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SKETCH GALLERY: Luigi Marchione

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The soul of a scenic project comes from your first sketch, the one you draw with “that pencil” in your hand.

 

I never stop to try to enjoy a movie with half-closed eyes and I always appreciate that, in the cinematographic image, the glance that leaves its impression in the viewer's gaze is fundamental. For this reason, before starting to design a new set, always based on the script and the conversation with the director, I create a focus of inspiration through a mix of different materials such as references and images taken from art books. It's an intense brainstorming that guides my inspiration to interpret and compose with quick sketches, usually like a pencil drawing to recall “that impression”.

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I always carry a pencil with me, precisely because with it I "write" the images that are created in my mind, without bothering to create beautiful drawings. Just as knowing the alphabet is essential in our daily life to to carry out simple actions such as reading a book or a newspaper, or to write an email to express your thoughts without necessarily becoming a writer; in the same way to practice drawing means learning a language. That language allows you to more easily communicate the visual idea of ​​a movie, with its colours and its shapes.

 

Through a continuous practice of rough sketch, it is possible to fix on paper those visual intuitions that otherwise would inexorably be lost. Those “signs” are therefore notes that often only the author is able to understand. With my rough sketches it is easier for me to tackle a project, form an opinion, propose it, modify it, question it again, without the technology stifling my original idea.

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001 kINGDOMS OF FIRE (1).jpg

Personally, I don't like the "beautiful drawing", well defined and outlined, technically clean. I prefer to take notes quickly with spots of light and shadow that immediately define the various levels of depth of the images. In this way the spaces of the scene follow one another in my mind without details, like fleeting impressions of full and empty, of lights and colors.

 

To maintain the cinematic immediacy of my sketches, I usually work by framing them in a 16: 9 frame: within each frame, the work is stratified; scene by scene; without ever erasing the errors but processing them. I avoid using the eraser and I often use the pen, the charcoal and the pastel, which force me to a sure sign, without second thought.

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002 tHE PROFESSION OF ARMS (7).JPG

The pencil, even if apparently it seems very far from digital, is actually the real start for digital concept art too. Personally, I use traditional and digital techniques, with the same naturalness and the same respect.

 

When I draw sketches, I deliberately avoid defining details, because my hand could never compete with the powerful definition of computerized techniques. I firmly believe that the daily practice of pencil drawing is a great resource for developing the freedom to give infinite shapes to the imagination. That inaccuracy, that error, of the first "rough sketch" in pencil, are the true soul of a project.

003 Singing behind the screens (7).jpg
003 Singing behind the screens (1).jpg
003 Singing behind the screens (5).JPG
004 The Dragon Ring (3).jpg
004 The Dragon Ring (2).jpg
006 Nei secoli dei secoli (2).jpg
006 Nei secoli dei secoli (1).jpg
010 Wuthering Heights.jpg
011 The Betrothed.JPG

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted images, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The use of these images by the PDC, a non-for-profit group, aims to advance understanding of the production design profession. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. 

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