Basil Turnarounds

With a character like Basil, there is going to be quite a lot of animation, so it's important for me to have a solid understanding of how his cartoon form is going to be, both in terms of aesthetics and in terms of construction.

I always intended the character to be fairly simple, to make animation easy, but still be definitively Basil. As demonstrated in the previous post, I started by being quite faithful to John Cleese's features at first, creating fairly detailed studies. I then worked backwards, removing superfluous details until I had a character I could animate.

Starting to turn the character around, I simplified the design. However, there were still slightly too many unnecessary details, such as the creases in his clothing and the stripes in his tie...

...so I simplified it! I also improved his stance and silhouette. His arm is thicker in profile, which suggests flatness - might remedy this.

Concept Art

Some concept art for the characters of The Wall, and further development of Basil Fawlty.

The Wall:

Basil:

For The Wall, The King is more or less established, being such a simple character, so less aesthetic development is required (there are some other concept sketches, though - watch this space). Basil, on the other hand, has to be an authentic caricature of John Cleese but simplistic enough to animate successfully.

More of the same soon!