updates with interest! Onwards, Robin :)

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