Peter and the Wolf
Visual Development · Character Design
Context
Peter and the Wolf is a Russian folktale about a young boy who saves his animals from a violent wolf.
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It was then adapted into a musical composition by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936, where each instrument represents a different animal.
Objective
Visually develop characters from the narrative, and then put them into the context of the story.
Stylistic Direction
I wanted something bold and stylized, with subtle color and detail.
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I looked at work from illustrators who inspired me and created a mood board to help guide my process.
Exploration
I went through many different rounds for the character designs, trying out different styles and types of shape language.
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I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone to create something unique, while using my stylistic references
for guidance.
Final Designs
After much deliberation, I decided on two versions, each one having a different style.
Scene Development
After picking what moment in the story I wanted to develop, I decided to explore a wide variety of shots.
Final Output
The final illustration is a representation of countless hours of research on style, shape language,
and composition.
Takeaways
Visual development is fun!
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Visual development requires so much more research than I had imagined! I feel like the time on this project was 90% research and only 10% execution. It is definitely something I had to adjust to, but I really enjoyed doing something new.
