New Town.

Pencil. Copyright Dreamworks.

Rough Town.

Pencil Sketch. Copyright Dreamworks.

Long Pan.

Acrylic Sketch. Copyright Dreamworks.

Bridge.

Acrylic Sketches. Copyright Dreamworks.

Thumbnails.

Acrylic Thumbnails. Copyright Dreamworks.

Tilt.

Gouache on Photocopy. Copyright Dreamworks.

Town.

Pencil Sketch / Gouache on B&W Photocopy. Copyright Dreamworks.

Toil.

Pencil Sketches. Copyright Dreamworks.

Smokestacks.

Gouache over Photocopy. Copyright Dreamworks.

More Industrial.

Pencil Drawing. Copyrights Dreamworks.

Gold Rush.

The next forty (more or less) posts will show some of the work I did for a sequence that was entirely cut from the movie. At this lowest point in our hero's journey, he was to be put to work in a mine, litterally buried alive. Very dramatic. Unfortunately, after many attempts by the story department (including Ronnie del Carmen, Simon Wells and Larry Leker among others) to make it work, it was decided the tone was too dark and the logistics of the necessary escape too contrived... so it was scrapped.


Gouache over Pen Drawing. Copyright Dreamworks.

Waterfall 3.

Pencil & Acrylic Sketches. Copyright Dreamworks.

Process.

Somebody recently ask me to explain my process in making these drawings and I was unable to provide a very clear answer to that. It seems I have been unable to stick to a failsafe recipe when it comes to drawing and I am never sure if I'm going to pull it off on the first try or if I'm about to trudge through a dozen of half-baked versions, slowly building up to something I'm finally happy with (when it comes to that, I work on the light table). Both possibilities are equally likely although if I spend some time beforehand researching my subject and visualizing the picture I want to make, it usually helps.
Over a serie of drawing though, a refining and editing process takes place and it can be seen here with the waterfall design eventhough I posted the various stages out of order.
In this case, there were three main stages to the process: visual development, water design and shot specific production design.
Example of the first stage, are the posts: 'River', 'Going down' (top), 'Waterfall' (bottom), 'Waterfall 2'.
'Rapids 3' (bottom) and 'Going down' (bottom) were devoted to water design.
The others ('Rapids', 'Rapids 2' and 'Waterfall' top) are example of the final stage in which these explorations are used to design specific shots in the movie.
Cheers.

Waterfall 2.

Pencil Drawings. Copyright Dreamworks.

Waterfall.

Pencil Drawing & Acrylic Sketch. Copyright Dreamworks.

Going Down.

Pencil Drawings. Copyright Dreamworks.

Rapids 3.

Pencil Drawings. Copyright Dreamworks.

Rapids 2.

Pencil Drawings. Copyright Dreamworks.