I recently created the pitch art for the A&E adaptation of "The Red Tent" novel by Anita Diamant. With a period story like this, I used costume reference that the AD shared with me. I gained some design inspiration from movies like Lawrence of Arabia and used specific colors to indicate the emotional content of each sequence.
For example, I wanted the tent interiors to be dominated by warm earth tones to represent the safety of the women's gathering place. I painted over a red backdrop for the violent shots, and contrasted the colorful costume of the queen against the drab robe of the subjected heroine.
Unlike visual development and concept art created for a green-lit production, most "pitch art" I've developed has a relatively fast turnaround time. In this instance, I work as quickly as possible on the roughs, submitting them for sign off, and producing the finished art immediately upon approval. It was more than a solid week's worth, as opposed to months of work producing images for bigger productions.
My entire process for The Red Tent generated many more images than shown here, but these frames were some of my favorites.
