Digital Thumbnail Sketches

As an introduction to Photoshop as well as getting started with the Space and Environment project, I was asked to create 3 sets of thumbnail sketches based on Calvino's fantastical cities, using different Photoshop techniques and tools.

The first technique I used was the brush tool to create simple, sketchy line art. I think this technique is an efficient way of making very quick sketches that allow you to explore composition and shapes before you start putting a lot of effort into a drawing that you haven't planned properly. Although this style is messy, it's great for thumbnail sketches. These thumbnail sketches are based on the city Baucis.

"The slender stilts that rise from the ground at a great distance from one another and are lost above the clouds support the city. You climb them with ladders...Nothing of the city touches the ground except those long flamingo legs on which it rests and, when the days are sunny, a pierced, angular shadow falls on the foliage."

- Pg. 4 of Anthology

For these thumbnails I focused on the "Slender stilts" that support the city. I imagine them as long, spindly, old wooden stilts that are just about able to hold the city up above the clouds, so I drew them crooked messy to give them a little more character and the impression that they are only just holding up, and could possibly give way at any second.

The Second Technique I used was the Selection tools; Lasso, Marque, Transform.  I used the lasso tool to mark out random shapes and then colored to selection in with the brush tool. I think I need a little more practice with the lasso tool, or i need to look up a few tutorials as I don't think i'm using it to it's full potential. The results of using these tools gave me very clean lines compared to the sketchy line art technique I used In my previous thumbnails.

"In Esmeralda, city of water, a network of canals and a network of streets span and intersect each other. To go from one place to another you  have always the choice between land and boat: and since the shortest distance between two points in Esmeralda is not a straight line but a zigzag that ramifies in tortuous optional routes."

-Pg. 8 of Anthology

For these thumbnails I focused on the "zigzag" and "canals of water" that travel through the city. I imagine Esmeralda to be either a peaceful city filled with nature, or an extremely  busy city that only uses canals to travel, meaning that the city is swarming with complicated canal routes. I really Like the thumbnail on the top left. the zig zag shapes represent the canals. 

The third  Technique that I used was combining a variety of different paint brushes with the Lasso Tool. By using the lasso tool I could be very selective with which parts of the layer I was drawing on. I really liked the effect of using different brushes at different opacity settings to achieve a cloudy look to the drawing.

"The spider-web city...there's is a precipice between two steep mountains; the city is over the void, bound to the two crests with ropes and chains and catwalks. You walk on the little wooden ties, careful not to send your foot in the open spaces, or you cling to the hempen strands. Below there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can glimpse the chasm's bed."
-Octavia Pg.14 of Anthology