When participating Kick-About artist and animator, Emily Clarkson, offered up ‘Metropolis‘ as the second prompt, I wasn’t alone in looking forward to walking into the expressionistic world of Fritz Lang’s epic work of science-fiction. At the outset I knew I wanted to begin with the concept drawings for the film by Erich Kettelhut, and I knew I’d be seeking to produce something by following the principles of collage and layering. What I didn’t know was that I’d find this particular challenge hugely addictive and satisfying, and that I’d produce a lot of stuff on my way to choosing the image for the Kick-About with which I was most happy.
Every image in this post (and many others not in it) were all seeded by one pencil drawing and my guiding principle was a simple one; do now as I did back on my art A’level and subsequent Foundation course, which is to keep pushing a very limited series of processes and tools until something interesting happens! What I enjoyed particularly about the later stages of the process was my inability to stop the imagery coalescing into rich Art Deco pattern-making, as if the stylistic motifs of the original movie are themselves somehow irrepressible.
Red's Kingdom 
Love these images Phil, such a great example of what you describe in terms of expanding and developing a clear concept. You say it’s simple, I would disagree – I wouldn’t have a clue how to do this!!
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Thanks Tony – really, this an example of something complex-looking born out of lots of much simpler smaller things. The process is a bit like one of those magic eye pictures – where you look and look and suddenly you discover what it is you’re producing and then you can work towards it with a bit more gusto!
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Absolutely love these Phil!
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Thanks Jordan… if only I knew how to make those snazzy ‘build-up’ videos that you produce for the Kick-About!
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This video might help if you want to record future digital work Phil.
It’s simple to record using OBS, and then I just speed the clip up in Premiere Pro 🙂
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Thanks Mr B 🙂 (Then everyone can see how slow I am… )
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Excellent! I like the idea of pushing something to its limit. (K)
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and the limit is… from ominous-looking towers to…. wallpaper! 😀
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