Invisible Cities: Thumbnails 1-16 Anastasia and Argia

These are the first set of digital thumbnails exploring two of Calvino's cities. Anastasia is numbers 1-12, whilst 13-16 is Argia.

Anastasia is described as having "concentric canals" so I tried to include these circular canals in each thumbnail. I also noted that "kites fly over it" , there are women who go into the garden pool and entice others, and it is described as a city of desire. I made this come across with the use of colour, and generally having a different atmosphere in each thumbnail. After three thumbnails, I moved onto to experiment with textured and patterned brushes, but still used painting to lay the foundations for shape and composition.

With Argia, the city described as filled to the brim with clay, paved with staircases and many rocky terrains, I kept an earthy / coral colour scheme and more blocky brush strokes. I like number 16 the most for Argia because of the perspective, mood colour and shapes. For Anastasia, I like numbers 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. There is good composition and elements of Calvino's descriptions.

After today's Photoshop class I learnt not to focus too much on putting in immense detail or even colour when doing thumbnails, so for the next set I shall use more monochrome tone to establish simple yet easily establishable elements.