This started out as a 3D model of an ordinary corner in Greenwich Village – I do architectural visualisation for a living and love New York architecture – but inevitably it became something more comic-focussed. I wanted this to be in a more simplified, cartoony style – like something out of a Pixar movie.
I’ve never liked the way the Sanctum Sanctorum looks in the MCU – it’s too ornate and too big, and it doesn’t really fit in with Greenwich Village architecture, so I simplified my version of the Sanctum. They did pick the perfect location though, which is 282 West 12th Street (177 Bleecker Street isn’t a corner plot in real life, and the Sanctum has always been shown on a street corner.) There’s a café opposite which in real life is called Café Cluny, so I copied that but I decided to make it the coffee shop that Hank and Bobby used to hang out at in the early days of the X-Men.
The Doc is painted digitally, but the spirits are 3D models, based on the Ditko story where Mordo sends a bunch of astral thugs to hunt Doctor Strange down.
