If you go down to the woods today ...

... you're sure for a big surprise.

Looking forward to tomorrow (technically speaking, later today, but after I've slept). If the rain holds off then I've got a day of woodland photography ahead of me. I want to give the trees I've drawn some texture so I'm going to go hunting for reference material. No excuse not to, considering as I live in Nottinghamshire.

Here's a piece from some of the design work I've been doing today. Click on the image for a larger view.

I am also including three pages of thumbnails from The Red Book. It's part of a rough storyboard for the film and covers only the opening segment (part of which is going to serve a section of the trailer I'll be putting together). My thumbnails are very shorthand and I often find people can't read them. But that's okay because at this point it doesn't matter that nobody else understands them. The important thing is that I understand them, and for the most part I do.

Thumbnail boarding is a lot of fun. It's the cheapest part of the production and so long as you can understand the shorthand, it's quickest way to see the film before anyone else does. I often film thumbnails just to get a feel for the pace of a film. At storyboard stage I'll post a comparrison between thumbnails and boards so you can see how storyboards make sense of all the crazy talk.

May add some photographs from my woodland expedition later tomorrow (technically today) to this post ... but that largely depends on the weather. Good old British weather. Ya gotta love it.

Update: Managed to get out and do a fair bit of reference hunting today!

Didn't need to travel far (walking distance from my house). The rain held off after all and the sunlight coming through the leafy canopy really was quite something. Added bonus: I managed to find some gorgeous ornate rooftops; inspiration for some of the buildings that appear in Grimmwood.

As background artists go, one of my favourites is Maurice Noble. I've always loved his work on Snow White. Such attention to detail. Truly astounding and deeply evocative. So, with Snow White in mind, I went out today with a mission; to find interesting natural shapes. Twisted branches jutting out at angles, tree trunks shrouded in leaves, knotted roots bursting through the undergrowth. The woods gave all these up in abundance. So I have plenty to work with now. In all, a good day and the sun's still shining.

Grimmwood and all production work is © 2006, Ian Culbard, All rights Reserved.