Concept art is both fascinating and lovely. Animated films especially get through so much work before they make it to the large screen, and being able to witness the work in progress is really fun.

Rise of the Guardians is a 2012 animated film by DreamWorks. Teenage Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter, discovers that he has recently been proclaimed as a Guardian, i of several spirits who protect childhood. Jack, forth with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Molar Fairy, and others, must defeat Pitch Black, otherwise known as the Boogeyman, in guild to keep children safe. There is plenty of interesting concept fine art for this motion-picture show, and here are ten pieces that are particularly awesome.

ten Jack Frost

This serial of panels of fine art for Jack Frost (Chris Pino) is quite wintry in the color palette. The Spirit of Winter comes across bored children in the snow and mischievously creates ice for them to skate on. The panels were drawn past Woon Immature Jung, a visual development artist at DreamWorks.

Jack'south opinion for spreading the ice with his staff is a similar pose he uses just to get around in the completed film. This piece of concept art tells a complete story and is quite like a comic.

9 Jack and Baby Tooth

Here, Jack is with Babe Tooth equally they study each other quite closely. Baby Tooth is a picayune fuzzy, possibly deliberately due to being young, merely Jack is perfectly clear, all sharp angles and tight lines. The lighting is gorgeous, as it's subsequently night has fallen, rendering everything in a starry evening glow.

Interestingly, the fine art gives off the vibe of being a positive side of the night and even of the villain, Pitch Black (Jude Police). Therefore, this piece gives many themes of the picture show: open curiosity, fun, the necessity of youth, and the beauty of the dark.

viii Tooth Fairy

This series of grapheme sketches by Fey Rayen truly testify off the luminescence of the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher). Her wings are extremely colorful, as is her head. This art also gets the take chances to show the Tooth Fairy's wings while they are in flight, which is difficult in the film due to how rapidly her wings motility.

The pinnacle of her head is as well likened to a helmet in this series of drawings, which fits with the Guardians needing to battle Pitch Black whenever he starts to spread his nightmares.

7 More than Teeth

This concept art of the Molar Fairy is from DreamWorks artists Ryan O'Roughlin, Nate Wragg, and Takao Noguchi, also as others. The artists experimented with different expressions on her face, too equally how her skin should be drawn: with color or without?

They also drew a black-and-white model with which to work from. Though it looks foreign without her vibrancy, information technology also helped the artists immensely in figuring out the Tooth Fairy's figure and trunk language. Her wings, noticeably, aren't filled in at all, which must have come afterward in the process.

vi Cover

The embrace of the official art book for Rise of the Guardiansis beautiful. Jack Frost stands at the forefront, clearly the main graphic symbol, while the other guardians wait behind him. The mix of color is something that could only exist attained through cartoon, and less so through precise animation.

Santa Claus overlooks the residual of the Guardians as a protector, while the Tooth Fairy looks ready to tell someone their future. The Easter Bunny just looks lovely, with his ears abaft back toward Santa and the Tooth Fairy. The Sandman, meanwhile, looks like a drawn version of his eventual self in the motion-picture show.

5 Jack and Santa

This piece of concept art, by Arthur Fong, features a more than Russian-looking Santa Claus. He is holding a pocket-sized and fuzzy Easter Bunny, clearly powerless, while the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy look on. Jack, meanwhile, is peering at Bunny, trying to effigy out what happened. The style is dark and dreamlike, clearly cartoon, not animation. In that location is low-cal around Bunny, indicating his recent loss and eventual resurrection.

This piece of concept art is darker than the film somewhen became, but information technology does encapsulate the darkest part of the plot in a beautiful way.

4 Pitch

The back cover of the official art volume for Rise of the Guardiansfeatures Pitch Black on a white groundwork, surrounded by his own creations. This concept art continues the trend of stylistic drawing, which is just cute. Pitch is looking off into the distance, which currently looks similar a blank future.

Still, a blank page might just mean something that hasn't been filled in even so. Therefore, though this piece may seem but half-completed, it'due south only one-half-happened, with a future that hasn't been written withal. The residue of the scene has still to exist drawn.

3 Easter Bunny

This series of sketches from the official art book for the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) cover both general look and facial expressions. It's clear that the character was extensively worked on in order to make him tough-looking as opposed to simply cute.

The full character model makes it clear they succeeded. The character'southward ears are nearly always up, unsurprising when flat eats might imply sadness or despair. The weapons that the Easter Bunny carries also aid the persona of a fighter. This serial of sketches draw interesting insight into the Easter Bunny'due south grapheme, especially how he'south different here as to how he's traditionally viewed.

2 Sandman

Also from the official concept art book, these panels of the Sandman are comforting. He'southward the showtime Guardian, of Dreams, and his entire being is meant to be comforting. The soft yellow-orange color, too as the softness and roundness of his body, all aid atomic number 82 the character to that idea.

The large cartoon on the left is similar to the other fine art styles discussed above: loose and dreamlike. A few of the middle panels seem to requite the Sandman a mischievous streak, which fits since he'due south continuing next to Jack Frost in ane of them.

i Santa Claus

These versions of Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), from the official art book, are much more Russian-like than he ends up being in the finished production. His coat is more than vibrantly ruby-red, and the gilt buttons imply a sense of royalty. The fur lid is also very emblematic of Russia. His physique is emphasized more on its own in the drawings, which again gives the impression of a Russian fighting bear. These sketches are clearly concept drawings, and don't behave equally much relation to the finished animated work as do a few others of the pieces discussed here.

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About The Author

Noemi Arellano-Summer (83 Manufactures Published)

Noemi Arellano-Summer is an arts and civilisation journalist working in the Los Angeles surface area. Armed with a BS in Journalism from Boston Academy, she has published work at the post-obit publications: Boston Globe, Crime Study, Aboriginal Globe Mag, Screen Queens, BU BUZZ, BU Quad, Mindfray, Catalyst.cm, the Boston Hassle, and the Celebrity Cafe. She is excited to share film, history, and the arts with people.

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