Working at a diminutive scale, layers of texture are added to the piece to get the viewer time to linger on each building. There is a sense of color harmony across the piece, with the brick tone being embedded in most of the buildings and the ground. With just a few figures, the reader’s curiosity is piqued around who these people are and what they are up to. First painted, the ink line-work of varying thickness is meant to make the art more playful, but also define the buildings and create some contrast in the piece. Once cut and folded, the buildings roof-lines create a series of figure ground relationships that allude to the next page. There is a repetition with each page as the buildings are evenly sized throughout, and an added rhythm of movement with a shift in the datum line on each spread.
Gouache and Ink on Paper
The Story
The story takes place across 16 buildings that exist in a future version of Amsterdam, where the classical buildings remain, but so too do new infusions of contemporary structures, and foreign influences of language and culture. Hidden easter eggs like allusions to “The Matrix” movies, and “Akira” play a playful role in setting the tone of a cyberspace future. The characters lives and stories unfold in future illustrations.
Using Gouache in both opaque and transparent qualities, the washes and thicker paint help to create the textures of each building.
Further Pages
The zine will be printed and produced in a limited run of 100. To receive a copy, email mehmet bozatli at gmail dot com.