Mitchell's In England...Again

I've been on vacation since the near-end of June, which is virtually impossible for me. The process of switching off, winding down and 'relaxing' is never as smooth or comfortable as it sounds. Time to myself with nothing to do but while away the hours conferring with the flowers (and, I dare say, consulting with the rain) is a lovely concept, but after half an hour the grim spectre of my duck zombie manifests in my mind's eye. "Get back to work, you fucking layabout!" It hoarsely barks at me, "And get a girlfriend while you're at it - you're twenty-three years old, for chrissakes!"
While the Laurentians don't boast many sprightly young females with unaccountably low standards, they do make for an ideal setting to get work done without feeling like you're doing so. As such I returned to the UK with a full production schedule that takes me through to September, the main job for the remainder of July being the surprisingly enjoyable task of creating full-scale poses and layouts which can later be used as visual references for the eventual animation. These are more-or-less reproductions of certain parts of the storyboard artwork, and as they are intended to be rough visual guides they aren't cleaned-up or inked in. To start with, here are a handful from the first two scenes:

Each sketch incorporates both the still elements and an indication of the moving elements, which will be layered separately when properly animated. For example, the Kid's body and the rocks will stay still, while the fish and the Kid's face will have some movement.

This layout accomodates a shot that pans upward, starting with the Kid's legs that walk into shot, going up to reveal his face.

This pic is a set-up for a 'take' (a surprised reaction, when the Kid realises the seemingly-dead Duck has flown away), starting with an initially deadpan expression for emphasis.

A proportional sketch for two shots of the pre-zombie Duck in silhouette (so there's no real detail included, we never see him properly until after his zombification...I think that's a word), one in which the Duck is swimming, the other for when he is mounted which includes the legs.

I've got loads of these to do, so expect a whole heap posted up here the next couple weeks. It's all incrementally coming together...