I have separated my portfolio broadly into 3 styles: 'craft-based' art, 'pixel' art, and 'digital' art.

Claymation & Craft-Based Art
I enjoy a fairly free-form approach to the direction of my work, and often allow the physical properties of the materials I am using to guide me. I use traditional materials such as clay, paper, card, fabric etc., but also love to incorporate or take inspiration from anything I have lying around the house or natural materials that I find in my surroundings. I place equal importance on the craft and the digitisation of this style of art, and experiment with methods of getting something physical onto the screen. Primarily I use either a scanner, or a light box/tripod setup, depending on the object, although I have also used regular and green-screen video for specific works. For animating, I use stop-frame animation either by hand-adjusting the object or using a photography turntable for 360 animations.

Pixel Art
I find that the limitations of pixel art make for fascinating artistic choices, and I love to experiment with contrast, colour palettes, outlines and perspective in this style. I have worked in orthographic, perspective and top-down/side-on perspectives and have created backgrounds and landscapes as well as individual game assets and objects. In my portfolio I have included a time-lapsed video of one of my landscapes in order to show my process. Generally I will work from a rough sketch and gradually refine and flesh out the details. I really enjoy this refinement process in pixel art, and how much difference the placement of individual pixels can make to the overall image.

Digital Art
I have included a separate category for 'digital art', which generally includes art drawn using a graphics tablet, and textures created for 3D digital models. My style in this category tends to be fairly chunky and colourful with cartoon-like shading, and I particularly enjoy landscapes and strange creatures. I also have a lot of experience incorporating art into Unity projects, as well as creating and editing shaders and materials.

Below is a range of artwork in these categories from personal projects and freelance work over the last 15 years.

Claymation & Craft-Based Art

Screenshot from 'Asterism'
Screenshot from 'Asterism'
Screenshot from 'Asterism'
Diorama created for 'Asterism' level background
Spaceship from 'Asterism'
Character from 'Asterism'
Clay creatures, objects and floor tiles
Claymation fish
Claymation campfire
Claymation moon
Claymation astronaut
Clay interpretation of a map of Ireland
Papercraft landscape
Papercraft cubemap texture
Paper/card boat from 'Asterism'
Scrunching paper animation
Ink in water
Ink in water
Ink in water
Chalk on slate texture created for cube UV-map
Words created from natural materials for 'This System'
Video of 'Porthole' game
Video of 'Splat' animation



Pixel Art

Ordovician period mural for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
Permian period mural for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
Triassic period mural for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
Cretaceous period mural for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
'Virtual Natural History Museum' entrance
Postcard design for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
'Virtual Natural History Museum' triceratops
'Library' room background for Biome Gallery
Various objects for '9th Realm'
Various objects for '9th Realm'
Avatar animations for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
'Virtual Natural History Museum' interior
Postcard design for 'Virtual Natural History Museum'
Screenshot from '125 Monkey Games'
Title screen from '125 Monkey Games'
Screenshot from 'Limbo' Bitsy game
Video of timelapsed pixel art painting



Digital Art

Concept for a mountain town
Concept for a geology platformer game
Concept art for '9th Realm'
Concept for a cave
'Jotunheim' level in '9th Realm'
'Alfheim' level in '9th Realm'
Monster design
Monster design
Monster design
Textures, shaders and lighting in 'Before I Forget'
Textures, shaders and lighting in 'Before I Forget'
Shaders and lighting in 'Before I Forget'
Scene in 'Before I Forget'
Environment and objects for 'Robots vs Magic'
Background for a mobile game
'Alfheim' level in '9th Realm'


© Claire Morwood 2024