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• Evelyn Irwin

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The  Making  of  Anastasia By  Evelyn  Irwin

Introduction • For  our  first  project  we  were  asked  to  create  concept  art  for  one  of  the  cities   described  in  Italio Calvino’s  “Invisible  Cities”.  Calvino’s  “Invisible  Cities  was   published  in  1972  and  is  known  to  be  one  of  his  best  works.  The  novel  is  about   narrator  Marco  Polo  giving  a  guided  tour  of  55  different  cities  to  emperor  Kublai   Khan  which  are  all  imaginary  and  each  possess  unique  elements  that  separate   them  from  other  cities.  Calvino  separates  these  cities  into  11  different  categories,   such  as  “Cities  &  Memory”,  Cities  &  Desire  and  so  fourth.  After  reading  over  a   selection  of  the  cities  as  a  class,  we  were  asked  to  read  over  the  remaining  cities   that  were  given  to  us  to  choose  one  that  we  would  like  to  create  concept  art  for.   Whilst  exploring  the  cities,  I  felt  most  drawn  to  the  city  of  “Anastasia”.  With  it   being  listed  in  the  “Cities  &  Desire”  category,    Anastasia  is  listed  as  being  one  of   the  most  labour  orientated  cities  with  ”concentric  canals”  and  “varieties  of   chalcedony”.    Through  thorough  research,  I  have  gathered  much  inspiration  for   thumbnail  sketches  of  all  the  cities,  and  for  my  chosen  city  of  Anastasia,  I  have   aimed  to  capture  the  appearance  inside  and  out  of  the  city.

Influences… • Since  Anastasia  is  a  city  orientated  around  selling  Chalcedony  and  other  wares,  I   imagined  its  appearance  being  fairly  similar  to  countries  such  as  Austria.  Although   this  is  not  specifically  described,  I  envisioned  the  city  to  be  somewhat  woodland   based  due  to  the  fact  that  its  inhabitance  of  chalcedony  would  come  from  various   caves  and  with  the  prominence  of  caves  would  come  the  existence  of  mountains   and  woodlands.   • I  also  believe  there  are  some  fantastical  and  renaissance  elements  about  the  city,   such  as  the  “flesh  of  the  golden  pheasant  cooked”  and  the  “women  I  have  seen   bathing  in  the  pool  of  a  garden”.  I  also  imagined  that  due  to  the  “kites  flying  over   it”,  Anastasia  would  appear  to  be  idyllic  and  rustic. • However,  the  fact  that  Calvino  contradicts  his  constructive  description  to  be  two-­‐ sided  by  stating  he  is  ”not  telling  you  the  city’s  true  essence”  and  “it  enjoys   everything  you  do  not  enjoy”  personifies  the  city  to  be  overwhelming  in  terms  of   power.  Also,  the  fact  that  you  enjoy  Anastasia  “wholly  when  you  are  only  its   slave”  depicts  that  it  could  be  heavily  manmade  and  there  is  no  real  time  to  enjoy   the  city  because  of  this.

Influences  continued… • Most  of  my  inspiration  for  the  Exterior  shots  of  the  city  has  come   from  researching  into  the  canals  in  Amsterdam,  the  irrigation  through   the  River  Nile  in  Egypt  and  the  heavily  man  made  renaissance   elements  of  cities  such  as  those  in  Italy.  I  have  also  researched  into   panning  camera  angles  for  how  to  display  key  elements  of  the  city.   • Most  of  my  inspiration    for  the  interior  has  come  from  looking  at  the   inside  of  churches  and  wooden  lodges  to  capture  a  labour orientated   atmosphere,  but  I  also  tried  to  add  some  fantastical  elements  to   balance  out  the  differences  in  how  people  view  the  city  than  to  what   it  actually  is.

Exploratory   Thumbnails

Figure   1:  Trying  to  include   the   entire  city  in  order   to  not  leave   out  any  details  of  what  Calvino   describes

Figure   2:  Testing  the  different   angles  of  how  to  portray  the  city,   along  with  judging   how  much  of   the  outer  environment   to  include   so  it  doesn’t   take  the  focus  off  of   the  city  itself.

Figure   3:  Testing  how  the   viewer  could   see  the  whole   city,  along   with  testing  the   kinds  of   textures  and  tones   that  would   need  to  be  used  to   show  levels  and  depth.

Interior  shot  to  test  placement  of  figures   and  how   to  adjust  tones  and  colours to  display  either   openness   or  seclusion

Exterior  shot  to  display  impact  of   canals  on  the   city.  Also  to  test  whether  I  should   add  bridges   within  the  interior  low  angle  shot  of  the  city

Influences  for  exterior  establishing  shot

Influences  for  low  angle  shot

Influences  for  interior  establishing  shot

Final  Designs