Lorelay Boves Background and Credits

Lorelay Bove was born in Northern Spain to an

artistic family. She moved to Los Angeles in
America at the age of 14, and in 2007, she
graduated CalArts (the internationally
recognised leading university of visual and
performing arts). Lorelay completed an
apprenticeship with Pixar and Disney and now
works for Disney as a visual development artist.
She has produced visual development art for The
Princess and the
Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Big Hero 6 (2014)
and was the lead designer for Sugar Rush
from Wreck-It Ralph (2012) (Figure 1). Figure 1: Lorelay Boves concept art for Sugar Rush from
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
 Her Style and Inspiration

Figure 2: Lorelay working in small scale.

Lorelay has said she does not like to stick to any one medium for too long, that she gets tired and moves onto
something else. Her main mediums are digital paint, traditional paint, and sketching. She loves using Gouache
paints, a type of watercolour modified to be opaque. Most animations prior to the digital animation age used
gouache to create an opaque colour on cels. When painting, Loralay has stated that she loves to be spontaneous,
to feel it but also analyse it while she works. She first paints small to get basic shapes (Figure 2) but she works
largely in basic geometric shapes as to not overcomplicate things.

Figure 3: Examples of Gaudi architecture.

One of the most appealing aspects of her artwork are her houses. For the houses in Sugar Rush, she drew her
inspiration from Gaudi architecture (Figure 3), a Catalan artist whose popularity peaked around the beginning
of the 20th century. She used this inspiration for the designs because as she always thought the buildings
resembled "candy houses" as a child (Figure 4). Gaudi uses a lot of curvilinear shapes in his designs, something
Bove taken inspiration from and often incorporates curvilinear shapes into her own designs (Figure 4, Figure 5,
Figure 6). Her introduction to Gaudi led to her becoming a key designer for Sugar Rush.

Figure 4: Designs for Sugar Rush houses inspired by Gaudi.

Figure 5: Designs for a Hansel and Gretel project.

Figure 6: Illustration of houses.

Figure 7: Large house illustration.

Figure 6 shows some designs more rectilinear than her other
houses, but they are still constructed using basic geometric shapes
and any further details used are not too much as to
overcomplicate anything. Bove seems to be a fan of using giraffe-
like patterns as textures. It is especially prominent in Figure 8 as
an unusual texture for the trees. The use of this texture helps to
bring the tree out and not make it look flat despite its simplistic
design. Figure 9 does something very similar, but to represent
highlights on snow-covered trees.

Figure 9: Snowy Forest illustration. Figure 8: Forest illustration.

Bove has used shades of white and grey-blue in place of

traditional brown colours in Figure 9, and shades of pale green
or blue for the background trees in Figure 8 despite the
foreground trees being traditionally brown. The
complementary use of orange/browns with pale greens/blues
help to keep focus on what is going in in the foreground. The
use of spiky branches around the two children in the tree help
to add a sense of danger to their actions, while the third child is
safely sheltered under her umbrella and framed with the trees
in the foreground.

Bove uses mainly pastel colours, she does not seem to be a fan
of using colours that are too bright and bold, but she can often
add a pop of brighter colour to make a subject stand out. The
use of red on the children in Figure 8, for example, or the red
flowers in Figure 10 which helps to lead your eyes upwards to
the little girl, then down the hills, beyond the forest, and finally
landing on the house. Figure 10: Little girl and dog
illustration.
 One interesting use of texture is the abstract Figure 11 illustration. Bove
has used textures that can be found on winter jumpers to give an illusion of
depth, snow, and even just the ground. The only place she has left texture-
free is the small white-cream part which the little boy and his dog is placed
on. The use of these particular patterns coupled with the snowy mountains
and the pure fact that the child has a sled suggests that the climate is often
very cold, and those patterned winter jumpers are a common feature in
whatever society the little boy is from.

Figure 10: Little boy and dog

sled illustration.
 Comparison
Lorelay Bove is one of my favourite artists from Disney ever since I had gotten The Art of Wreck-It Ralph and fell
in love with her Sugar Rush work. I do believe that my work has been somewhat inspired by her, if a bit
unconsciously. I do know now that I should be actively researching artists I like and learning from them, Bove
included.
Here is an example of some of my work which may have taken a lot
of inspiration from Boves work:
The characters of Grandpa Frost when I worked on those
illustrations. I had decided to draw the characters in a more
simplistic way, emphasising different basic shapes. Shapes such as
the half-circles of the girls heads, or their bell-shaped dresses
(Figure 11, Figure 12).

Figure 11: Protagonists of Grandpa Frost

In another of the illustrations

(Figure 12), I used a fish-scale
pattern for the walls. This is
similar to some of the details
Bove has used on some of her
own illustrations, in particular a
couple of houses in Figure 5.

Figure 12: Grandpa Frost illustration depicting the protagonists and

their grandmother.

In an illustration based off the

theme of romance (Figure 13),
I had decided to not colour the
trees in their traditional brown,
to further reflect the mood.
Additionally, I highlighted the
trees with heart-shapes. Ive not
seem Bove highlight trees with
hearts, but I believe the choice to
stylise the highlights (like Boves
giraffe spots) over making them
realistic is a choice that Bove
tends to make.

Figure 13: Illustration depicting the theme of romance

Words: 916
Research:

Art of Wreck-It Ralph (book)

Lorelay Bove's website [link]
Lorelay Bove interview (text) [link]
Lorelay Bove interview (video) [link]