Roverandom Concept Sketches

Lately I have been doing some exploration sketches for my senior project in college. My senior project will involve doing concept art for the children's story Roverandom, by J. R. R. Tolkien. My idea is to design characters, environments, and props/vehicles for an imaginary animated film based on the story.

The main character is a little black-and-white puppy named Rover (later changed to Roverandom to avoid confusion with other dogs named Rover). He rudely insults a cranky wizard, who subsequently turns him into a toy dog as punishment. The story recounts his adventures to the unlikeliest of places as he tries to get turned back into a full-sized real dog again. Along the way, he crosses paths with a little boy who teaches him about what really matters in a dog's life.

So here are some preliminary "possibility" sketches of Roverandom, the Moon Dog, the Sea-Dog, and the wizard Artaxerxes. They are nowhere near the final designs, as I will continue to work out problems and explore the characters.

Roverandom:

Moon Dog:

Sea-Dog:

Artaxerxes (younger version): 

(older version):