Creating

Sophronia
David
Green

Introducing
Sophronia

I was tasked with picking a city out of a large selection and

producing three digital paintings of my chosen city, The cities
were from Italo Calvinos Invisible Cities (1972), after producing
100 thumbnails I settled on the city Sophronia and focused on
developing my digital paintings.
Sophronia is described as being two very different halves of one
city, on one side there is a concrete jungle of office blocks,
banks, hospitals and other very grey, bland buildings.
On the other side there is the fantastical fair ground with
coasters that soar above the clouds and rides that illuminate the
night.
This set a tone that was hard to resist, two sides of the same
coin that apart would not work but together bring harmony.

Influence
Map

Exterior.
The text describes a city that juxtaposes itself,
one side is bright and colourful while the other
is grey and bleak, I decided to look at cities
such as new york that from a distance truly
does look grey and bleak, I also looked at
banks as they generally are often seen as basic
and joyless.
Interior.
The text does not describe the interior of the city
so I had to look elsewhere for inspiration, I took
what I knew of the city and looked at similar
buildings, a hotel I stayed in this year fit perfectly
as the insides were brown and unoffending in
tone, I also looked at indoor theme parks and of
course banks.

Thumbnail
s

Colour
Composition
I experimented with colour to see how
the city may look at different periods of
the day, from midday to dusk to
midnight.
This helped me come to understand
more about the city in which I am
creating, what the people do when its
dark, what rides would still run
throughout the night? Would nothing
close or perhaps would only certain
rides or shops close?
What about the city itself? Is it like
New York or Tokyo where the city
never sleeps?
I had plenty of time to consider these
things.

Exterior Establishing shot

Creation

Exterior Establishing
Shot

Exterior Establishing
Shot
close-ups

Exterior Low Angle Shot

Creation

Exterior Low Angle

Shot

Exterior Low Angle

Shot
Close-ups

Interior Establishing Shot

Creation

Interior Establishing
Shot

Interior Establishing
Shot
Close-ups