Thin Cities 5
Octavia, The Spider Web City
Cities & Eyes 1
Valdrada, The Mirror City
Cities & Eyes 3
Baucis, The City On Stilts
Literature Illustration Development (Invisible Cities)
College Final Major Project | May / June 2014
For the final unit of college, our class was tasked with the creation our own individual brief; which at the time, was a daunting prospect. Before then, our units consisted of simply following pre-established guidelines.
I resolved to create a set of 3 illustrations - looking towards literature as my main draw for inspiration; something that it certainly did provide a wealth of. Because of this, I also decided that I would not simply adapt pieces from my favourite, or the most popular novels - but instead, draw from sources mostly unknown to me, and potentially, my peers.
After a period of research and uncertain contemplation, I ultimately decided to illustrate sections of the book Invisible Cities (written by Italian writer Italo Calvino), upon recommendation from a tutor. Although at the time, I was not able to read the novel in its entirety (I'm a slow reader, don't judge me), I knew early on from what I was able to read, that it was the perfect choice for my project.
I found myself designating time in lessons to read - I was hooked. The descriptions in the book were vast; each one conjuring unique and individual images in my mind - I was truly spoiled for choice. After some time, I settled upon 3 of pseudo-historic character, Marco Polo's descriptions - descriptions which now, after a period of 6(ish) months of their completion, I still feel were the right choice.
The cities I picked; Octavia, Valdrada & Baucis were the 3 that I felt ultimately encompassed what the book was about - three starkly different cities, each containing their own culture and history; a hanging-city, a mirror-city & a spire-city. A true testament to Marco Polo and his adventures (embellished or not).
I also felt, due to the amount chosen, that each could city could be distinguished by its own analogous colour scheme. The coastal-city represented by a vivid, 'sandy-orange', the mysterious spider-city represented by a mysterious 'cool-blue' and the tree-like stilt city, depicted by a haze of 'forest-green' - colours which, due to their position on the colour wheel, contrast in a complementary manner, when contained as a set.
I also felt, due to the amount chosen, that each could city could be distinguished by its own analogous colour scheme. The coastal-city represented by a vivid, 'sandy-orange', the mysterious spider-city represented by a mysterious 'cool-blue' and the tree-like stilt city, depicted by a haze of 'forest-green' - colours which, due to their position on the colour wheel, contrast in a complementary manner, when contained as a set.
Credits:
Software:
Fonts:
Notes:
Alternate versions of all 3 images (excluding the title image) have been uploaded on MEGA. These versions contain no text and are a higher resolution*, made upon request from a friend who wanted to use one of them as a background.
You can find them here, if interested: https://mega.co.nz/#F!6ZxGHZKQ!2NmF1pMShsnIp3G2Jc8Pag
*It should be noted that the sea in Valdrada image looks slightly less crisp at the higher resolution due to it essentially being an up-scaled bitmap. To remedy this, I have also included a version without the added ripple effect, making it a full vector image again, and thus, scalable.