AD34 - The Timeline - The making of

Before I started my initial sketches I tried to draw up a mood board for characters faces and poses. Unfortunately I do not have an A3 scanner and had to result in taking a picture of it but you can make out most of the important information which is always good.
But either way I had started drawing facial expressions for the Grinch, Milo and his Monsters and the Jabberwock. I later decided that working on loose bits of paper and then digitally sketching final line work would present better on the screen so below I have made boards to show each image and it's sketches off.

I had already drawn Milo's face quite a lot from the first image and I had been a big fan of this film for a long time so when I came to making the small thumbnail sketch it just seemed to flow. Initially I wanted to add a few more of his monsters but I wanted to keep it all fairly uniform and did not want an anomaly. I ended up keeping him pretty much the same throughout the process although the creature on the bottom right hand side of the image eventually got moved further right as he was too close to the other monsters hand. Small changes for this one but it turned out really neat and polished.

Harry and the Terrible Whatzit was another that did not need much change. The original image was fairly simple in terms of colour palette and I wanted to emulate that with my own interpretation. The meaning behind this story was also straight forward and strong so the pose just came to me instantly, some digital tweaks here and there but that's all. In the book Harry has the mop and bucket helmet but I also decided to add a little wooden sword to complete the look.

Max and the Wild Things was maybe one of my favorites to do, not a lot of preliminary sketches, I just wanted to jump straight into a digital sketch after reading through the book and getting excited. He was one of the last ones that I had to illustrate so the ink was just flowing and I worked on a digital sketch until I eventually came up with the pose shown above. I wanted something playful on Max's behalf but something slightly intimidating for the Wild Thing. The Terrible yellow eyes blog really inspired me for this one, you can see some examples of the work below.

To see all of the Where the Wild Things Are posts click HERE!

Moving on

The Grinch was slightly harder because his relationship with Cindy-Lou is unique, he does not adore her yet he would not see any harm come to her, grumpy yet kind. There were a few more doodles for this one as I wanted to get the pose just right. I had him holding her in his arms like a present in one image but that felt too obsessive. I eventually went for a simple holding hands pose but Grinch is angled away slightly as to show that he isn't too interested on the matter whilst Cindy-Lou is gazing up at the Grinch, the bauble was just a little touch to add some context.

Boo and Sully were another awkward pair as I did not have an initial idea for how I would convey these two. I had Sully gently hugging her, I tried Boo climbing on his head and all kinds of father daughter interactions as that was the vibe I was getting from this pair. I also didn't know whether I wanted to draw Boo in her monster suit, I decided against it as I thought it should be really clear that she isn't a monster and is in fact a cute little girl.
Eventually I went for Boo on Sully's shoulders striking a 'scary' pose, Sully would humor Boo's attempt to be scary and look at her with a happy and content resting face.  Enjoyed this one quite a lot also, sometimes it is the simple poses that make the image really pop.

I have perhaps saved the best for last as the Jabberwock took the longest for me to get to grips with. I had watched the new Alice in Wonderland (2010) for my initial Jabberwock reference but I knew from the beginning that I would go down the traditional pathway where I would use Tenniel's original (1871) version. The two Jabberwock designs did change quite significantly, the new one looks more like a dragon where as the older one was more of a chimera, it had lots of different animals merged into one which was what  preferred.
In a way the older Jabberwock looked slightly more comical whilst still maintaining that intimidating feel which is what I wanted to capture for my illustration. The initial problem here was the beasts size, he is the biggest out of all the monsters I have drawn and I needed a way to illustrate him so that he would fit into the A3 scale I had given myself. I tried many different poses all of which had him lurking behind her with his long neck curling around so he could see her. I eventually went for the mid hover pose where her curls up and around to fill the space, he is then met by Alice pulling at his whiskers with one hand and her vorpal sword held in the other, she is confident and ready to fight.
The purple swirls and red glowing eyes were a little personal touch which made him look slightly more dangerous.


And below is the final timeline, complete with dates and authors. Apologies for the size it doesn't seem to want to go any bigger.