Behind the Scenes for Spencer the Spider and the Witch in the Wood

I broke through my writer’s block last week! I found the inspiration I was looking for by looking at the dramatic lighting in some promotional stills from the BBC and I am now on track with the next chapter of my graphic novel. This break through means that I will need to create a new character for the book but I already have a design in mind and will start the construction this week.

Many people have asked me questions about the sets that I build, such as, “How big are they?” or “Where do you find all the props that you use?” So I thought I would share some of the behind the scenes photos that I have taken with you this week.

This is a set that I build for Spencer the Spider and the Witch in the Wood. It was about five feet wide and included all of the puppets for the book but the final photo only featured one character.

This is the final photo that appeared in the book.

Here is a look at another set for the same book. This was the beach set for the clam party in the story.

Here is the finished photograph.

These next two pictures are of sets that I created for a composite shot. I wanted a photo that would show above and below ground at the same time but constructing one set was proving to difficult to build so I build two and planned to put the together digitally.

Here is the finished composite shot that did not appear in the book. After all the work on the photo it did not make the finale edit.

And finally, here was the minimal set that I put together for the cover.

The finished photograph was much better looking then the set itself because I used an old trick called forced perspective.

I hope you find these behind the scenes photos interesting. I have more for every book that I have done. Please keep the questions coming and I will share information about my creative process when ever I can.

Good Luck and keep writing.

Morgan