My Father's Dragon
Concept Artist
Client : Cartoon Saloon
Director : Nora Twomey
Role : Concept Art
Worked with director Nora Twomey and the design department as Scene Illustration Artist and Concept Artist for Netflix feature film "My Father's Dragon", from the 5 times Oscar's Academy nominated studio Cartoon Saloon.
I helped define the style, design some locations and the traditional technique. Here you can see a selection of some of the Concepts I developed.
All artwork copyright by Cartoon Saloon & Netflix.
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DESIGNING NEVERGREEN
THE OPRESSIVE CITY
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Nevergeeen was an overwhelming reality for Elmer and he looks for safety. For that, I explored a scary and imposing city, where the immediate space close to Elmer is 3d and has volume, but the BG becomes a tapestry, oppressive tangents, no perspective. A city as a tall wall that surrounds you always when you are in the streets. You never see the sky, just endless buildings towering on top of you.
Mood, always rainy and uninviting, uncomfortable. Limits movement. You are trapped inside.
By contrast, I explored how to create places clean and glowy, inviting Elmer to feel safe and in control of his environment. The window area with his little toys was a great way to create this.
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WILD ISLAND
PAINTING LIKE A CHILD
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"...a lifetime to paint like a kid”. We unlearnt how to draw to create Wild Island, to express like kids do, to create a jungle drawn in the imagination of Elmer.
Getting dirty, mixing techniques and letting go, exploring animal/insect/plants, a living, breathing forest, where nothing is what it seems and everything has teeth.
The Path to the Summit was a first confusing encounter with a new dimension, Elmer is lost in a world of naive shapes and deceiving plant patterns.
CONCEPT DESIGN
DESIGNING THEIR DAY TO DAY
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Daily objects. Even in the smallest objects I tried to follow the personality of their characters, like in Elmer’s toys, and bring forth the tone of the piece.
MAIN DESIGN IDEAS
