The variety of the backgrounds really tells a little story of its own here, and I appreciated the extra depth given by the artist’s notes; I’m not much of a subway traveler so having a guide to what specific lines are being depicted in each one, which is some great attention to detail! As an artist who often works in monochrome myself I also appreciate your use of tones and textures so the figures pop against the backdrops, and their different skin tones makes them pop against each other, too. It’s interesting comparing this to your earlier Cloud Throne and seeing how you changed the style you worked with there to better suit the different subject matter!
Thanks. Actually I originally did then in colour but it was too gaudy largely because I didn’t think through the overall colour palette well enough but rather just coloured each thing individually did the colours didn’t work well together.
At risk of tokenism, the couples are designed to be someone with long-standing roots in the country and someone from the main visible minority (so a German and a Turk etc.). I didn’t put that in the wiki so as not to canonicalize it and hence let the people just be whoever they are.
Even though my one experience in London was a few years back, I still recognized the Tube from your illustration! :) These are sweet little glimpses into the lives of these couples, and it makes me want to know more about them (and tbh how they’re managing not to get caught!! they must be very sneaky).
The variety of the backgrounds really tells a little story of its own here, and I appreciated the extra depth given by the artist’s notes; I’m not much of a subway traveler so having a guide to what specific lines are being depicted in each one, which is some great attention to detail! As an artist who often works in monochrome myself I also appreciate your use of tones and textures so the figures pop against the backdrops, and their different skin tones makes them pop against each other, too. It’s interesting comparing this to your earlier Cloud Throne and seeing how you changed the style you worked with there to better suit the different subject matter!
Thanks. Actually I originally did then in colour but it was too gaudy largely because I didn’t think through the overall colour palette well enough but rather just coloured each thing individually did the colours didn’t work well together.
At risk of tokenism, the couples are designed to be someone with long-standing roots in the country and someone from the main visible minority (so a German and a Turk etc.). I didn’t put that in the wiki so as not to canonicalize it and hence let the people just be whoever they are.
Even though my one experience in London was a few years back, I still recognized the Tube from your illustration! :) These are sweet little glimpses into the lives of these couples, and it makes me want to know more about them (and tbh how they’re managing not to get caught!! they must be very sneaky).
For that matter how are the trains so empty; in the end maybe that’s just fiction.
On the other hand Berlin transit is famously tolerant (see this which is an *official* ad (BVG is the Berlin transit agency): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvcpy4WjZMs)