Tensai Cityscapes - Ink Figure Series!!! - pg6; 10 Aug

[adraude]

I really like your enviroments. 75 x 50 cm!! That's one heck of a big cityscape-drawing. The buildings appear to be drawn by hand, without the use of a ruler. Is that correct? I like it, gives the city a lively impression, but I would be careful, to not make the lines to briskly, or I might take away from the architectural side of the buidlings.
I agree with the last two being more interesting, because of the perspective. They have more tension, than the cityscape, though, if one likes to get lost in sch cityscapes, I bet he loves the first one. There's so much to look at, in that one - just lacks tiny ppl teeming around.

[tensai]

well figured i might as well post these in here, to keep everything in one thread...

these are some of the presentation drawings i did for a quick design when i was a graduate in tokyo a couple of years ago..

its a city hanging upside down, over another city. the space between 'uptown' and 'downtown' was to be mad crowded and metropolic, with buildings and neons hanging down.

uptown was to be suspended from a big space frame (couple of floors high) with columns as big as buildings to hold it up. these column buildings would also take care of vertical transport of people and technical needs (sewer, etc.)

on top of everything you would have a big empty space - sort of like a giant roofterrace / parc in the city.

i wanted to design an urban space that would intensify the feel of being in a metropolis, as well as giving relieve from that (hence the rooftop 'parc').

the drawings are abit basic, more to show design than convey mood...

crits and comments grealty appreciated.


tensai

[tensai]

had some free time. tried to get atmoshpere going just with black and white and lines.

dont know why i mirrored it in the end. just felt like it.

c&c appreciated.

tensai

[DSillustration]

jesus!

that borders on the unhealthy!

great stuff.

[acorn]

UGH!! so many lines and detail

amazing stuff, cant imagine the time you put in to these, but it was deffinitly worth it, the colors on the hong kong alley are awesome.

looking forward to more!
great work!

[Badger]

Great work tensai
Saw your stuff on the enviroment thread and was like
I'm a big fan.
Please post some more.
-Badger-

[Hyaloclastics]

Do you know God?Or is it you?

[clogik]

hey this is awesome. you are a great draftsman, your attention to detail is simply amazing.
i think your images truly capture the essence of the city. i could stare at them forever...endless amounts of small minute lines.. have you been living in tokyo your entire life? i seriously want to visit japan.

i was wondering if you draw anyofthese cityscapes from life in addition to using photoref?

thanks for sharing.

[mayshing]

Man you can make us cry. lol~
Or make my jaw drop like this:

[Books]

You've got an amazing sense of perspective in all of these. That, in addition to your freehand line quality take these drawing from being architectural studies into being their own little organisms. Bacteria everywhere rejoice.

[tensai]

thanks all, for the comments. its appreciated.

mikecorriero: im not the dude your talking of i think. would appreciate to see the other guys work if you can dig it up.

was playing around with warping the final ill and ended up making a tribute to ootomo. i guess last saterdays anniversary of the hiroshima bombing also lingered in my head.

tensai

edit - looking for missing files to attach.

[tensai]

thought id share these crops as well to give an idea of the detail. these are not 100% views though.

also i didnt really comment on the comments before so:

DSillustration - love your work. well, thats an understatement.

acorn - thanks, when i did the HK alley the colors were the thing that kept on bugging me. glad you like them in the end.

Badger - the environment thread is crazy. some of the guys in there are amazing.

Polonoid - did nobody tell you? like Santa, God doesnt exist.

MIKECORRIERO - we talked. thanks again.

clogik - i think your images truly capture the essence of the city.

thanks! exactly what im trying to do. im really not after just adding detail. but i am trying to amplify what fascinates me about the city. crazy detail is part of that though.

i did my masters here in tokyo (architecture). came here six years ago.
we used to have to draw buildings very accurately from life. almost like visual reports of how they were designed/built. then we had to draw the scenes from different viewpoints etc. great perspective and line confidence exercises.

with what im after here thats not possible. with this amount of detail and the time i already spent on these illustrations i shoot a lot of reference and compile, erase, add, trace, flip, freehand, exaggerate, and make up anything i want. like in matte painting: doesnt matter what you use, as long as you get the shot.

i draw a lot from life when im in the train. doing quick sketching of the sleeping peeps around me. i guess to compensate for the elaborate planning etc of the more elaborate city work.


mayshing - ???

Books - cheers man, your right, often the city seems like this kind of emergent system. i want to do so many more but i need some time.. i hope to start another one soon.

anyway here some crops:

[yonson]

Whaaat???

You're insane man!! A totally inconcievable amount of detail! You must love your city!

