This week in class we studied tone and value by creating props for our animated worlds. As my groups world takes place inside a Bar for monsters, I chose to draw and study a skull and a headstone as I thought it would be considered appropriate decoration for a club frequented by Dracula.

I’ll be honest, I struggled with this task as shading is not my strong suit. I found it difficult to figure where the shadows would be placed without looking at the reference image. But the more I practised the easier it got for me (though, I still think I could do better)

For homework, we had to then create atmospheric thumbnails using what we learned in class and for this I knew I wanted my thumbnails to highly contrast each other. For my first thumbnail, I drew the entrance to the bar which was inside a crypt in a graveyard (an idea which we later scrapped). I wanted the entrance to be bright, showing the vibrant atmosphere from the bar below while still giving off that eerie ghostly glow. I feel I did this pretty well and this is my favourite out of the two.

Next, I drew a dark stairway that would lead down into the bar. Here I relied heavily on dark tones because I wanted to convey a feeling of unknowing which fit perfectly with the vibe we wanted the beginning of our short to convey – dark, spooky, thriller before revealing the lively, jazzy atmosphere of the bar.

I’m happy with these thumbnails because they helped me to flesh out the atmosphere of our world using tone and value.

-Orlaigh