Fantastic Mr. Fox
Written by Roald Dahl
Boggis. Bunce. Bean.
One fat. One short. One lean.
Mr. Fox: clever, cunning, and tricky. He is a legendary thief stealing livestock from under three dimly witted farmers’ noses, but luck always runs out eventually.
When one of Mr. Fox’s raids goes terribly wrong, he must team up with his fellow anthropomorphic neighbors to outwit and outrun the trio of farmers.
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Tunneling Through Sketches
For this sketch, I wanted to emphasize the tree in which Mr. Fox and his family are living which starts a series of events to occur. I made it a border with the title and Roald Dahl etched and scored into the bark with the iconic scene of Mr. Fox stealing chickens showcased inside the tree.
While the other sketch encumbered a more narrative scene, I went with a more conceptual theme for this sketch. I wanted to illustrate some of the main themes, events, and scenes within the novel to give the reader a clear view of what shenanigans Mr. Fox might be getting his tail into.
Quick color study of Sketch 2. I concentrated on a selective color palette wanting the colors to lend to themselves and set the tone of the novel.
Nonetheless equally mean…
Boggis, Bunce, and Bean are such pivotal and central characters of the novel, just as much as Mr. Fox. They are also very plainly described by Dahl as he takes time to introduce each farmer fully for the audience to understand who Mr. Fox is dealing with.
For the character designs of each, I wanted to extremely exaggerate each of their features. Boggis is fat, enormously so. Bunce is essentially a dwarf. Bean is pencil thin. All of them elicit disgust from the reader, though, that is universal.
Here are the three baddies. Each of them are almost caricatures of themselves due to eternally pinched features, deep scowls, and heavy-set eyebrows. These early character explorations were an easy and quick way to express their bad tempered demeanor. I focused on the important features of each, completely erasing the eyes and letting the eyebrows do the work.