Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland concept art: Tweedles

This is another character that I worked on with my friend Bobby Chiu. Bobby did the initial sketch of the Tweedle shape and proportions and then passed it onto me to do my thing. I had a lot of fun working on this creepy little boy. I had an image in mind before I began to paint, so I found some references to help me reach what I was going for, but also took a bunch of pictures of my oldest daughter Isabeau in various lighting. I've attached some of my references below.

The twin girls from "The Shining" were an influence as was the obese man in the movie "Seven". I was in a park with my daughter Isabeau and was inspired by a couple kids that I saw playing. The skin on their forehead was so transparent that you could see these blue veins and it was so cool . . . I couldn't wait to get back to my studio to finish my Tweedle painting. That little detail was exactly what I was looking for. To finish it off I added a bit of the forest floor at his feet, to tie everything together.

My goal with all the concept art that I worked on was to try and capture a "feeling" something that would hopefully translate well into film. I was pleased to see these details were not lost along the way, that they made it into the film.




Detail of face.



Our revision after feedback from Burton.





One of the many pictures I took of Isabeau for lighting and expression reference . . . she was only 4 at the time, but what a fantastic model she was. She made all sorts of faces for me to work with, she was great!




One of my references for the veins.




Hand reference.





Reference for body frame and so forth.



Face reference.




This picture was taken at the "Curiouser & Curiouser" show at Gallery Nucleus in L.A. A small sculpt created of a Tweedle for the film.