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The Art of Coraline

No, it’s not the missed opportunity that’s currently being sold on the bookshelves. If you’ve had the unfortunate opportunity to thumb through that book, you would’ve surmised that the only artist that worked on pre-production for Coraline was Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi. While we know that Tadahiro’s work is brilliant, the ‘visual companion’ is a complete slap in the face to all the other artists who worked on the production. Have no fear, though. The best way to see pre-production art of Coraline is to view it online. Here, I’ve created a nice tour of sorts for you (click on each name for much more art):

First up, early character and conceptual work by Dan Krall. Ronald Searle is definitely an influence:

dankrall-coraline

Next, we visit Chris Appelhans for some visual development and color studies. The artists’ were definitely using Tadahiro as a point of reference:

chrisappelhans-fencewalk

More visual development, color studies, & props by Jon Klassen. Beautiful work, with a great sense of space and color:

jonklassen-coraline

Now, check out the fantastic character designs by Shane Prigmore:

shaneprigmore-coraline

More great character development by Shannon Tindle:

shannontindle-coraline

Stef Choi also did some early concept sketches. Check out the cute, little garden characters. Here’s a shot of Coraline & her mom:

stefchoi-coraline

Finally, gorgeous sculptures of all the Coraline puppets by Damon Bard. Be sure to check out all his galleries while you’re visiting his site. Incredibly talented guy:

bard-coraline1
bard-coraline2

In fact, there was a great deal of other incredibly talented people who worked on the film, but were never mentioned in the book. Vera Brosgol, Graham Annable, and Andy Schuhler, among others. (UPDATE: Katy Wu is another vis-dev artist.) Shane Prigmore does a great job listing more of the artists responsible for the look & style of the film. Be sure and check out all their hard work.

UPDATE: Kevin Dart just informed me that Chris Turnham has started up a blog for Coraline production art. Chris did some extensive work on the Fantastic Garden sequence:

christurnham-coraline

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Come back again soon.

Related:
Coraline Artist Panel at Nucleus
The Marketing of Coraline
Coraline Site Up

  • http://flickr.com/photos/sbritt S.britt

    Sheesh. I’m gonna go hang myself. Dan and Jon’s work is stupendous and it was nice to see Graham’s name in the credits. When I first saw the lovely second image (by Chris Appelhans), I instantly thought Ezra Jack Keats! Coraline was utterly fantastic and I feel fortunate to have seen it in all it’s 3D majesty. Thanks for the splendid tour, Ward!

  • http://flickr.com/photos/sbritt S.britt

    Sheesh. I’m gonna go hang myself. Dan and Jon’s work is stupendous and it was nice to see Graham’s name in the credits. When I first saw the lovely second image (by Chris Appelhans), I instantly thought Ezra Jack Keats! Coraline was utterly fantastic and I feel fortunate to have seen it in all it’s 3D majesty. Thanks for the splendid tour, Ward!

  • http://mistakesmachine.blogspot.com/ rgnava

    Dave McKean did wonderful illustrations for the first version of the book. (http://www.mousecircus.com/bookdetails.aspx?BookID=2)
    When I saw they were making the movie, and since Neil Gaiman and McKean are close friends, I thought that he was going to be involved in some way in the film. But unfortunately, he wasn’t.

  • http://mistakesmachine.blogspot.com rgnava

    Dave McKean did wonderful illustrations for the first version of the book. (http://www.mousecircus.com/bookdetails.aspx?BookID=2)
    When I saw they were making the movie, and since Neil Gaiman and McKean are close friends, I thought that he was going to be involved in some way in the film. But unfortunately, he wasn’t.

  • http://parkablogs.blogspot.com/ parka

    Nice dude! I was thinking of creating a list like this but never got around to do so.

    Linked it on my blog.

    http://parkablogs.com/content/artists-of-coraline

  • http://parkablogs.blogspot.com parka

    Nice dude! I was thinking of creating a list like this but never got around to do so.

    Linked it on my blog.

    http://parkablogs.com/content/artists-of-coraline

  • http://www.fashionbuddha.com/ fbuddha

    Great post ward! Certainly was some amazing talent on this flick!

  • http://www.fashionbuddha.com fbuddha

    Great post ward! Certainly was some amazing talent on this flick!

  • vincentjuanes

    Very interesting works here!

  • vincentjuanes

    Very interesting works here!

  • http://flickr.com/photos/jublin jublin

    finally saw the movie last night. it was so amazing. it blew my mind into a million pieces!

  • http://flickr.com/photos/jublin jublin

    finally saw the movie last night. it was so amazing. it blew my mind into a million pieces!

  • http://faceboock.com viance

    it's so chool xD