[tensai]

im a little hesitant about this one. i dont want to write a whole book here but this illustration does require some explanation.

this is for an idea competition for rethinking the function of this never finished hotel in north korea. the competition was all about how cool this hotel looked and how it resembled all these futuristic designs from movies etc.

now i love futuristic shit but me and my friend thought that was a bit inapropriate given the context of hunger, mind-control and prison camps in the DPRK.

so we decided to work together on this and propose a new use for the hotel that would provide energy and food for the people. at least that way the wasteful structure would be used for something good. in short the idea is to rebuilt the structure into a huge solar chimney, and clad the facades with parabolic solar troughs that together provide energy. coincidentally, the base of the solar chimney, called the solar collector, creates conditions almost ideal for growing rice.

the idea was that this would then be a functional monument, not just an awe-inspiring (or scary) one. but a machine that produces electricity and food. this True Juche Tower as we called it, could then be symbol of a more general political change and experimentation. a bit like what Deng Xiaoping and the old Special Economic Zones are doing for China right now.

the image im posting below accompanies the main diagrams,text and explanations of the concept and is there to illustrate the idea and set the mood. its a collage combined with matte painting techniques. used historic images and own shot ref (almost all the buildings were shot during bright daylight) had to do a lot of relighting etc.

we tried to get a 21st century version of the old propaganda paintings going.

(just to be super clear - we made this propaganda image for our idea of reform and to advertize the idea that this kind reform, altough not ideal, at least seems to be a better direction than continue the destructive course this dictatorship is on now.

this is a politically charged project - i would love however to get some feedback on the art. )

the image shows from left to right:
myth of creation of korea; myth of creation/divinity of kim il sung; occupation by japan; napalm bombings by the U.S (more napalm was dropped on korea than on vietnam); victims of kim's regime, hunger, korean prison camps; national/military parades; the new true juche tower with farm, kids eating; peeps dancing; neo pyongyang lit by the energy of the functional monument, prospering by the redeemed regime. its all in a highly symbolic propaganda way of course. oh yeah lil' kim (female rapper) is in there as well.

any comments/critiques greatly appreciated!

[GunTrouver]

JUST AWESOME! I like it a lot, sooo many detailsO_O
More Plz!!

[curtisfell]

Alot of it looks like the Pompidou center in Paris. Maybe check it out for some inspiration.

I like the colours, especially the blue ones and the orange ones, and wondered if you might do some pictures that are lit in both orange and blue? I think you could do some great stuff with 2 colours.

[tensai]

GunTrouver - thanks, im working on more of course...

curtisfell - i know centre pompidou, im originally an architect.. i hadnt thought about that building for any of these, but i see where youre coming from.

no crits on the succes/disaster of the propaganda reinvention? would love to hear what works, what doesnt as it is so different from what i have done before.. composition? colors?

here is the original sketch:

edit - looking for un linked image to attach to post.

tensai

[DV8]

cool stuff... so much quick detail. thanks for sharing

Mike

[GriNGo]

love your first piece (the green blue cityscape)! your meticulous detailing is extraordinary! just love how the city seems to be swaying with the wind currents... excellent stuff!

[tensai]

continuing my attempts to capture what i like when i walk in the city..

going for a bit simpler stuff and wanted to do some brighter colors. i really dont mind if it gets more graphic and less realistic..

comments and crits appreciated.

tensai

[MrozekArt]

Nice ones, m8.

[tensai]

cheers MrozekArt.

now anybody care to hook me up with some crits?

tensai

[dns2k]

the latest has a kool feel to it

i am really digging the complex ones tho... that much depth is insane. those marker comps earlier really have a kool feel to them. graphically they read very well.

what is your process? marker layout to ink/refining/detail to photoshop? do you lay in the big forms first or work your way out?

-dns

[Sirio_Brozzi]

These are all awesome. Love the detailing..Cant wait to see more =)

[Saise]

I see all of your works, and i have a conclusion:

First - you have too much free time.
Second - when you have too much free time, you start drawing.
Third - When yo draw, you are a Detailed Crazy Nut!
Fourth - And i think, that i like drawing details...
Fifth - ...shame on me.
Sixth - Ok. You rox. Your works are so amazing, that I - from now - use it as one source of my inspiration. Greetings

[Cheesenub]

Where's Waldo's apartment?

[Loga4]

You are robot!!!This is insane(in very good way)

[artiphats]

Great stuff. Very pleasantly surprised to see what was in this thread.

[I.was.ink]

ooooh this is nice.
I love their simplicity...
-ink

[tensai]

thanks everybody, for the comments..

dns2k
the process really depends, the process for most of these is this.

with the detailed stuff its obviously ref ref and more ref but the trick is to make it your own and characterize it. try to show what you like about it and make that stronger. i havent really succeeded yet to a level where im really satisfied though.

Sirio_Brozzi
thanks, im gonna do some more simpler pieces before im gonna go mad detail again though. i was checking out moebius alot lately and there is obviously a lot to learn from the man.

Saise
i do not have enough time! otherwise you would see much more stuff here. im glad they inspire you though.

Cheesenub
waldo's alien registration card got revoked and therefor couldnt keep his job which means he got kicked out of his apaato and is now sleeping in a blue tent in the parc next to meiji dori.

Loga4
that is a very nice compliment.

artiphats
cheers man. thats one of the nicer things about CA isnt it? you sometimes stumble across stuff you totally didnt expect.

I.was.ink
ey! - i was checking your sketchbook recently. very nice inks you got going. i really liked that panel where your avatar is from and that ink drawing of the old man was the bomb.