Sounds Spooky
I was hired to do the illustration and design for a wonderful onomatopoeic picture-book text by Christopher Cheng. I needed to develop an engaging visual narrative and characters to give structure to the text, which built up a fun, suspenseful soundscape. I decided on sculptural illustrations, and built sets and characters from polymer clay and recycled materials. The final hyper-real images use photography, atmospheric lighting and digital effects to immerse children in the atmosphere of a haunted house. The book aims to thrill but not scare - the dark moody palette, crumbling textures and gothic detail are offset by appealing characters and spooky yet playful fonts.
The haunted house began life as a pile of cardboard boxes and masking tape. I didn't measure anything or plan it as I went along, because I wanted it to have that genuine rickety, wonky candidate-for-demolition look.
The ornate details were added with Sculpy, and then I plastered over the whole structure to strengthen and texture it, and give me a good surface for painting.
The underlying structure of the posable characters - aluminum armature wire strengthened with Sculpey.
Heads and hands modelled with Sculpey and painted with oils. They're removable and interchangeable - each character had about 8-9 heads, and 4-5 pairs of hands.
Making clothes - knitting mini-scarves!
Mattress made out of a tea-stained handkercihef and stuffed with grass from our garden.
Old clothes from the second-hand shop to be sacrificed and turned into the very latest in haunted house interior design fabrics.
Dining room scene ready to be photographed.