The main idea for this piece was to create an unusual, architectural environment. I decided to portray a Crater-City, which would have buildings looking like solid, organic structures, deeply intertwined. The story of the city and its people is born. “The city arose from the fiery lava. Strange constructions of the city appear as if growing. Their functionality and forms are programed by scientists. People settled there use energy from lava for their purpose. And their children search for inspiration and dangerous entertaining pastimes. As if risking everything, they jump from bubble to bubble and rise from the depth of the city to its top.”
The first step I made when creating this piece was to make some pencil sketches, to help me to choose a composition for my work and to determine the image scale. In addition I portrayed two similar volcanic structures with the fiery lava running away in deep canals in the background. I made the first sketches quite simple, to show just the architecture of the city and its details. I then made other sketches and concluded that 'sunset' lighting best conveyed the mood and nature of the environment. The next stage was the creation of characters and the loose placement of them in the picture. That wrapped up the sketching step.
It was quite complicated for me to paint a spate of bubbles in the scene without ruining the view of the city, so I used a 3D package to construct the bubbles and their different placements. The effect looking like trickles of air in a reservoir turned out well. I Then decided that the boy sitting on a big bubble in the foreground should become the main focus of my composition. As you can see he is clearly delighted at his predicament!
