Reference Page for the Witch's House

Inside the Witch's House - Layout

Story Beat #14: A feast for Hansel & Gretel

Color and style inspired by Ratatouille.

Top Down Map

Story Beats

First pass at story beats for the Hansel & Gretel fairytale.

Final Witch's House in Eyvind Earle Style

Another Eyvind Earle style

When Hansel & Gretel are lost in the woods, they find two white doves that lead them to the witch's house...

Early concept inspired by Eyvind Earle

I love how he stylizes the trees and how the light hits them and casts shadows.

Updated Color Version

Color Version

Village Entrance

A more detailed render exploring lighting and design of the buildings in grayscale.

More ideas for the village Hansel and Gretel live in.

Thumbnail concepts

The Haunted Forest

Some thumbnails for the forest that Hansel & Gretel get lost in. It's a magical place. The trees are gnarled and creepy, resembling spiders.

More of the Witch's Kitchen

The Witch's Kitchen

This is the heart of the witch's house: the kitchen where she manufactures her cookies. It's dark and gloomy filled with firey stoves and gears powered by running hamsters. The witch keeps chickens inside to provide a constant flow of eggs to make an endless supply of dough.

I've been working on a few different thumbnails of this location and choosing a few of my favorites to take to finish. The film "Edward Scissorhands" has been an inspiration.

Updated Gingerbread Environment

With a few color and value adjustments, I added some warmth to the lighting and more focus on the house.

Pastry Cart Designs

Various design ideas for the pastry cart that the witch uses to transport her "Sugar & Spice" Pastries to the town. The designs are all based off of a combination of the See's Candy store and the look of her gingerbread house.

The Witch's House Progress

I changed the composition a bit, widening the view so more of the surrounding environment could be seen. I plan to add more detail to the foreground elements in the next version of the painting and make any final adjustments to the lighting/composition.

Porch Close-up

Tower Close-up

This is the room where the witch keeps the children who spend the night at her house. At first sight, Hansel and Gretel think they've died and gone to heaven when they stumble upon the candy house. They're unaware that the house is a sweet prison.

Textured Model

It took me about 1 1/2 weeks to get it textured and lit in Maya. My husband, Eric, helped me out a lot with the lighting. Some adjustments where made in Photoshop, where I composited the render layers. Additional renders are soon to come...

New 3D Model

After making changes to the design, I updated the model of the house. This is a Maya render of the new version with Direct lights: a key light and multiple bounce and fill lights. My intent with the lighting is to showcase the model only. Later I plan to render it with lighting that supports the overall mood and story.

Updated Gingerbread House Design

3D Model of the Gingerbread House

Here is stage one of the Witch's house with simple lighting . It's in 3/4 view so it can be used as a starting point for designing and painting a final concept of the house.

House on the Hill Final - After Revisions

Jerry Loveland, a great friend and mentor of mine, reviewed my latest version of this painting and gave me some great feedback that helped me make some improvements...I made the fg values closer together so they would read better as a group. I made the staging stronger using more focused lighting. I also redesigned the house a bit to give it more character.

Witch's Ravine Layout

This is my block in of the Witch's house in the ravine, deep in the woods. My intent is to make the tower on the right the focal point since that is where Hansel and Gretel will be held captive. It will be early morning or late afternoon and the soon will be lighting the tower, foreshadowing that that's where they will end up. The secondary point of focus will be on the front door because I want the house to feel inviting

Reference for the Witch's Environment

House on the Hill Color final

Witch House Designs

This is my first attempt at designing the Witch's house which is made of gingerbread and other sweets. As you can see, I haven't added any candy decor to it yet. I'm thinking of keeping the effect subtle so that her house appears to be old, run down and eaten by the dozens of other children who found it prior to Hansel and Gretel. The idea is that it's falling apart and she's in the process of baking and cooking a schmorgasboard of new treats to fix it up.

Leaf Designs

Some graphic leaf designs that could be used as Photoshop brushes for trees and bushes.

Tree Designs

Tree designs inspired by Open Season, Eyvind Earle

House on the Hill Color v01

Color Key

I went with a purple & yellow complimentary color scheme to represent early morning. I think some subtle godrays coming from the top left would make the light direction clearer..

House on the Hill v02 Tonal

Final Tonal version of Hansel & Gretel's house on the hill, overlooking town. It's early morning and their mother sent them to the bakery to buy bread with the last of their money.

House on the Hill v01

Lighting & Composition Studies

Early development sketches to help me decide the best composition and lighting for some of the story's early shots.

Village House Designs

These are some of the designs I came up with for the houses in the village where Hansel and Gretel live. The architecture style is medieval and I'm going for a slightly wonky, cartoon shape style with a painterly feel.



Next, I'll be designing Hansel & Gretel's house which is located on a hill, outside of town...