photo philippa gedge http://philippagedge.com
I started my working life as a comic book artist for British weekly anthology 2000AD- working on Judge Dredd and Sláine. ('Judge Dredd:Book of the Dead' and 'Sláine:Treasures of Britain' being the most notable stories).
I moved over to film in 1997 to do character designs for Steve Barron's mini-TV series 'Merlin' starring Sam Neill.
In 1999 Doug Chiang asking me to join Iain mcCaig in the Star Wars art dept for Episode2:Attack of the Clones- mostly doing characters and costumes. Iain was the perfect mentor for me at that stage of my career- teaching me that narrative/story is everything when designing.
In 2001 I had the good fortune to work for Production Designer Stuart Craig, who many of us regard as the greatest designer in the industry, on Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and a short stint on 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'.
I spent a few months on Batman Begins, followed by my first film for Tim Burton; Charlie and the Chocolate factory - all out of London. Then Berlin for V for Vendetta followed by three years in San Francisco with Doug Chiang at his Ice Blink Studios for Beowulf and Christmas Carol.
I came back to London to work on various projects, mostly for Tim Burton; a year doing post production design for Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Dumbo and best of all, nine months developing 'Pinocchio' with just the script and Tim giving me direction.
In 2013 I came back to the Galaxy far far away for Star Wars Ep 7: The Force Awakens, mostly in the costume department.
I returned to the Potter universe in 2015 to work with Stuart Craig on Fantastic Beasts and where to find them, Fantastic Beasts; the Crimes of Grindlewald and Fantastic Beasts; The Secrets of Dumbledore.
I spent the covid lockdown returning to my traditional roots- painting and drawing with real materials. Judge Dredd and Batman but also re-paints of my most well known digital concept art from Star Wars and others as well as a few sets of cards for Magic the Gathering.
Recently worked for production designer Chris Seagers on Spielberg produced 'Masters of the Air', directed by Cary Fukunaga for Apple TV and Blade Runner 99 TV Series for Amazon.
Was finally put in charge of the design process when I asked to Art Direct a Web 3 Sci-fi project for 'Story Protocol' created by David Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins, Foundation). I designed everything. Characters and creatures, planets and environments, spaceship and guns - not sure where it's going to go but it was a blast doing it.
Currently working on an 'Art of ...' book for the wonderful production designer Stuart Craig and other small projects while waiting for the film industry to wake up after the dreaded Actor and Writer's strike.
London June 24
Interviews
2000AD cover process interview (text)
Graphic novel Sláine:Treasures of Britain https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB434
The Art of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LWNJQ10/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
The Art of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
This second Fantastic Beasts art book is a much more in depth look at the Art Department process as well as VFX, Graphics and other departments that contribute to the design of the film.