Grim Max

I'm Max, an aspiring illustrator/storyboard artist and animation graduate from the UK. I like making all sorts, but spooky character-centric 'toons are my favourite.

This is my creative blog, where I keep track of/share my art projects. I’m currently working on an animatic adaptation of The Mariner’s Revenge Song by The Decemberists (heavily inspired by glittershark on YouTube).

Other than illustrating and storyboarding, I like horror movies/books/games, rock and metal music, natural history, taxidermy and Humpback Anglerfish.

I’m on YouTube and Bluesky, user @ deadtiredartwork.

Yet another pause in progress because life got… interesting. Good in some ways, bad in others. My mental health has had a bit of a relapse, which will actually be relevant in discussing my thoughts about this scene. So fair warning for anyone who happens to be reading and would rather skip discussions about that.

This part was really fun, I even surprised myself with drawing an okay looking ship. That’s one of the many scary parts of this project for me. If you’ve seen glittershark’s adaptation, you’ll probably notice the second shot on page 6 is a direct reference.

I thought it’d be cool to build on that idea by adding mermaids singing the harmonies (is that what you call it? I dunno). These weird creepy designs for them are placeholders. I do want them to look a little freaky, but right now their appearances are a bit out of place. They’ll probably be based more on actual folklore in the final scene. I’ll look more into it during the character design stage.

Now onto the I-need-to-think-too-deeply-about-stuff-that-doesn’t-really-matter part. IMO It’s highly unlikely what Marlo is seeing here is actually happening, although it’d be cool for everyone to have their own interpretation. It’s stated in the song that Marlo’s mother “lost her mind”, an old-timey and less than sensitive way of saying she began struggling with her mental health. Having listened to, thought about, and worked alongside this song for some time now, it seems to me that Marlo may have inherited her poor mental health. Either that, or the generational trauma caused left him mentally unwell too.

These are both things I can relate to. This past year, it’s been suggested to me I may have experienced instances of brief psychotic disorder and/or paranoid delusions. Whatever it is, it’s not pleasant. I’ve been trying to find help, but my local healthcare system doesn’t make it easy. While these experiences have never caused me to lash out or want to hurt someone other than myself (I.e. chase down and kill the man who screwed over my mother even if we both get eaten by a whale), I see parts of that experience in what Marlo’s going through. It’s been healing, even as it’s starting to happen again.

While I hadn’t experienced this for a good few months ever since I removed myself from a really bad situation, the recent and distant past is haunting me. My brain’s attacking itself. The knowledge that I’ve been really unwell for 10 years now, maybe even longer, has been deeply painful. But it’ll have to try harder than that. I lived through what haunts me and I survived. That’s proof enough; I’m not fragile. I’ll keep surviving and keep working because I know I deserve to feel better. Also out of spite.

I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore or why this turned into a ramble about pain and determination. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this project, as difficult as life is making it to work on, is deeply important to me.

Sorry if this isn’t formatted properly, I’m on my phone as opposed to my computer. It’s late and if I go on my computer to do this I will not be able to stop myself from playing Kebab Chef Restaurant Simulator again. I love Kebab Chef Restaurant Simulator. I breathe Kebab Chef Restaurant Simulator. Anyway.

I’ve been listening to the annoying little mosquito in my brain saying everything needs to be perfect again, and beating myself up when it inevitably isn’t. That’s bollocks and I need to stop it. This is the thumbnail stage, of course it’s gonna look shoddy. It’s the first time I’m getting my ideas out onto paper. Digital paper anyway. I just have to make it exist first and put lipstick on it later.

Some thoughts I had for this scene; it’s the first time Marlo smiles. I personally think he genuinely appreciates and is close with the nuns he’s acquainted with in the priory. I like to think off screen, they take up a motherly role in his life. He might even have had a happy life with them (or even with the privateers in the next scene) if he chose to work through his trauma and let go of his need for revenge. The extra backstory I self impose onto him makes me sad. Maybe if it wasn’t called the mariners revenge song it all would’ve been alright.

And we're back. I'm so excited to continue. No I'm scared. Hold me. No I'm joking get off. I'm going to vomit. I'm literally joking. Sedate me. No you calm down.

So whenever I was picturing what this scene might look like in my head, I always thought of the poster for the 1969 movie The Oblong Box. That illustration is so striking, and I wanted to draw on it slightly. Seemed like appropriate inspiration for an event that will scar a child for life.

CW: Depictions of domestic abuse

Alas. Between struggling with certain shots and having other stuff going on, I haven’t made as much progress as I’d like. But progress is progress, even if it’s thumbnails that are rougher than a dogs arse.

