Ride The Cyclone is a fun musical about life and death, set in a purgatory-like world in the afterlife that resembles an old amusement park. Made during COVID-19 times, this musical was presented as a radio play with accompanying visuals. Originally the set designer, once the format of the show changed, my role shifted to being more of an illustrator for this production. I worked with the director, Elana Mirella Mariani, to create environment based backgrounds for different scenes, and then created illustrated versions of each of the characters to place on the backgrounds.
Selected Backgrounds
Carnival Tent 
Carnival Skyline 
Karnak’s Arcade 
Beer Garden 
Paris, France 
Bumper Cars 
Outer Space 
Karnak’s Death
Video Trailer
Process
The process for making these illustrations started with image research and thumbnail sketches. Then, the backgrounds sketches were traced digitally using CAD, and finally, details and tone were added in Photoshop. Characters were drawn and added to the backgrounds later in collaboration with the cast and director to determine poses and costumes for each of the drawn characters. 15 backgrounds were created in total with different versions made for different moments and character poses throughout the show. In total, around 20 variations of the created images were included in the final video of the show.
Initial Style Exploration Sketch 
Initial Style Exploration Sketch 
Initial Sketch 
Line Work 
Line Work, Half Shaded Final
