What Lies Beneath - Drawing from Film Story Exercise

Last year I posted some pages fo this story exercise I was working on. It was an exercise from Emma Coats: board out an entire feature film to study the inner workings of cinema. It took me more than a year but I finally completed this sucker! 

Here it is, 41 pages. As you can see I began to work larger and more detailed as I went along. I had a lot of fun with this thing and intend to start out on a new film soon. 

California Sketches

This week I returned home from a 4 1/2 week vacation in California. I hadn't been away for such a long time in more than 10 years! It was also my first time in the US. We had a great time, I've seen so many wonderful things, visited amazing places and met the greatest people.

Normally I do quite a bit of sketching when I'm on vacation but this time there was so mcuh to do that I hardly had the time to sit down and draw.

And some sketches from the awesome San Diego Zoo:

Wiplala - Pigeon Flight

Another sequence I did to boost-up my portfolio. This one is based on a chapter from Wiplala, a children's book by legendary Dutch writer Annie M.G. Schmidt. For my designs I used Philip Hopman's amazing illustrations (from the 39th edition, published in 2008) as inspiration.

The Blom family (the father, known only as Mister Blom, daughter Nelly and her young brother Joe) find a small, elfish guy in their house. This character called 'Wiplala' has been abandoned by his friends because he can't control his magic and keeps causing problems. Together they encounter some wonderful adventures.

This sequence happens after Wiplala shrinks the family to his own size in a (succesful) attempt to save them from a dangerous situation. Unfortunately he can't remember how to get them back to their original size afterwards. At the beginning of this sequence they find themselves stuck in their own back yard, where Wiplala gets them a ride from a local pigeon.

The pigeon's flight over Amsterdam is geographically correct, we see them fly over the Rijksmuseum, passing the American Hotel at the Leidseplein before they end up at the Royal palace at Dam Square (Or the Dam, as it's known by Amsterdammers). 

I adapted this chapter to a screenplay format, translating, adding and adjusting dialog and drew this sequence in five days.

Digital storyboard with Photoshop.

As before, click on the first image to view the whole sequence in the lightbox picture viewer. You can move through it by clicking the panels or using the arrow keys on your keyboard.