Warning: Barrage of words coming up! Scroll down for arty stuff :)
At the beginning of the year I embarked on a big personal project to work on in between freelance gigs, that in the process will hopefully form my new portfolio in time for CTNX. As part of my 'Audacious Accomplishment', that I'm completing with the guidance of Chris Oatley, I aim to produce a visual development portfolio and redesign an established film in a completely different world.
After many film nights and reading around, I settled on ‘The Sword in the Stone’. A film I haven’t watched since I was tiny, I revisited it after reading up on my Arthurian tales and thinking ‘hey, old legends and stories would be a great basis for this project!’ I'm referring to the 1963 Disney version. I also watched ‘Excalibur’ but I found it a far more complex explanation of the story, i‘d like to keep things relatively simple (story wise) for this project. I don’t fancy having to tackle all of Merlin’s history! I'm going to set the story on a Polynesian island, Merlin is a witch doctor and the kingdom rules over a tropical island…much different to England. Archimedes will be a more exotic bird and Arthur will be a small tribal boy.
I don’t intend to change the story beyond very small details. I’m no writer; the sword is still a sword and it’s still stuck in a stone. I love the focus on Merlin’s journey with Arthur and his lessons. I think Archimedes is a brilliant character, he is perfect as an owl but I’d find it a fun challenge to redesign him. Merlin, the eccentric witch doctor would be great fun too. I really feel more could be made of Madame Mim, I’d be tempted to make her more of a darker villain character and really add some more drama to her duel with Merlin.
Onto some artwork! I won't post all of my development work here, just final designs. So here's Merlin - the eccentric witchdoctor.
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