After watching the film, i recently searched for and discovered a website that reveals Del Toro’s notebook which reveal sketches, development work and notes for characters and element that feature in the film:
http://www.hellboymovie.com/production/scrapbook/
The website (which is linked above) describes these sketches and notes, stating:
“As almost every fan knows, Guillermo Del Toro, the genius behind the Hellboy films, carries a little note book with him. Anyone that has gotten a chance to view his notebook knows that Guillermo is also a talented artist, and renders many initial characters himself. The beautiful little drawings are usually surrounded by copious notes; the combination of drawing and writing gives one a sense of precious ancient document. Guillermo has opened his scrapbook and allowed us to create an interactive look at the process of how he conceives the characters; Guillermo also did a video description to accompany each page giving an engaging look at the creative process.”
Like watching the film, I was again amazed by these detailed preliminary sketches and how these sketches have moved from an early drawing to the final sculptures without loosing any detail. (there is hardly any differences from Del Toro’s sketches to the final produced piece). An example of this can be seen when looking at the sketch of ‘Angel of death”.
As well as loving the working method of Del Toro. I was fascinated that the characters and background/sets in the film where actually created in a physical form as sculptures prosthetics, make up and props. I found this interesting because there are so many films in recent times that use CGI excessively and this idea made Hellboy II stand out and become unique because of its use of real materials and textures.
