Art Director

- My Father's Dragon, 2022, directed by Nora Twomey -



I worked closely with director Nora Twomey on Cartoon Saloon's feature film, My Father's Dragon, for Netflix. Joining the team as the project was entering the production phase, my first priority was to unify the artwork that had been done up to that point and establish a cohesive visual style for the film. I oversaw all the design departments; location, character and prop design, layout, scene prep, backgrounds, Moho (rigged animation department) clean-up, tonals, FX, ink & paint and compositing and saw the project through until final colour grade with Company 3 in Los Angeles.

Other roles on the project include:

  • Collaborating closely with the Assistant Art Director who created the background colour keys and visual reference for the artists. Together we created an in-depth Art Direction document as the majority of this production was done during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
  • Working closely with the supervisors of each department to communicate the style, provide reference, drawovers and painting demos in order to guide their teams remotely.
  • Briefing new sequences with supervisors and their teams.
  • Providing colour models for all characters. This project had a complex line style and character texturing which required close collaboration with the ink & paint supervisor and the compositing leads.
  • Providing visual reference for the Dream Sequence, an abstract section of the film which has a distinct shift in design and visual treatment.
  • Providing compositing 'mock stills' to guide the artists towards the final look. 
  • Providing reference for the film titles.
  • Selecting material for the 'Art Of' book as well as creating the cover design.

Promotional Artwork