The Art of Levare: Stage 1

A sample of the artwork in the “Restricted Gallery”

We’re closing the door on the concept art stage of production, which is an important milestone, and an exciting position to be in!

We began producing concept art for Levare back in 2012, working with the very talented artist and art director, Nathan Geppert. He started with the environment, Valle della Vita, before moving on to the protagonist, Valentino. This was a fun process, and we hope to share an animated evolution of Valentino’s design in the near future.

We hit a bump in the road in 2014 and had to stop producing concept art, but not without completing Libitina, and preliminary ideas for Alida and Aurora. While we had a script, we didn’t know exactly what we needed Alida or Aurora to be. This would only start to become clear during the production of the animatic.

In 2023, when we’d completed the animatic, we recommenced producing concept art. Nathan Geppert returned, now through Shapeshifter Concepts, and with the help of concept artists Viola Insolia and Valentyn Soroka. This time, we were able to establish the look of both Alida and Aurora.

We also produced an initial colour script, working with the very talented artist Liuda Neznakhina. Using the animatic, she established the mood and tone throughout the film using colour and light.

We hit another bump in the road in 2024 and had to stop producing concept art yet again, but not without completing a preliminary idea for the set, which served as a good placeholder to use in our pitch deck.

In 2025, we recommenced producing concept art and endeavoured to complete everything we needed, working with architect and art director Giacomo Tappainer. He established the design of four key parts of the set, bringing the concept art stage of production to a close, at last!

You’ll find more artwork in the gallery on this page, and if you’re interested in seeing the development of some of it, you can access the “Restricted Gallery” with the password g3m5t0n3.

This collection of artwork represents the fundamental art direction of Levare, and we’re thrilled with the result. As beautiful as it is, and as close as it represents the “look and feel” of the film, there’s still much to be done before production can commence. The characters, set and environment all need to be revised and designed in detail with careful consideration of what’s needed (and what’s not needed) for production, and that’s a big job!