The Observatory
'The observatory' is a collection of ambiguous, surreal illustrations about the magnificence of the universe within reach of the human figure. These pieces leave much to the interpretation of the viewer, but they all look for the evocation of sensations through six dreamlike scenes set into a unique atmosphere. This is a personal artistic project without commercial purposes, although I'll produce some limited fine-art prints soon.
The first piece was originally part of my collection of 'Experimental remixes', a series of personal artworks in which I focus my concerns and passions related to existence, reality, outer space, quantum physics... Then I felt that it had its own personality, so it inspired me to create a whole collection of scenes set in the same atmosphere. I knew I wanted black and white, which I love and I think it brought that evocative and ambiguous touch that matched very well with the atmosphere that I wanted to achieve. I applied a slight tilt-shift effect to emphasize the feel of scale change.
These illustrations are the result of the combination of photomontage, vector and 3D. In each one I started with the idea of the scene that I wanted to recreate. From there, I proceeded to design the pieces in Photoshop integrating smart vector objects made in Illustrator and human figure 3D models rendered directly in Photoshop. As I always do, I worked into very large resolutions to get a better result and the finest detail.
The reception of this project has been fantastic. It's great to see how something so personal can connect with so many people, and knowing that you have awakened something in people around the world, even if only for 2 minutes. The project was featured in Behance and Abduzeedo, and I'm already working on some commissions from people who loved it.