For my thumbnails, I’ve decided to stick to the sage advice of “make it exist first, make it better later”. I’m sure that’s.. obvious. It’s so tempting to draw all the acting I want in the characters’ expressions and movements, but that’s for later.

Right off the bat, this is easily the scene most influenced by Natalie’s original work. Those shots are ✨iconic✨ in my mind. I’ll get more into it below. I thought during this thumbnail stage I could go through some of my ideas. It helps to type them out so I remember what I want going forward.

Out of all the ideas I had for the opening, I liked the idea of a little mini scene before the song begins showing the wreckage of the ship. It’ll mean I get to work with some sound effects (which I love) and it’ll show the viewer right away that something’s up.

Had a little trip with my step nan to her favourite place, then realised where I’d be going is a goldmine for some decrepit harbour references. Thank you Holy Island. I’m surprised I didn’t burst into flames setting foot on you, but thank you.

My best mate Frankie liked it too.

On top of that, I picked up the graphic novel adaptation of Stitch Head: The Pirate’s Eye as soon as I was paid. It’ll come in handy for more reference/inspo, and the nostalgia alone makes me very happy while reading it.

After repeated failed sketching, I have one general idea of what I'd like my main boy to look like. Instead of just referring to him as "the mariner" on this blog, I'll be calling him Marlo.

I'll get more into it on another post, but I think the young, doe-eyed, sort of vacant look hiding his vendetta is what I'm going for. It's something I liked about Natalie Riess' animatic. Both to reveal his unexpected vengeance as the narrative goes on, and also because I just think it's kinda funny that a dope like this (affectionate) is so mad.

Anyway, the designs are for another day. Today I wanted to get a concrete idea of the timeline, since that'll obviously be a pretty major factor to how the designs progress throughout the song. I also gave Marlo's mother a name; Marney. The Captain will remain The Captain because he doesn't deserve a name.

The good thing about this song is that it often states upfront about how much time has passed. So I wrote down the key events and roughly filled in the unspecified periods of time just based on what I was imagining. This results in, at the start of the song, Marlo being 3 and the Captain being 18. By the time they reunite in the whale's stomach, Marlo's about 24 and The Captain's almost 40. Two decades of wanting revenge. In a way, hating The Captain is all Marlo’s ever really known.

I'll assume Marney was The Captain's age when they first met, meaning she would've had Marlo young. I think that sadly adds to the tragedy of her character, seeing as there's no other mention of a family or support circle. Although I think her and Marlo will be shown as very close in the animatic. They were all each other had, sometimes to a fault. Like telling her 7 year old son to break her ex's fingers to splinters.

With that, I think I'm ready to start the thumbnails. It's exciting but very daunting. I'll try and put self-doubt to the side and just go for it, which the help of some gesture work as a warm ups and storyboarding resources to help me out.

I've been hard at work. Kind of. I've been thinking a lot, sat down. But I have a pretty concrete set of visual influences for The Mariner's Revenge Song project now (I'll save myself the trouble and just call it the TMRS project from now on. Not to be confused with The Texas Municipal Retirement System, of course).

Here's my current inspos, I'm sure I'll collect more as I go along:

Binge watching Flapjack clips after work is exactly how I envisioned adult life. I think the setting has some great references for a dingy, beat up old harbour town, and I've always really dug the use of textures in the show. It looks like a seagull caught in an oil spill threw up all over this place. I mean that endearingly. I'm only making an animatic, so there wont be a huge focus on colouring, but I'd like to emulate this style a tad with some watercolour brushes for the backgrounds and shading. I think I'll try and make things like houses and other set pieces a little more "realistic" then this?

Looked at some more examples of German Expressionism in early cinema, a lot of which I hadn't heard of before. A lot of this stuff is way more abstract then I have in mind, but I think the core of expressionism being "the expression of subjective emotions" (thanks Wikipedia) rather then what realistically happens outside of our heads will accompany a song sung by a madman hellbent on revenge pretty well. I had a really good time learning more about German Expressionism with this neat video, I'd give it a watch if you want to learn more about art/film history like me:

Given the part of the song everyone remembers, it only seemed right to look at some classic art of Moby Dick (teehee). Robert Shore's work in particular is a treat. More realistic than my own style, but the monochromatic watercolour look is right up my alley for TMRS.

Fawned over Pete Williamson's work as usual, in particular his work on Stitch Head: The Pirate's Eye (and its graphic novel adaptation). Not only for the watercolours and the ship references, but also for some ideas for character designs for the crew of privateers in the narrative.

