Feb 2025 | Concept art and Coffee Chats

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My name is Saachi and today is February 28th; I’m 10 months into a 12-month sabbatical. If you’re new here, I’m taking a break from work - data viz analytics for a financial institution - to focus on a research and communication design project. The original three objectives of this project were to: 

1. Understand the current sustainability of urban waterfronts and their future potential to address food insecurity at a community level
2. Upskill in communication, data visualization, coding, and 3D modelling
3. Combine points 1 and 2 into a visual portfolio that doubles as speculative fiction about sustainability on an urban lakefront and four shared meals

Since last month, I’ve completed, as best I can with a restricted timeline, objectives 1 and 2. Objective 3 is now modified- my visual portfolio is no longer tied to my research and communication design project. Instead, it is an interactive CV/article with a mini-game that you can view here: 

https://about-me-saachi-sadchas-projects.vercel.app/

This month, I focused on the following:

1. Simplify ‘WateryTrees’, the aforementioned project
2. Learn about the type of art I want to make for this project
3. Stop being an absolute hermit

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag 

Recently, I saw a trailer for the upcoming film, ‘The Electric State’. I had no idea what this film was but the cinematography, the art style, and the decrepit robots spoke to me. I dug a bit further and found out that this movie is an adaptation of an illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, who is an amazing artist and storyteller from Sweden.  

Page 94 and 124-125 from 'The Electric State', by Simon Stålenhag

I went to the nearest bookstore and bought the original book.  Flipping through the pages and reading this lonely, dystopian, beautiful tale accompanied by the large digital paintings made me realize how powerful speculative fiction is when presented in this format. It made me think about how I might better tell my own story, WateryTrees. 

WateryTrees is a speculative tale about solving food insecurity in a Great Lakes city that resembles Toronto - one of three cities in Ontario that recently declared food insecurity an emergency:

What might happen if we engineered common technology and the local environment to address food insecurity? What might the city look like 20 years later? Could the lives of citizens who previously experienced food insecurity improve in this scenario? These are questions I’ve been grappling with for the last ten months. I also wasn’t sure how to present what I had learned in a clear and engaging way, beyond it being a fictional “what-if” story.

After reading the Electric State, and working on the About Me page last month, I realized I’m still trying to squish in everything I’ve learned; I need to stop that and rather keep things as simple as possible. Both for the enjoyment of myself and any potential readers. So I restarted WateryTrees using a fresh template and workflow I created in the past months, with the intention to include one simple speculative short story, detailed concept art, and some interactive data viz and 3D models. 

Images of renders by Saachi Sadcha, to be removed 😩

This has meant removing  most of what I’ve built - and written - over this year. Surprisingly, I’m not cut up about it because this sabbatical is largely about taking the time to think, learn, and make mistakes in a safe place; learning when and how to remove content and pivot to a simpler build is a worthwhile skill, I guess. Plus digital assets are easy to archive for future projects, so nothing is truly wasted. 

But since I don’t want to continue generating art that takes forever to make but that I might not use, I spent half my days this month just writing the short story. I want to have the story - or the foundation - as finished as possible before I add any art, data viz, or interactive components. I must have made six drafts this month at least, and I’m still not done editing. 

Although there’s nothing but text, if you’d like to view the current work-in-progress for WateryTrees, please use this link or the image link above, which should work on any device:  

When I wasn’t writing, I spent my time thinking and learning about concept art. I’ve mentioned this before, but when I sculpt or paint, I usually tuck myself into a corner with my iPad and make whatever I feel like in Nomad or Procreate for an hour. Usually, I make food-related objects, light them simply, and don’t bother with the background.  

Renders I made in January and February. There’s no purpose behind these pieces, I’m just trying to unwind. 

But I would like to learn how to make the type of concept art that Simon Stalenhag, or other artists and studios I’ve been following for years, make. For example, these pieces are from two of my favourite artists; I could just gaze at them for hours:

I also collect, via purchase or gifts, art books that showcase amazing renders and walk through the thinking and process behind the art. 

All of this amazing artwork emphasize story, depth, and life. The focal areas are specific and clear, and the backgrounds are suggestive enough to make the viewer want to pause and make up their own story.  

Long story short, I want to learn how to make large renders that tell a story. Sadly, unlike when I was learning React and CSS, I was unable to find one specific (and affordable) course that could help me. But there is a lot of free advice from artists everywhere.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I started to think about life after this sabbatical ends officially in May. This meant that I had to cease being a self-imposed hermit and start seeking advice about my career. So I sent out requests for coffee chats this month. I won’t go into any details on these chats; I just want to say I’m immensely grateful to the people who took time out of their busy schedules to talk with me. 

Speaking with these folks in an informal setting helped me step a bit outside this bubble I’ve been in for the last 10 months. I got to find out how they were doing and what they were working on, shared a bit of how I was doing and what I had built, and received seriously important advice and information. ‘12 outta 10’, would recommend. 

I suspect March will be much like February, but with hopefully less of a 'snowmageddon' outside, and less nausea over the news.  I can’t pretend that recent politics hasn’t shifted my plans a bit, but I fully intend to continue getting career advice from people who know better, to keep making art that makes me happy, and to continue speculating about a food-secure future.  

Thank you kindly and see you in a month, 

Saachi