The Art Of Felle House is a year long culmination of research and designing to create the beginnings of an animated tv show. The inspiration came from the shows I grew up with. I wanted to create something my childhood self would enjoy. The early 2000’s cartoon style always stood out to me and the Felle House is a homage to that era of animation. I decided to create a main character named Katya loosely based off of my younger self. Katya is perceived as a cute little girl however she is actually fascinated with the unusual and creepy. She wants to befriend the local monsters and become scary like them. However, they are not as scary as she imagines. The monsters that she goes to learn from are Neculai the vampire and Wolfgang the werewolf. Neculai is a sweet and docile vampire heavily inspired by Takia Waititi’s character Viago from What We Do In The Shadows (2015). Wolfgang is a lovable loser reminiscent of Hanna-Barbara’s animations. Featured in this book is the process that went into creating each character and the environments in which they reside in.
What We Do In The Shadows
Gravity Falls
A big inspiration at the moment of creating this was the movie/tv show What We Do In The Shadows which is about vampires living in the modern day world trying to fit in. However they don’t succeed becuase of their age and general otherness. I really like the characters personalities and how they play off each other. This inspired me when creating the dynamic between the vampire and werewolf character.
One of my all time favorite cartoon shows that had a large impact on my project is Gravity Falls. The dynamic of children staying at their great uncle’s creepy shack in the woods intrigued me. That’s where I got the idea for my main little girl character to hangout in a creepy old house and get into mischief.
Billy and Mandy One of the first shows that came to mind when starting this project was The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy which I spent a lot of my childhood watching. The style and humor has always stuck with me into adulthood and I wanted to create something in reference to it. The main inspiration from Billy and Mandy was the idea of children interacting with monsters which is evident in my thesis project.
Katya Of course the first thing I thought about before starting this project was making relatable characters. I had a hard time coming up with anything at first when I finally thought about, well.. myself. And how weird I was as a child. I loved creepy, dark, bloody things and had a big imagination. I wanted to base the main character off of me since it was easier to write about and create. To find inspiration, I dug through a lot of pictures of me from when I was 5 or 6 years old. I was a big tom boy and would always try to dress like it but my mom would always put me in nice pretty girly clothing (against my wishes). I decided to name her Katya because it was my nickname growing up and her character is so heavily based off my childhood.
When first drawing her I knew I wanted her to look cute and innocent despite her tomboyish and “evil” nature. The whole point is to make her look adorable but her personality is the opposite.
I went through a long process of choosing the right hairstyles for Katya. I was bored of long hair for little girls. I also knew I didn’t want her to look exactly like me as a child. So I went with this boyish short cut. I kept a little cuteness to her design because I knew her mom would want her to look more cute.
Wolfgang Wolfgang the werewolf came to mind when I was sitting in my room thinking, “I want a werewolf character but how do I make him not as serious and more goofy.” I suddenly thought about all the Hanna-Barbera characters I used to watch on Boomerang as a kid. From Huckleberry Hound to Yogi Bear. I just started drawing a wolf-like character in the style just to see if I can and I instantly laughed at the drawing I made. I thought it was perfect that my werewolf character is this sort of out of place Hanna-Barbara character that is kinda cocky and self absorbed but also really dumb.
Neculai When making this character I knew I wanted him to be different. You see a lot of vampires portrayed in the media and I wanted him to stand out so I had to think a lot for this character. When I first created him his personality was very different. He was stern and cold. I wanted him to bounce off of the dispostion of the girl character. But after working with that personality I thought it was feeling a little cliché so I decided to switch it up and make him a really nice gentlemanly vampire. That way when the little girl comes over to hang out she’s at first a bit disappointed by his docile nature.
Neculai went through a lot of designs. He took the longest to create. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what hairstyle he should have. I drew a lot of different kinds and eventually fell with the one he has now. I felt the clean cut hairstyle went with his personality showing the viewer that he’s kinda cute and not scary at all.
Katya’s Bedroom Katya’s room was inspired by my childhood room. I dug up some old photos of me as a kid in my bedroom. There weren’t a lot so I had to do my best and remember what I could. I knew I wanted this story to be more personal so having her room resemble mine was a quick choice.
While designing her room I wanted to add details that showcased her personality. The room had pretty pink wallpaper just like mine with nice curtains and a pink bed, all picked out by her mom. In contrast there are drawings taped to the walls of creepy art and monsters. Showing the viewer that despite her mom’s attempts of giving her daughter a girly room, it still has her personality all over it. There’s also stuffed animals splayed across the floor. I just really wanted to show the little girl sorta “messing” up her pretty girl room with her tomboyish personality.
Neculai’s Bedroom I really liked how there is a mixture of old furniture and objects along with something modern. I wanted to show that the room has been lived in for decades. So there’s got to be all kinds of collectables over the years. But also I wanted it to fit the vampire’s personality. For example, I put an easel in the room to show he passes the time by picking up interests like painting. The same goes with the bowling ball, I wanted to show the hobbies he’s collected over the years. I looked at a lot of photos from the set of the movie What We Do in the Shadows. The rooms in the film always stood out to me and I liked seeing all the little objects displayed in the background.
House Exterior I knew right away I wanted the house the monsters lived in to be an old, a bit run down Victorian home. A bit cliché but that’s what drew the little girl to come to the house. It’s old and creepy and perfect for her. But of course once inside, it’s just a regular home owned by dumb monsters that can’t hurt a fly. In my home town I like go for a lot of walks. I loved looking at the really old homes and I wanted to incorporate that personal touch in my work. I’d go on these walks to these particular homes and imagine these characters living in them and how peaceful and quiet it must be.
Special thanks to my friends and family for supporting me and allowing me to express my artistic self. And to Chestnut the cat for sitting on my artwork.
All artwork, concepts, and copy created by Katrina Fletcher. Typography and layout design by Nat Cosentini. There exists two copies of this book made in 2022.