london cityscape drawn on a human canvas

a still from ‘london – I dream in colour’ music video by emily+tom, illustrated by cat roissiter, 2012 all images courtesy the artists

a music video has been imagined by UK creatives emily+tom and cat roissiter to be a real-time illustration of the life and architecture typical to london drawn on the torso of an unknown man. the massive illustration-on-skin by roissiter depicts the city of london as directed by emily+tom (tom webber and emily cussins) for the band I dream in colour’s new single ‘london’. the film starts with several close-range shots picturing the torso, jaw and arms of a faceless man. as the music short progresses, the drawings of roissiter begin to cover the skin of this unknown person. the infrastructure and city life of the UK metropolis take shape from the naturally occurring imperfections in the model’s flesh such as his nipple, birthmarks and moles. it is only in the last few moments of the video that the viewer may see the great expanse of roissiter’s flesh-canvas composition. the film was captured in one afternoon using solely a red EPIC camera, black gel pen, watercolor with brush and thick permanent marker.

‘london – I dream in colour’ by emily+tom, illustrated by cat roissiter uploaded by tom webber 

wide view of the piece in full

a detailed perspective of a figure form the body-mural

the artist used gel pen to create fine lines and watercolor to add greater depth to her on-skin illustrations

a scene formed from watercolor and gel pen

several figures whom the artist sees as typical to london life decorate the torso of the model

roissiter slowly highlights the form of a bar piano player with a permanent marker

project info: track: london by I dream in colour director: emily+tom DoP: mark nutkins , will hanke producer: mark hopkins illustrator: cat roissiter make up: amber pitkin editor: chris roebuck at speade colourist: james tillet at MPC

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