Having a go at Cyberpunk cityscapes!
Above are three illustrations I made recently, as my official attempt at making cyberpunk environment art. The drawings are ordered from oldest (left) to latest (right) and the three pieces were made over the span of two weeks.
As much as I love drawing my original characters, one thing I’ve always wanted to explore further was to draw the actual world they live in – the Astraverse. These three cityscapes are my attempts at visualizing what certain parts of their world would look like. The first two illustrations (the teal ones) are what I imagine the city of Casting Hall to look like. The last one (purple) I imagine to be Tokyo, Japan, Blueport. Which is distinctive from the real life counterpart in a few ways, obviously :3
I love environment art but I know I really don’t enjoy making it that much. Mostly because it involves a lot of technical work like perspective, vanishing points, all sorts of stuff I really can’t be bothered to focus on. Which is absolutely the lazy artist in me :D But, I thought I’d try to compromise on this by drawing environments in a more flowy style. I took some inspiration from my knowledge of the Impressionism style, so I focused on loose brush strokes that gave the “impression” of the subject, but upon closer inspection, it might not be too clear what all the fine details are.
One way I achieved this was by literally just physically loosening up. Not focusing on one area for too long – allowing myself to make mistakes and focus more on having fun depicting a glowing cyberpunk-esque city. Another major thing that helped me was not zooming in on my canvas. I think throughout 90% of my process on these three illustrations, I was zoomed out so I could focus on the full picture rather than small inconsequential details.
A Closer Look
My first piece is titled “Resistant to the Elements,” which was just my thought on how a giant, rushing waterfall would not really work well in a tech-dependent environment. But Blueport, the dimension where all these cityscapes reside in, is a very special and literally magical place. Plus, sci-fi logic, duh! :3
Silly name aside, I was pretty proud of this drawing when i first made it. I thought to myself, “Wow! It actually looks kind of cool!” My main issue with this piece from the start was that it was a little unclear on what was even going on within the environment, but I didn’t stress about it too much – opting to just take what I learned from my first attempt and try better on my next.
Not every piece has to be perfect. This one was challenging, but really fun, and it taught me a lot of new starting skills that I was able to apply to my next two pieces.
My second piece is titled something a little bit more interesting: “An Endless Hall of Seas and Cyberscapes.”
I thought this title was really cool. It refers to the city portrayed being Casting Hall, a city known for its beautiful high-tech skylines and intersecting rivers! The city is also located close to the sea.
I love how this one came out. I feel like it still has that impressionistic look but it still is a bit more clear than my previous attempt. Although, the composition is rather simple – it’s just a straight forward look out into the city. I still really like it though. I included a foreground, middle ground, and background at least. The middle ground being the sparkly and shiny river, which I like how that turned out. I think this piece really shows off just how grand the city is. It really does feel endless, especially considering this is only one small section of it. Who knows what you might find within the endless hall?
I made this gif of all the layers in my illustration. I wish I captured the layers for the other two pieces too, cause this is honestly mesmerizing. XD
My final piece is titled simply, “Techno Rave.”
The story behind this name is that I was listening to a techno DJ set on YouTube while drawing it lol. It was my first time EVER listening to techno, which is crazy considering how much I love other EDM subgenres! I just never really thought techno was my thing. It’s definitely not my favorite, but I really did enjoy that set by musician Tham.
Anyway, the music really inspired this piece. I wanted to visualize a city that was enthralled by a gritty party and music scene. I also wanted to use purple instead of teal for the main color. I kept this piece much darker than the other two because it was in a different location and because techno just reminds me of darker, yet vibrant colors.
I really like how this piece has some actual perspective to it, which was definitely a challenge, but I’m glad I tried it out. I was trying to go for a more subtle, airy look for the building details. I used more soft glows and gradients than the other two pieces. However I still added some fun elements like the glowing text on the building and those little LED beams on the bottom left. I have no idea why I added those beams, but I think they look really cool. A nice bit of color and visual contrast!
References / Inspiration
For these three illustrations, I tried my best to use my creativity and imagination, but these were still my earliest attempts, so I used some references!
The three artworks above were my main references for each of my three pieces. I mostly used them as a guide for the overall composition, but took my own liberties on the rest. I couldn’t find any sources linking back to the original artist on the first artwork, so if you know who the artist is (or are the artist) please email me so I can give credit! (luvstarkei@proton.me)
Of course, my other inspirations were the Impressionism art style and that awesome techno DJ set! Thank goodness for good music :3
Conclusion
This little 3-part project was super fun. I really want to get to a point where I can confidently draw environments without it being too much of a hassle. I want to use these skills to visualize the Astraverse, because I have so many ideas in my head that I need to put on paper!
Anyway, I think this was a really helpful first step. I’ve meddled with environment art in the past, but it was very much from a “study/practice” perspective, rather than just “give it a shot and have fun while you’re at it,” which I think for me personally, is much better. I might not learn the fundamentals as fast, but at least I’m having a good time and experimenting at my own pace.
These look incredible!!