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Cal the Artist
@califormetry
NEW ART REVEAL 🍾 a tremendous joy to share with you a moment of triumph -- the most ambitious work i've ever done: "THE GOLDEN STATE" (2024) vector hyperrealism 📍San Francisco, CA ✍️ 77 832 hand-drawn elements commissioned by Delronde the story + details 🧵 big thread
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@califormetry
THE STORY this spring, exactly one year after a commissioned trip to Big Sur, i traveled from SoCal to San Francisco to get reference photos for a new commission. SF is known for its unpredictable weather. the first day was rainy and misty. since i only had a few days, i still decided to chase the sunset in the hills of Berkeley, hoping for a miracle. it didn't happen. the bay was drenched in milk with zero visibility. the next morning was gorgeous, so i headed to the location, about an hour from my hotel. plan b was to capture clear details in daylight and golden them up by hand or create a colorful morning piece. got my shots. felt good. almost. i spent the day exploring SF (checking the weather every hour). the sky was clear, primed for a nice sunset. but the evening got stressful: i got stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge, and as the sky started to turn golden, i feared i wouldn't make it to the hills. but i did. and it was euphoric.
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@califormetry
THE INSPIRATION back at home, with a ton of photos, i started collaging them searching for the right composition. that's when i remembered a piece i had seen in the news 👇, when in 2011, it was auctioned off for $4.3 mil, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold. a decade later, that sale still baffles me but there was something in those straight horizontal lines that spoke to me at the moment, so i decided to use them as guidelines for this commission. i opened a blank canvas in Illustrator, imported the image, drew the guidelines and the work began. naturally, i started changing things up rather quickly, crafting more dynamic shapes, but it's interesting how a brief moment from the past turned out to be an unexpected inspiration for the starting point of this artistic endeavor. "Rhein II" (1999) by a German visual artist Andreas Gursky.
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@califormetry
THE DETAILS ↙️ "THE LONE CYPRESS" (2023, commissioned by 17MILE) marked a milestone in my journey to define vector hyperrealism, featuring 32k hand-drawn elements. half a year later, ↘️ "PIRATE TOWER" (2024, commissioned by James J) hit a new record of 37k. and now, "THE GOLDEN STATE" got to the frontier I'd never thought was possible -- 77 832 elements, drawn by hand, in Adobe Illustrator.
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THE DEVIL with that extreme amount of details, the workflow became so slow that i had to split the project into two files to keep going. when you work on a piece every day long enough, you stop thinking about the finish line. it becomes just something you do. so finishing it really feels like closing a chapter. like moving to a new apartment. surreal. now, looking at the skeleton fills me with pride. and anxiety. but mostly pride.
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THE CLOSE-UPS when the piece is minted, i encourage you to open the original file, zoom in and get lost in the details. it's been quite a journey. can't wait for what's next. much love, Cal
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