I'm an architect and I paint watercolor cityscapes and focus on architectural topics: buildings and structures from European and American cities. Each painting starts with a quick pencil sketch and the details are added later with paint and brush. The combination of the detailed structures and the unpredictable nature of the watercolor technique captures the mood, weather and light in the scenery, with a vibrant end result. My works have been exhibited among others at the Biennale of Architecture in Venice, International ArtExpo, on the set of several TV shows, Big Screen Plaza in New York City. Among my creations are also Pixar's Luca and Ratatouille official fan art, and Bjorksta and Gronby art sets for IKEA.
When Instagram started Reels I thought it would be interesting to animate my watercolor, so they could work well as animations.
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I started in 2021 with the idea of looping my Siena watercolor, my initial idea was to loop the image so people could go inside it and the walls were moving. My husband helped me to do it in Cinema4d. It turned out ok, but somewhere in the middle the initial idea somehow vanished and it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. When the pandemic started I painted mostly European summer vacation destinations which allowed me to make some virtual tours, when everything was closed because of COVID. In February I had an art block. I couldn't find any idea what to paint. I decided to paint New York and then I thought it would be fun to animate it. This time I made it in Photoshop frame by frame instead. I wanted to show that watercolor is not a lame/ancient medium in the digital era, but it also can be a contemporary tool that works in nowadays digitized art era. Also, I heard Instagram prioritizes reels now and I thought they could be great reels, and because it's also a form of advertising my Etsy prints and originals I decided to give it a try.
The process of animation starts when the watercolor is ready, I scan it in high quality and adjust colors and vibrance in Adobe Photoshop to match the original as much as possible. I select people, cars and all moving elements and create new layers with them. I multiply them and create the idea of the movement by making a frame animation. I digitally make the evening from the day watercolor, I add elements that glow, and copy windows to make them glow too. I render the whole thing as a gif and as a video and I share it on my social media.
I sell prints and originals of my works, and thanks to Artivive App, everyone who uses the app and points it on my work (regardless of print or original) can watch the animation in augmented reality on their phones and pads using this app.
These are cool. I love the changing light quality and colors on the building structures. I pretty much comprehend how that much of it works. I don't really understand the rest, like how the moving elements can change size, etc. But it's cool.
These are cool. I love the changing light quality and colors on the building structures. I pretty much comprehend how that much of it works. I don't really understand the rest, like how the moving elements can change size, etc. But it's cool.
