Carrying on with the series of blog posts about the design of this web site, today I will talk a little about the background of the header image that contains the city scenery. For me, one of the most captivating subjects ever are old cities, especially European cities such as London, Madrid, Paris, Prague… There is a sense of mystery and charm built in to these kind of cities at night that I’ve always found fascinating. It makes me feel like reproducing a certain atmosphere in my work; half real and half impossible. This has a lot to do with the recurring dreams that I’ve always had where I visit these kind of old cities that don’t exist in reality but I would swear I know so well. Yes, cities and houses are fascinating because, just like nature, they keep secrets inside and they are impregnated by the energies from the most incredible events. Every house tells a story, every window holds a secret.
For the design of this web site, I wanted to locate the illustration in one of these non-existent cities from my dreams. It could be any city, it doesn’t really matter to me, probably somewhere in some other reality. It is funny because my friend Catherine Morley located my illustration in the Basque-French Country on a blog post at her site Designers Who Blog. She was probably influenced by the fact that that’s where my origins are and also because although she lives in Thailand now, she visited the Basque-French Country many years ago and it reminded her of it. She was right because there is a resemblance with some of the typical Basque architecture, like you can see in this picture of a typical house in my family’s hometown, Orduña.
But the truth is that, to illustrate the houses I got most inspired by a series of postcards from the 19th century that I had recently found at Livejournal’s Vintage Photo. They are beautiful colored postcards with pictures of a charming village in Lower Saxony, Germany, called Hildesheim. If you google it you will find the place still remains just the same and I really hope I can visit this lovely place sometime.
Some other illustrations that you can see where I have portrayed this idea of the city are “Old Europe” featuring Paris and “Broadway Nights”, featuring New York.
In the next blog post I will talk about the rest of the header illustration: the characters.
Qué interesante que nos muestres el proceso y el origen de tus imágenes. Me encanta el estilo de arquitectura en la que te has inspirado. Las casitas de Bremen (por ejemplo) son preciosas. En Londres también sobrevive alguna casa de ese estilo; ahora me viene a la mente alguna de Fleet Street.
Great post. ‘Half real, half impossible’- Yeah, me too. Thanks for including the photo resources, looking forward to checking them out. I like your post on perspective as well. Objectivity can be a challenge. My take on my own work will vary during the course of most projects-Some days I’ll think, This is gonna be the best work I’ve ever done; others it’s, Ah, I can’t draw anymore lol
So I’ve learned to remind myself that however good or bad I feel about the current state of whatever I’m working on, I’ll probably feel less so tomorrow 
Thanks for stopping by my blog, and for the kind words- All the best!
@ Iban- Si, la arquitectura Isabelina también tiene un aire parecido. Si no me equivoco tu estás refiriendo al edificio de Liberty’s, es una pasada tanto por dentro como por fuera, aunque ahí yo solo he entrado “de mirón”. Precisamente cuando escribía éste artículo me acordaba de las casas de Chester y de Canterbury. ¡Qué ciudades tan bonitas!
@ Mark- I agree, the state of mind is everything. I never think I’m going to do my best work ever but very often I think it could be the last work I’ll ever do and helps me to live the moment.
It occurs to me that if you are interested in old architecture you may subscribe to this Flickr group:
Old Postcards
What lovely old buildings! Whenever I go to Devon I like to walk around the Exeter Cathedral there to see what’s left. The bombing in WW11 took out some of it. But there’s enough left to get inspired.
Cat!, that’s what Iban was saying in Spanish, he was talking about the Elisabethan houses in London and I was thinking of the ones in Chester and Glastonbury.
I’ve been in Exeter and I can’t remember no cathedral. I just can remember going to my first Indian restaurant there and not beeing able to think about or see anything else for the next few weeks. Aaaah! I love tandoory sooooo much!
If you head down into the town itself (the main shopping area), you can’t miss it. It’s right there by the pub where Sir Francis Drake used to have a pint or two.
http://tinyurl.com/62gbjz
And if you scroll down further, you’ll see houses that made me think of yours.
My flat is about ten minutes walking distance from the Cathedral. Rain. Wind. Snow. Sun. An easy ten minutes.
Thanks Cat!
I still can’t remember the cathedral, I arrived Exeter at night and I think I didn´t see very much of it, I just remember the tandoori and a little walk downtown, that was 17 years ago and I guess my memory is not as good as I think…
Yeah, that kind of English houses, I love them so much. I almost move in to a tiny one, it was all crooked, a house from the 13th century, in Avebury. It was ideal, it looked just like an ilustration from Arthur Rackham, but I figured out I just couldn´t find a way to take the matress up through the tiny stairs and had no room for my drawing board! I found a picture of it in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richncorryn/940512680/sizes/l/