For some time I've been toying with the idea of telling my own elephant story, but in picture book form. Anyone following my art will know I like to draw elephants, so this is not my first idea to feature elephants. I've gone on to write a short story about a family of elephants. It's only a first draft, and needs a ton of polishing.
This is where the illustrations below fit in. In the first one the young elephant is separated from his family by lava. In the second he discovers his father in a grim state. Character designs are not completely resolved yet, so there's still some consistency issues. Think of these as 'concept' illustrations.
It was natural to study the beautiful storyboards Bill Peet made for the animated classic Dumbo. I wanted to try and come close to that film's masterful handling of emotions, and combine this with some of the epic landscape imagery I was seeing in my imagination. It was a very tall order, but this side project was only ever meant to be something to hone my illustration / storytelling craft. As is often the case, my ideas for personal project tend to be overly ambitious. So whether I actually make the thing is yet to be decided.
As it turns out Dumbo the animated film is being remade, so I've perhaps unwittingly tapped into the zeitgeist. I suppose it was only a matter of time before that masterpiece of animation was remade!
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| The first illustration to characterise the elephants |
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| A value study and the finished illustration |
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| The rendering was built up in many passes |
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| Finally I combined a single black watercolour pigment |
I hope you enjoyed this update. Feel free to leave any thoughts, comments, or questions below.
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