I very much like the vision you have of your Bass-inspired city as being characterised by billboards, signs, typography and screens. I think this presents you with lots of opportunities - though a note of caution; you've got to be careful not to simply produce a city decorated with Bass-inspired artwork. You describe angular black elements as like the bone structure of this place - and here you're picking up on more Bass motifs, and I'd suggest you need to do a bit more work around the physical architecture of the city and from where that derives. You've got a few thumbnails that appear to feature rather generic mountain ranges or cityscapes, and these don't seem to shout 'Saul Bass' - more successful are those thumbnails where things are blockier and more graphical.
It does feel as if you're describing a city of entertainment and cinematic promise (certainly, the point about a Bass opening credit sequence is that it promised entertainment and escapism), but also perhaps a 'retro' city, for Bass is associated most keenly with the 50s/60s in terms of his heyday: I'm getting a strong vintage Las Vegas vibe from your travelogue:
In terms of creating more thumbnails as you push your city towards concept art, I'm going to suggest that you stop drawing and start collaging - and also that you begin your next set of thumbnails either on a black canvas, or one strong coloured canvases inspired by Bass colour-scheme. I'd like to see you using simpler shape tools in Photoshop and typeface to start 'collaging' together architectural forms. I think working more simply, with clean shapes and text will get you closer to understanding those 'black metallic' components you describe. I suggest too that you seek out lots and lots of imagery of Times Square, Vegas, Piccadilly Circus etc. and really look at the complexity of all those billboards and signs etc.
In terms of style of concept art, you should look at the stuff by Lou Romano and also the style of depiction in the cartoon show Samurai Jack, as both use clean line and flat colour to create stylised spaces - and a Bass city would most certainly be stylish, graphical and classy - and retro!
OGR 05/11/2015
ReplyDeleteEvening Dani,
I very much like the vision you have of your Bass-inspired city as being characterised by billboards, signs, typography and screens. I think this presents you with lots of opportunities - though a note of caution; you've got to be careful not to simply produce a city decorated with Bass-inspired artwork. You describe angular black elements as like the bone structure of this place - and here you're picking up on more Bass motifs, and I'd suggest you need to do a bit more work around the physical architecture of the city and from where that derives. You've got a few thumbnails that appear to feature rather generic mountain ranges or cityscapes, and these don't seem to shout 'Saul Bass' - more successful are those thumbnails where things are blockier and more graphical.
It does feel as if you're describing a city of entertainment and cinematic promise (certainly, the point about a Bass opening credit sequence is that it promised entertainment and escapism), but also perhaps a 'retro' city, for Bass is associated most keenly with the 50s/60s in terms of his heyday: I'm getting a strong vintage Las Vegas vibe from your travelogue:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Fremont_Street_1952.JPG
and also a New York Times Square vibe:
http://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Times-Square-1960s-3.jpg
I'm also reminded of the painting of the city by Leger:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/3/3a/20151003143045!Fernand_Léger,_The_City,_1919.jpg
In terms of creating more thumbnails as you push your city towards concept art, I'm going to suggest that you stop drawing and start collaging - and also that you begin your next set of thumbnails either on a black canvas, or one strong coloured canvases inspired by Bass colour-scheme. I'd like to see you using simpler shape tools in Photoshop and typeface to start 'collaging' together architectural forms. I think working more simply, with clean shapes and text will get you closer to understanding those 'black metallic' components you describe. I suggest too that you seek out lots and lots of imagery of Times Square, Vegas, Piccadilly Circus etc. and really look at the complexity of all those billboards and signs etc.
In terms of style of concept art, you should look at the stuff by Lou Romano and also the style of depiction in the cartoon show Samurai Jack, as both use clean line and flat colour to create stylised spaces - and a Bass city would most certainly be stylish, graphical and classy - and retro!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IWxhodbd-5U/RsZx3S6wd1I/AAAAAAAAAZ0/YOA3YKsStmU/s320/09.jpg (lou romano)
http://img03.deviantart.net/751e/i/2013/083/0/d/samurai_jack_bg_extended_by_saikeishi13-d5z5ukp.png (Samurai Jack)