A really cool thing about archviz is that you can take a photograph of impossible things.
Something I like very much is to look at old photos of places and buildings I come across daily and realize how a different context can have such an impact on the same object. I want to do a little trick here and it is to translate the building not only to a different place, but to a different era. And of course, as much is I love it, this era could not be other than the 1930’s. As if the restaurant and museum were built at the same time (but still by different architects 😉
My references are going to be about the place (I imagine the buildings sitting in the middle of nowhere, tangent to a road in the edge of a pine forest) and also about the ambientation, something that really helps me and is a fun way to get references is watching movies.
I do not remember how many times I have seen one of my favourite movies: “Road to perdition”. Guys, if you have not seen this masterpiece I suggest you do it. This movie is based on a comic that has the same name. Oustanding photography and memorable soundtrack. You will not regret!
I intend to get the postrproduction assets directly from scenes of this movie and others such as “The untouchables”
Speaking of workflow, I usually model some very basic shapes and move my camera around to explore posible compositions. Once I have some, I sketch them by hand so I can start to draw stuff like vegetation, people or surroundings very quickly. Then, I choose my favourite and complete the sketch experimenting with the light. This can be seen as time wasting, but it really helps me to have some kind of preview of what I’m trying to achieve. Of course it also means that I know exactly which parts of the project need to be modelled and which don’t.
Odds are that I start modelling tomorrow. I basically work on this when I have a few hours after work, but mainly in the weekends. I intend to upload a “modelling update” by Monday.

Watch the movie! Seriously!