Happy I can participate on This Challenge this year. My immediate thought was to keep the building and its environment as they are and tell a story around the building. First look around the model, I realised i needed to add a bit more detail. My usual work flow is to find how i want to tell the story as soon as possible. This includes the composition, the mood and story props. I do rough texturing, modeling and lighting and i refine as I go along. I do paint over in Photoshop to add detail and elements that i need but would take too much time to model especially for ideas i may discard. I like to explore different ideas and composition even if they may seem to out there but i have found ideas spawn other ideas.

With this building i was drawn more towards the courtyard side of the building. I like the stair case as well as the space for different views and potential for different stories. I also felt I could represent the “Love the roundness! Love the Deep Red CorTen steel!” theme to quote Ronen Bekerman’s introduction to the project. As mentioned earlier I did explore other Views and compositions. To kick off this is an early idea that i entertained.

As a person I see the whole context first, when looking at a photo (or render) I look at the over all image. It is well known that different people see the same image differently and most people can be categorised to what they first see in an image. If an image is pleasing that individual on that specific categorisation, then they usually find the over all image interesting. That then follows by a secondary category and so on and usually the order they follow that determine if the person like the image or not as a whole. Sounds more complicated that it is. Anyways, to not get into too much detail I usually tend to like images that is balanced, and one strong point for me is colour and lighting. The colour is not necessarily colourful. to me the over all tone of the image and how the colours interacts is very important so I use that making my own images.

To create a strong concept, I familiarised my self with the soundings of the project site. Stockholm is an old beautiful city with lots of history and a lot of the the surrounding buildings very classic traditional old red brick and the cobblestone courtyard and the contrast between them is gorgeous.

The corten texture on the main building is very suitable and I wanted my image to reflect and respect the great architects balance between good and new making it look like it belongs even though it has a modern cladding and shape it just looks right. I want to bring out the red metal rusty look as I find it contrasting well with the beautiful minimal grey stone old cobblestones.

I also want to keep the image natural and realistic so I wanted to find inspiration in nature and let that dictate the lighting. First thing that came to mind was The Red Center and Ayres Rock in Australia. Pending on the time of the day the huge “rock” changes from orange almost a bit yellow tones to a deep red. I like the deep red and interaction with a contrasty blue sky. To soften the image I always love bringing natural element into the image and once the first stages of the process is completed I like to add in some greenery in a realistic and subtle way, if suitable, however I don’t want to take away from the natural environment I will create and I love keeping things minimal so I will have a play. I also have a faint idea of cobblestones and pigeons, however again if the image allows for that (and time) I might incorporate this.

I am very excited to be participating in this challenge.

I started with going through the provided model and was experimenting with different materials to be applied on main facade. I’m using concrete material on main model and rest of environment with brick.
The colours I am going for are mainly in grey tone with a overcast sky. Tried different camera angles but i’m quite happy with the image attached.