As a Location Designer on the revival of the classic series, I worked from drawings from the clients and the Production Designer. For a while, I had free reign on how to approach things. So locations were just a refresh of the originals but when Blue and crew go to another place, it was time to experiment! The creators wanted to really stretch with the new locations. Below is a selection of early versions of some of the locations. These weren't designed to be pretty illustrations, but to demonstrate a look (that would be refined later on). I worked from sketchy storyboards and scraps of notes and images and feedback like "I don't know, man, they want a Dr. Seuss feel... have fun!" So I did.
There were other hands adding things to some of these images, mostly to do with textures of the more mundane items, The "weird" locations are all me (for better or worse). After a shake up in the upper production levels, I moved to layout and background painting. I left part way through production, so I don't know how these all turned out in the end but it was fun while it lasted!
During production I created custom textures, layer styles, brushes and patterns. The "cotton ball" clouds were brushes that painted cotton balls from various cotton ball photos. They weren't stamps or photos. I could paint any cloud shape I wanted and it looked like it was made of cotton. An afternoon of experimenting to get it working right. And it was a two-brush process.
Someone else did the Blue shaped cloud, but the other clouds were from my custom brushes.
A "haunted house". Vector shapes, photo textures, hand painted shading.
Another room in the haunted house. Vector shapes, photo textures, hand painted shading.
Another room in the haunted house. Vector shapes, photo textures of wood, hand painted shading and texture.
The haunted house has a room with two staircases right beside each other. Look, I just paint what I'm told to.
A sleep over! The various sleeping bags are from vector shapes, hand drawn patterns, Photoshop textures, and shading in pixels.
I know I talk about these clouds a lot but it worked really well. I was told many times the clouds were too real and I had to simplify the shapes; so ...yeah simple clouds.
The kitchen at dusk.
The kitchen at night.
The initial attempt of "Silly Town" locations was to construct them similar to typical Blue's locations. This was my first pass.
This is the third or fourth pass on a style. Something Seussian....
The second versions were to try for a watercolour feel.
My final style pass on this location.
The final version (as far as I know).
The conceit of Blue's Clues is that the environments were made up of crafting materials. Using Photoshop meant getting creative with photos and textures.
The first version of an 8-Bit city skyline. I worked from a photo I found online.
A different tack was taken to simplify the city. I was directed to reference some simpler styles, but I thought it was getting a little dystopian.
