Andrei Riabovitchev

Your images often function as preconditions for narrative rather than its culmination; to what extent do you understand the concept drawing as an indexical trace of a film that does not yet exist, and does this anticipatory status destabilize traditional distinctions between sketch, study, and finished work?
Yes, very often concept art exists before the story fully exists. Sometimes a single image can create a feeling that later becomes part of the narrative itself. For me, that is one of the most exciting parts of concept art — you are not only illustrating a film, you are helping discover it. I have had moments where a loose sketch or atmosphere painting suddenly opened an emotional direction for an entire sequence or world.