Artistic interpretations of harbour towns aside, I of course had to gather some real images (andalsosomeartisticinterprations). Stock photos are surprisingly resourceful for reference, never doubt them. Based on other's adaptations of the song, and just from the general context and vibe, I recon it's set sometime between the late 1800s to early 1900s, probably in America given the accent its performed in. Out of all the images I skimmed through, I was more fond of images/period artwork of old UK harbour towns and ports. They generally seemed a little more dishevelled and impoverished, in line with what I think will fit the song.

Next week I'll be starting a new and very big animatic project. Below is the context, initial scheming, and some (or rather a lot) of my thoughts surrounding it. If you only wanna see artsy goodness, you won't find much on this first post. I figured a good place to start with this blog is to share some insight into my process (do I sound professional yet? Pretentious? Both?).

CONTEXT (ALTERNATIVE TITLE: YIPPING AND YAPPING):

While sparing the gory details, this has been the hardest year of my adult life. It doesn't look like things are going to be getting a whole lot better yet.

What I've needed to focus on, and to feel like myself again, is a project. And as is typically the case in dark times for me, a saving grace has been a new hyperfixation. Earlier in the year, it was Humpback Anglerfish (I still love them so very much).

Now, it's The Mariner's Revenge Song by The Decemberists.

This came about after I rediscovered an old gem from my time in school, that being Natalie Riess' own storyboard adaptation from 2012. If you're into storyboards and dark cartoons, and somehow haven't seen it, I recommend giving it a watch:

It's been such a comfort to watch over. And over. And over again. It was such an inspiration to my younger self, and fuelled my drive to develop my own visual storytelling skills.

I started listening to the song everyday on my way to work, and with such a darkly humorous piece of musical storytelling, I guess it was inevitable I'd start imagining my own adaptation. But admittedly, I found myself in a bit of a mental jam. A lot of ideas for designs, shots, beats etc. came back to Natalie's. I didn't want to disrespect the original by "copying" too much (which is a bit silly to think in hindsight), but I couldn't deny the influence it had on me either. I didn't want to deny it, in fact. I figured, why tiptoe around the remnants of inspiration? Why not embrace that instead? And so, I'd like to make this project somewhat of a tribute.

I have a boatload (or perhaps a shipload) of original ideas I want to bring to the table of course, without that this project would be pretty null. But intersperse with that, I'd like to add mementos to Natalie's wonderful adaptation. I love this song, I love the original animatic. So if I want to do this, I want to do them justice... and if I want to storyboard this nearly 9 minute long song...

I repeat, nearly 9 minute long...

I want to do it to the best of my abilities. I want to put a lot of thought and effort into this, hence the creation of this blog to keep track of it all. And give me strength, I think this just might be what I need during this difficult part of my life. A big project that reminds me how I started out.

INTIAL THOUGHTS, CONCEPTUALISING, DEVIOUS SCHEMING IF YOU WILL:

While I was thinking about this project, I found another wonderful interpretation by user Artur Janz on Youtube. Check it out for a grittier portrayal:

As you can probably see, one of the top comments is "flapjack meets edgar allan poe" to which I thought... perfect. Brilliant. Beautiful, no notes. I think that description of the visuals/vibe of an adaptation for this song is spot on, and I'd like to lean into that. Add some Tim Burton/cartoon German expressionism into the mix and job's a good'un.

As well as that, another comfort from my earlier years has been Guy Bass' Stitch Head book series. I could probably make a whole other post about what these books meant to me, but for now I'll be keeping Pete Williamson's illustrations as another inspo for this project.

I recently picked up the new graphic novel adaptation of the first book for old times sake, and I'm still in love with the illustrations to this day. If I'm struggling or need some inspo, one of my first go to's will be flicking through the book.

I mean, look at this bell. Are you kidding me? That's the best bell I've ever seen.

What I love about the song is that it's entire premise is something out of a twisted fairy tale or piece of harbour town folklore. I think these visual inspos will fit a cartoonish adaptation of a demented, wickedly humorous sea shanty quite nicely.

Above all, I also want to use this project to just keep developing my skills, or lack thereof. I suck at backgrounds, I want to use this to get better with backgrounds. I suck at perspective, I want to use this to get better with perspective. I've been proud of how I've been showing emotion in recent animatics, I want to keep doing that. Even if the industries in a rough place and it doesn't look like I'll get to wiggle in anytime soon, I want to be better for myself.

BOTTOM LINE:

Now the game plan is to look more closely at my references, and from there I can get a better understanding of the setting, timeline of the story etc.

Then it'll be onto thumbnailing. I'm looking forward to it. It feels good to feel like me again.