Art Director
- Éiru, 2025, directed by Giovanna Ferrari -
When the water mysteriously disappears from the well in a warrior clan's village, an intrepid child descends into the belly of the earth to retrieve it. Éiru is the story of a child in search of a challenge, and a goddess in search of a champion.
I worked closely with Giovanna Ferrari, writer and director of Cartoon Saloon's latest short film. The film was made by a very small team of brilliant artists with a quick turnaround. My role as art director invloved creating concept images to help define the visual style of the film, creating colour scripts and overseeing the Layout, Ink & Paint, FX and compositing departments. I also completed all of the backgrounds for the 13 minute short based on Layouts by Antonia (Toni) Yordanova.
The backgrounds are a combination of digital ink linework and bespoke traditional artwork created for each background in both ink and charcoal. Colour and lighting was added digitally.
Other roles on the project include:
- Working closely with the supervisors of each department to communicate the film's visual style.
- Briefing new sequences with supervisors.
- Creating colour models for all characters and props.
- Providing 'mock stills' to guide the compositing artist towards final picture.
Colour Script
Colour was an important tool used in the the storytelling of Éiru. The distinct palette of each clan was important to build the tension between them throughout the film and are key to the ending when the children from each clan meet.
The blue of the water and the healthy mycelium in contrast with the damaged red mycelium were a visual motif used throughout to describe the damage and destruction of nature.
Backgrounds
I completed all of the backgrounds for the 13 minute short based on Layouts by Antonia (Toni) Yordanova. Most of the Mycelium backgrounds required variations on the lighting and colour for the compositing artist to transition between.
The backgrounds use a mixture of traditional ink and charcoal with colour and details added digitally.