Friday, March 05, 2010

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland concept art: Bandersnatch



Bandersnatch by Bobby Chiu and Jason SEILER


The long awaited release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland opens today. This was my first time doing any kind of character design for a film, it was a ton of fun to work on and I hope to do it again. I worked with my good friend Bobby Chiu at Imaginism Studios, he did many of the designs and sketches and I then took his sketches and ran with it.

Bobby had done a couple other versions of the Bandersnatch which I thought were pretty cool, but this time around, they wanted to see something a bit more vicious . . . so my instructions from Bobby were to make this thing freaky as all get out. I used all sorts of references, from bears to sharks, even took pictures of myself making crazy faces. I painted him with fur because in Bobby's earlier versions he had fur . . . funny thing is, after sharing this painting of mine with Bobby he loved it but said that they wanted to see a "hairless" version! No big deal, that's part of the gig, so I did a second painting, seen below, this time "hairless" . . . turns out they liked my first version much more and what is seen in the film is rather close to that design, and it is AMAZING seeing it in action on screen . . . very cool.






So here is my second painting of the Bandersnatch. This time around, I painted him "hairless" as suggested, but I also felt like re-working the mouth and face a bit more, trying to think of the animators who are going to have to make this thing live and breath on screen. So I spent some time researching different animals and their mouths and teeth . . . just enough to get a better feel for what I was trying to achieve. I like this version as well, but personally I prefer my first painting over this one, it's much more ferocious, and as said above, they ended up going with the furry version in the end.

I have more concept art from the film to share, so check back on Monday to see more!




Bobby's initial sketch.

I would like to thank Bobby for thinking of me for this job, it was a lot of fun and an honor to work with my friends on this, I'm hungry for more, I really enjoyed working on these pieces . . . anyways, a big shout out to Bobby and Kei for their amazing work on the film!!

15 Comments:

Blogger Neil Davies said...

That's awesome stuff Jason, I love movie concept artwork and I've got tons of books from all sorts of movies. Dream job! :)

8:49 AM  
Blogger Scribbler said...

outstanding work man! you must work 24/7!

9:07 AM  
Blogger Eugen Caitaz said...

Good Artwork!! You make this crazy bear, specialy for Tim Burton's movie???

9:15 AM  
Anonymous Tom Perkins said...

The art looks great, to bad the movie is a flop.

3:00 PM  
Blogger Aaron Wilkin said...

Hey man, great job on those concepts!!!! I just the film, and I gotta say that bandersnatch is badass!!

3:17 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

-O.o-

Just fantastic !

7:32 PM  
Anonymous Esz said...

It's fantastic to see the concept art coming out for this film - and it would have been so amazing to work on it!
The bandersnatch sure is a scary beastie (cant wait to see it 'live' on film).

11:39 PM  
Blogger DeJarnette Designs said...

Congratulations to you, Bobby and Kei!

1:12 AM  
Blogger Jubhubmubfub said...

Awesome job Jason.

10:58 AM  
Blogger Jonathan said...

Amazing Jason, I can see you venturing off in this field. Can't wait to see more! Congrats man.

8:37 PM  
Blogger William K. Moore said...

No question about which one rules (in my mind). Very cool hybrid - most likely low MPG but makes up for it in the roomy "kick ass" department. Let's see those guys wire frame it now and make it rumble!

10:07 AM  
Blogger Jparked said...

absolutely stunning work! I love all your posts..


Well be back for more.

best

Jp

2:20 AM  
Blogger Leighton Johns said...

Excellent work! Saw the film this weekend, the Bandersnatch was one of the stand out features of the movie for me.

8:47 AM  
Anonymous Shiny said...

I hope you get more gigs like this.
your painting skills are def movieworthy.
Go chase it!

10:20 AM  
Blogger turcios curriculum said...

OHHHHH FANTASTIC MONSTER!

1:07 PM  

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All artwork © JasonSeiler 2006 unless otherwise stated. All characters are copyright to their respective owners