My Work // The Grand Budapest Hotel

I've been eagerly awaiting Wes Anderson's new movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, ever since watching the trailer several months ago. I've always loved the look of Anderson's movies, and this one particularly resonates with me as I have a personal deep affection for the 1920s/30s European Art Nouveau aesthetic.

I finally got out to the cinema this past Friday, and to say it met expectations is putting it lightly. I absolutely adored the movie. The visuals were glorious, and I was so happy to see the use of models rather than CGI for certain scenes; I’m much more of an old school special effects fan than a CGI one. The acting was glorious. The dialogue witty and very funny. the whole ‘caper’ aspect of the movie kinetic and exciting.

And, unexpectedly, the story, especially the ending, was incredibly touching and also rather painful, especially for those, like me, with an interest in the history of the period it’s influenced by. I knew the writing would be marvellous, but it never passed my mind beforehand that the movie would have such a very bittersweet emotional eloquence.

So as an ode to this wonderful film (though I actually finished this piece before even going to the cinema, so entranced with the aesthetic was I), I decided to play around with some illustration and typography, using the stylistic themes and the gorgeous work by its lead graphic designer, Annie Atkins, as a base, to create a little bit of fan art.

This was rendered in pencils, scanned into the computer and coloured in Photoshop. I’m reasonably happy with the result. Some things are off in the drawing, and I think the text could have done with more structure. I tried a slightly more stylised, less realistic, style to the illustration compared to what I’ve been practicing recently, but while I’m getting to the point of being quite skilled with realistic human renderings, I think I need more practice with a pieces that are a more stylised. And I’m still finding it hard to figure out a way of digital colouring I’m really happy with, though this subtle approach, largely just highlighting the pencil shading, is working well. But I think all in, it’s a decent piece of work.

(Excuse the photo quality; the daylight was just not cooperating with me)

And a quick little replay with the colours