Imagination and the imaginable, Italo Calvinos book “Invisible Cities” Interprets the narration of fifty five cities, between explorer Marco Polo and aging Emperor Kubli Khan, who is keen to here about the state of his vast empire that was spreading across the globe.

With a selection of the cities to read through, concept visualisation is needed to explore ideas of how these imaginative cities would exist in the real world.

Through initial thumbnail sketches of all the cities supplied. One city must be chosen and full concept art produced for Establishing exterior shot, low angle exterior shot and a interior shot of the city. All images must be to the proportion of 12 : 9.

A selection of initial thumbnails, these are very lose and quick sketches to capture the scenes that each individual city provoked when reading the Invisible City literature. Making sure to switch around the point perspective to get as many different angles as possible, so that the city would have a dynamic feel.

A selection of refined thumbnails from the pre visualisation stages - time was spent on the composition and view-points to make sure that the elements of the city would work. Detailing the buildings and worlds was not important at this stage.

A city hung above a precipice, somehow engineered high-up between two huge mountain faces, a purposely tangled nest of rope and chains, that a community has created into a integrated hanging city of wooden houses, hanging baskets and relaxing hammocks. How would these easily eroding materials act high up in the atmosphere completely exposed to the weathering elements that they must withstand.

I imagine that “Octavia” is in constant care of engineering attention, the ropes must be frayed, the metal rusty and the wood brittle. A city that is in constant repair, must need cranes, pulley’s and lifting devices to maintain the material needs of this falling city. But so high up in sky, how do the inhabitants get the materials they need from the ground and also living supplies?

Though this is not in the text, a mechanical system would be needed to lower sections of the city, so the inhabitants can gather resources and supplies. But how could a nest of ropes be used in this way. A interesting point that I would like to further develop into the my Invisible Cities Concept Designs.

Establishing Shot DevelopmentHaving chosen the key composition from the thumbnail development, I wanted to develop the size of Octavia. I knew the main structural buildings would represent the shape of lobster nets, but needed to figure out a way of adding density and the feeling that there was a thriving community living within. My first attempt was adding all the wires and ropes hanging from the cranes, and adding small lights to try and show the size of Octavia. I was happy with outcome but I still wanted more.

My second attempt achieved the look I wanted making expressionist marks with the marquee tool made for the sense of density I was after.

Establishing Exterior ShotThe design was carried across the bridge sections depicting a sense of weight ,but gaps where needed to be seen to show the unstability of the city.

Though the city is in constant state of repair with the buzz of manual workers and cranes lifting repair materials from the planes, A warm colour scheme was needed to achieve the relaxed lifestyles that the civilians have. Relaxing in their hammocks basking in the uninterrupted sunlight. Why are they here and why so relaxed?

Working ProgressWorking progress of the final shot. A lot of small tweaking was carried out on foreground and background elements but the composition stayed the same due to work in the pre-visulisation stages.

Low Angle Shot DevelopmentCity elements designed for a cut-a-paste approach to produce the concept, however due to techniques learned through this project these elements did not make it in to the final Octavia image sequence.

Low Angle Shot DevelopmentAfter experimenting with the cut-and-paste technique, I decided to re-look at my design as I really wanted to play with the composition and over-crank the angles to try and achieve a sense of depth. Working on some revised thumbnails, I could see how I could incorporate the techniques used in the establishing shot, making the image look more expressionist and keep continuity in the set of paintings.

Exterior Low Angle ShotTrying to express the living conditions of a shanty town, though the population that live in these conditions in Rio de Janeiro survive in squalor, there is sense of fun and community (apart from the drug cartels) that breaths life into a city.

If my version of Octavia was developed further, I would like to pull Rio de Janeiros philosophy into the story (even the Cartels for a bit of spice).

I expressed the view that “who are they hiding from” and this direction maybe could make for a interesting plot line.

If its the Cartel that live high-up in the sky free from the law beneath or the sanctuary of a safe haven from the degradation that happens in the world below.

Working ProgressPerspective was the key angle for this build-up of shot, I really wanted to over-crank the visual so that the viewer can look up and down at all the little strung together buildings and get a sense that this structure is there. Little time was taken on paintings of all the buildings but hopefully a expressionist view of a city can be seen.

Interior Shot DevelopmentPreparation and development is key to any concept painting, and it really shows that this shot had the least amount of studies. Octavia survives buy the ability to lift repair and living materials from the surface up into their city - so this in my mind is the key shot and had I prepared more, could of been the image of the set for interest.

However the colour studies in this shot are a better representation of how the aesthetic should look, so all is not lost.

Working ProgressAgain really trying to work on angles and view points to get the most interest from the shot.Tweaking the perspective a little so that it was just a little bit off key to the natural lines and hopefully making it look different.