Bone Heads
This is a little project inspired by some drawings I made on a sketchbook in 2017, as a 30 day challenge where I drew 1 head a day. I liked some of them so much I wanted to animate them.
As I worked more and more on the animated heads, this project evolved and became the Bone Heads Series - a series of severed heads, each with a story of who they were and how they ended up as they did. I took this as an opportunity to develop my ideation process and storytelling skills, and I have been really loving it so far - I hope you’ll love it too!
These were all done on Procreate. It was the perfect way of having fun doing more animation after a long day animating at work, away from the desk.
Vlad had everyone believe he was a normal human. But after a rather ugly fight, turns out he might be a little more than that.
Matilda might have lost her body but she didn’t lose the desire to beat up whoever killed her pet snake.
Ruben did see that arrow coming. He only did not expect it to come from the love of his life.
Maria was a poet who rebelled against an oppressive group who kept everyone in the village under control. They did not know Maria was also a witch, and they had the surprise of their lives when she decided to visit and read them a lethal poem. Upon annihilating the entire group, Maria had, in her turn, the surprise of her life when the last member of the group showed up at the door with a gun.
The Undead Butcher was once a proud knight who went on a mission to kill a ferocious monster that terrorised countless villages in the kingdom. One day, the knight disappeared and so did the monster. 20 years later, the knight was seen, riddled with madness, carrying on with the exact same deeds as the monster. His skin had turned grey, his wounds wouldn’t heal, but he was still, somehow, well alive and strong. One day a brave soldier came forth and cut the Undead Butcher’s head off. Problem is, by touching the Undead Butcher’s blood, the brave soldier became Undead himself, and by doing so the curse was perpetuated. Will this new Undead meet the same fate?
Andrea's body was locked in a cell at the bottom of the highest tower of the kingdom, and is now condemned to roam around as a floating head. Although Andrea had the head cut off, the vampire will only truly die once the heart is stabbed with a sacred stake. Andrea has no idea who did this; the only goal now is to find the perpetrator, the key to the cell and be reunited with the vampiric body.
Baltazar wrote a song about Satan. More specifically a sacrificial ritual. He thought it was good fun, didn't take it seriously. It's only a myth, right? On the night his band delivered the song on stage, Baltazar realised singing about Satan was no joke - a portal opened, bringing Satan himself on stage. Everyone cheered, bringing their horns up 🤘 Satan had brought a badass sword from his satanic dimension and upon laying his eyes on the whole situation, Baltazar couldn't handle it - he had an anxiety attack so intense that it ultimately led to his demise, right before the sword made his head fly.
Leonor was one of the nursing nuns who tended to the wounds of knights and soldiers. She fell in love with one particular knight, and after his departure from the convent, she decided to run away, give up her faith and join him. Someone at the convent was not happy though, and months later Leonor was murdered, her body gone. Now, some say she has been roaming around the woods, terrifying the villagers and looking for revenge.
These are the original drawings, plus others that didn’t make it into animated form. As I said in the intro, these are drawings from 2017, around the time I played Hotline Miami.
This game hugely inspired these drawings, mainly the talking heads floating on the right side of the screen during a dialogue scene. I tried to include the bloody and brutal look, whilst listening to synthwave that was in fashion at the time.
I know it sounds like I am talking about a far away time, but this was a period of my life when I was very creative and productive, and I really cherish the feeling that this memory brings. Maybe, somehow, this project is a way to bring this creative productivity back into my daily life.
