When I was eight years old and growing up in communist Sofia, my teacher told my mother that I had no artistic talent, but she was going to give me an ‘A’ because I tried so hard in painting class. Out of sheer stubbornness I kept drawing every day and fell in love with the sound of a 2B pencil on a school textbook page. Soon that pencil became an extension of my dreams, and in college those dreams transformed into set designs.
Every movie has its own particular challenges and artistic needs, so my role as a production designer is to communicate to the audience the director’s vision. Maybe because English is my second language, I find words slippery and I rely on my drawings to best express my ideas. To do that I start drawing on a piece of vellum, and I play with light, space and proportions. I draw fast to avoid over-thinking, and as the pencil moves rhythmically, the design ideas crystallize.
I lose myself in the process, which is now controlled by intuition and passion. My research plays an important part of the overall design; yet sometimes the end result surprises me because it’s different from what I intended to do at the start of my drawing. I also try to change my drawing style depending on the subject matter or genre, in order to capture the mood of the story.
Drawing and finished set from The Conspirator
Drawings and stills from Gray Gardens (2009)
The second sample is a color sketch from the HBO movie Grey Gradens. I wanted to capture the bohemian, carefree style of Big and Little Eddie, as well as the 1930s period décor. During the creative process, the director, Michael Sucsy, and I decided to eliminate the flower wallpaper, and let the fabrics’ patterns be the accent. I love that my drawings are not set in stone, and that they are just one piece of the puzzle we call production design. This is an example of how my drawings are not set in stone; they are only the beginning of the design journey.
Ardham Lodge from Lovecraft Country
