Monday, June 27, 2011

The Wind In The Willows

"Mole"



"Ratty"


My home computer has been out of commission for a while so I haven't been able to update as much as I would like. However, the work still goes on. All of my work for Whip Crack Away is done. We showcased it in the Academy of Art Spring Show and I even won a little "excellent" award for it. Showing it was definitely the cherry on top! We got a ton of positive response from peers and co-workers as well as industry folk who came by to check out our work.

So now that my part on the short is over, I've begun to focus on some personal projects. I revisited some OZ stuff and also started sketches for a couple of other books I love. One is The BFG by Roald Dahl and the other of course is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

BFG will be a lot of fun since it's not been interpreted much. The only thing I have to go by are Dahl's well drawn character descriptions. Willows is a different story. Its been interpreted so many times both in Illustration and Animation. Rankin Bass even did a version back in the day. My favorite animated version is the stop-motion film made by Cosgrove Hall for Thames Television back in 1983. Personally I think it is the closest to retaining the pastoral and cozy feeling of Grahame's book. Weta is currently working on a "darker" version of the story... I don't have much to say about that, but I'm sure Mole would say, "Hang darker versions!"

Until next time, take care!

2 comments:

  1. That mole can rock a tweed jacket, that's for damn sure.

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  2. Haha! In the book its actually a Black Velvet smoking jacket. That is what I intended, but when designing the character I wanted to put more focus on the face and overall shape. Adding black would distract from that. I'm sure somewhere in his wardrobe he has a tweed jacket that he rocks for boating.

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