Behind the Scenes: Italian Architecture Illustration

I was watching one of the recent Pixar animated movies Luca with my son and I was so amazed by the visuals. Not only the style and technical quality, but the overall setting and stylization of the environments. I'm a huge fan of everything Italian and seeing the small rustic sea town was an eye candy for me.

Additionally, I recently saw some non-3D images of building facades and I wanted to try this kind of perspective for a long time, so this was the perfect opportunity to explore some Italian rustic facade. And throwing in some Vespa of course :)

Visit the full Pinboard here

I fired up Pinterest and started gathering some reference and inspiration. All kinds of Vespas parked near the buildings and then some architecture inspiration as well. I didn't exactly look for 3D renders and style reference. I just wanted to have a clear picture of the kind of architecture I will create and also the color and shadow reference. What type of light brings out the best of this kind of shot? How the colors interact and lead the eye?

That's why my board was full of more traditional and watercolor paintings, which are amazing for observing this kind of information. I really liked some of the cafe images, without a prominent storefront. Almost like a hidden shops with only few tables and chairs giving away, that after the siesta someone might serve you a coffee here.

This time I started my sketch with few thumbnails. Basically I just draw few squares and try to roughly fill them with the composition and with each one trying something different. This way I can iterate through ideas even quicker and not feel committed to any particular composition.

After I made my pick, I roughly sketched the larger layout and started playing with colors. I haver never done this before, I always do just a quick black and white sketch. But here I felt the color will be important in how the layout works overall, so I decided to do a color study. My aim was to have the Vespa as a main element and to use the color contrast to guide the eye towards it. So even if it's a small part of the image, by making the surrounding color subtle, the contrast can help to pinpoint the important stuff and help with composition.

Later in Blender, I decided to change the color scheme a bit, but not the vibrance and saturation. I kept the color subtle and pastel, while making the Vespa really pop.

You can watch the full?process video on Youtube.?

See you in the next one :)