Behind The Scenes: Monaco Illustration

Whenever a weather starts to change, I get into a little bit traveling mood. Most of the time, I'm bound to my work and life commitments. I like to take that urge and channel it into my work instead.

I started doing that few years ago with city inspired dioramas like Rome, or New York. And rather than focusing on the landmark and recognizable places, I wanted to capture the atmosphere and spirit of the place.

With New York, yellow cab and subway entryway came to mind immediately, and it's quite clear, what the scene is all about. For some places, it becomes a bit of a challenge. Especially if I'm not familiar with the place.

Visit the full Pinboard here

I was watching some F1 documentaries recently, trying to catch up and I caught myself watching camera shots panning through the streets of Monte Carlo, following the racing track. I immediately wrote down my next thing to do.

I was trying to come up with the detail, that really captivated me, that would cause audience to immediately recognize the place. I fired up new Pinterest board and started saving some Monaco shots.

After a few images, it was clear, I need to include these red and white striped racing curbs from Grand Hotel bend. It's just so iconic, that if you use it in the tight city bend, it screams Monaco at you.

I grabbed my pencil ready to sketch, when I realized I got nothing. One bend with the striped curb is not enough. The image in my mind was not complete. So I got back to some research and went through many images and videos, even visited using street view.

To be honest, it took a bit longer that I wanted, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. At least for a while, it was like I'm traveling and getting to know a new place. It's not the same of course, and if  you have the opportunity to travel, don't hesitate. But this is enough to draw a little bit of inspiration on the spot. Like a small vacation trailer.

There were many things, I wanted to have there in the end, including yacht marina. But again, less is more, so I settled on a really subtle shoreline detail and gave space to architecture and main actor - the road. The rest was about moving things around a bit to find better composition and of course - deciding on a car. That part was probably the easiest, can't go wrong with supercar in Monaco :)

You can watch the process video on Youtube