Cactus Larry - Digital painting. Copyright Stuart Lawson

Introducing Cactus Larry. He’s a character in a short animation I thought up back in 2002. I’ve embarked on bringing that animation to life - starting with this digitally painted character design I did two days ago…

Click here to see Larry.

Click here to see a close-up version.

Larry started life as a sketch - seen here - and was used as a reference for the final painting. I opted for a painterly treatment - a natural media visual approach - showing the brush strokes and texture. This style of rendering isn’t the intended overall look for the animation, however it might be quite visually appealing. If anything, it might be worthwhile trying simulate this style in the final animation to avoid the typical 3D rendered look that many animations tend to have.