The Blue Door - Concept art

An early Halloween post - concept art produced for Horror short The Blue Door (2017).

Witch attack concepts

Another couple of pieces related to the Witch Pitch character designs in the previous post. The above were initial sketches for concept art showing the coven attacking a music festival . We see them circling the festival site from above then getting stuck into the festival goers. Seems I couldn't pass up a chance to throw a dash of red in there just to highlight the evisceration and decapitation in the background. The whole idea of 'Witches go to music festival - chaos ensues' was the brainchild of Chris Hayward and Nat Saunders.

Witch designs

Character designs for a Coven of witches. Produced some time ago for a film pitch.

Unholy Trinity

Something for Halloween. Sort of inspired by Stephen King's musings in Danse Macabre on the progenitors of modern horror - Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Blue Door - Horror Short

Anyone out there able to help this very creepy short Horror film onto screens? I did some initial concept sketches (above) for the writers last year, and now I really want to see the finished thing. Filming is completed with Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones, Moorside) in the lead, but a little extra money is needed for post production. If you think you can help please visit their kickstarter page.
Thanks
L

The Grand Tour

Initial sketches I worked on last year for the planning of a worldwide PR stunt for Amazon Prime's motoring show The Grand Tour. It was fun to work on and was supposed to be light-hearted, but some didn't see the funny side, as this Guardian article makes clear. In hindsight they probably have a point, car crashes aren't that much fun in real life.

I like the article's quote from Gary Rae, from road safety charity Brake "...car worship is dated and misplaced." I wish I could get my four year old son to agree with that... we might be able able to curb his addiction to Hot Wheels cars!

Every Quiet Moment - Concept Sketches

Pre-production sketches illustrating key scenes for short film Every Quiet Moment (2014).

Ruby's Skin - concept art

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to post anything, so here's the start of an overdue update. Last year I was asked to provide some concept art for the steampunk tinged short film Ruby's Skin. and now with the film having done the rounds of the festivals, I'm able to show some of the spoilerish artwork.

The story, set in 1865, follows 17 years old Ruby as she accompanies her inventor father to the grand opening of the first hydraulic lift in Europe at a London Hotel.  Whilst there she uncovers the secret of who, or what, she is.

The above colour visual was interesting to work on. This was to be the big finale with Ruby stepping from the shadows into the light of a victorian gas lamp allowing us to see what really lay beneath her skin.

The script later changed to have Ruby fleeing the hotel wearing a coat to disguise her secret and so a coat was added on separate layer on the original artwork.

The story was to change yet again however, with the revelation now happening within the confines of the hotel itself. I really enjoyed being pushed to rethink and then rework this image, you can easily get too precious about even rough visuals once you label them 'finished'.

The film was written and directed by the brilliant Claire Tailyour, and stars Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel, The Quiet Ones) as Ruby. Below are some images from the finished film, including the final version of Ruby's revelation.

The Other Woman - designing Abigail Hardwoode

My initial sketches for the look of The Other Woman's heroine Abigail Hardwoode, following a description from author Graham Thomas. The Other Woman is available now here for kindle or in paperback.

Monster Park - character design

Here's some character development from a little while  ago for the Monster Park animation project. Initially I was asked to work on some illustrations and storyboards to help give a flavour of key episodes for the BBC who were looking at developing the series at the time. I was soon asked to help redesign the main monster character - Typhoon. The producers felt he was looking a bit too 'Swamp Thing' like and wanted to make him a little more heroic/realistic and perhaps give him some Samurai style armour and weapons, though made out of vegetation.

My first stab at the character (above, and head detail below) turned out to be just too detailed and realistic for the style of animation they were going to use. It helped with generating a lot of ideas that could then be adapted to the house style however.

Below are a couple of quick attempts at simplifying the character

even going so far as removing his mouth apparently...

At some point it was suggested we make him more of a traditional English green man/Robin Hood figure and give him a hood formed out of his own foliage.

We then had to try and steer him away from being too human, and back towards hulking monster.

My favorite incarnation (below) was the one used for some promotional material.

Cartoon concept art

Here's some concept art I did for a fantastic Cartoon series in development at Studio Cheese. This was used in a brochure/presentation pack to help sell the idea. Monsters, Aliens, Evil geniuses... how difficult can it be to sell that?