Future Proof: the portrait of the big city solitude

London is a moody place to be in the morning. I am lucky to live near my studio, so I walk to work every day. The narrow streets are packed with people who try to make their way, moving between long lines of cars. The atmosphere can be very hectic and tense, even in the early morning hours. The poluted air creates thick layers of haze between me and the towering buildings of the business distict of the big city.
The scene before me is beautiful and unsettling at the same time. And for some reason, that very song by Massive Attack echoes in my ears while I walked down the road.
Now, looking at the final piece, you probably wonder what does that have to do with the girl, attached to a robot. Well, I have scanned all the little sketches that might display the thought process behind it. My main goal was to try and bring some of that misty feeling of big city's solitude. I started by sketching some of my neighbourhood shops and people and developed the idea further to the final sketch. Although the initial inspiration came from exterior, I thought that it would be nice to go inside of the lonely, desolate apartments and sympathise with one of the inhabitants of this modern, near-future, world.
The technical aspects were pretty straight forward. Once I had the sketch I liked, I went to Painter and started slapping paint around, keeping things smooth and juicy.
This piece was done for Gorilla Artfare 3rd anniversary. The idea behind it was to illustrate one of our favorite songs. Mine was 'Future Proof' by Massive Attack.
I really hope you like it.