Month: February 2020

Dawn of the Dead

Ant Mercer Drawing

I had a very quick turnaround on a storyboard project (here) which was a mix of live action and an animation sequence so I had to make sure that there was a distinct difference between the live action scenes and the animation. Due to the rapid turnaround and that the animation was still in the process of designing the characters, I had to wing it.

..and I accidentally came up with a couple of nice Kevin Dart-esque looking boards which I was quite pleased with. Colour shapes with quick suggestions of expressions and clothing and whatnot.

So I thought I’d try it out in a sketch that I had loitering on my desktop. I’d been playing around with Krita – a new release and the brushes are amazing. I was doing a full painting, but quickly pivoted to trying out the same techinique and figured I’d use the creepiest zombie from DOTD that Hare Krishna guy who goes after Galen Ross in the back room.

And an old picture from DOTD for good measure.

“Ye Olde New England” Concept paintings.

Ant Mercer Illustration, Storyboards

Ye Olde New England.

This series of concept paintings was created to support a pitch deck for an animated project set in a post-apocalyptic, fantasy-driven world. The work focuses on key moments from the script—capturing characters, environments, and fragments of story around a mad king and the fractured realm he rules.

The brief called for expressive scene-setting to help visualise the world during early development. I produced a mixture of character illustrations, background paintings, and atmospheric scenes, designed to give a strong sense of tone and possibility without locking the narrative into a fixed visual style.