I know...the concept artists seem to have a better rendering of scenes from the book than the writers.

that's awesome! it looks so close to what you see in the movie! it's so epic!

Thanks so much for posting all this, Icarus! I kept looking at the artists' sites trying to find some art, any art, and then I just didn't have time to keep checking...

Some of those peices are beautiful; I love Min Yum's 'Bedroom', and a lot of the cave concepts. Michele Moen's art of Ramandu's Island is just as I always imagined it.

Suspian . I'm glad that got axed, though it makes for a lovely storyboard. I think it odd that Coriakin says that Octesian was an old and dear friend; that wasn't in the books, and I'm not sure how it would have panned out...

The more I think about that particular Nelson storyboard of Coriakin saying Octesian was a good friend, along with that pic of him and Ed and Lucy supposedly meeting the Dragoned Eustace (and saying it was "steep price to pay for avarice") the more I think maybe they probably tried to combine Magician's Island with Dragon Island, but possibly changed their minds. Or maybe Coriakin accompanied them Dragon Island? Just speculating....

Um...I wasn't sure where else to post this.

Whilst on a epic journey for more concept art, I revisited the website of Greg Spalenka, concept artist for VDT. There are some images there I've never seen before...and some I have. He's posted several of those 'forbidden concept peices' that appeared quite some time ago, and then were taken down. Here's the link to the first one I'm sure IS Narnian. There are some there that might be, might not be.

http://spalenka.com/transfer/large/productiondesign09/09.html

I'd love it if someone would take a look and help tell what's what. I'm afraid some of the images look, er, a bit like an underwater witch, particularly the ones just before the image I posted.

There are also some more pictures in the Character Design/Texture section of his site, of a sea serpent and some sacrifice victims.

EDIT: And it looks like you can't get to all of them just by the thumbnails on the gallery; you have to click through the images one by one. Not all the pictures have thumbnails for some reason.

Wow, I wish the concept artists had actually been the scriptwriters.

Update #3:

100+ pieces of concept art from the website of Dorotka Sapinska (some of the pieces form part of an official Art Department presentation given on 25th July 2008 and so contains artwork from other artists, such as Michelle Moen, Min Yum, John Dickenson, Brendan Heffernan, Greg Bridges, Geoff Kemmis, Greg Spalenka, Evan Shipard, Justin Sweet)

There is a lot of artwork here detailing events from the "leaked script" era of the project, including a map of the island order as it was intended at the time (#56/114) which has Dark Island in the middle and "The Lair of the Green Witch" towards the end instead, and artwork for a "Sea People Attack" (#99/114) which looks kind of interesting. There are also extensive design drawings for various elements of the ship itself. Well worth checking them all out.

http://dorotkasapinska.com/archive/desi ... n-treader#

In general, the concept art looks better than the film versions. The River God concept art was EPIC.

Interesting to see they were heavily into pre-production in July 2008 (before an official green-light). Might the same be going on now for Magician's Nephew? Hmmm.

And I also thought the "Caspian's 1st Dream" slide was interesting...oh, to have the ENTIRE leaked script...

Now, when I read that script long ago, it didn't have any interaction between Caspian and Aslan - but these concept pieces and a few others showed Caspian in something that looked like Aslan's country. Anyone know what that was supposed to be about?

Now, when I read that script long ago, it didn't have any interaction between Caspian and Aslan - but these concept pieces and a few others showed Caspian in something that looked like Aslan's country. Anyone know what that was supposed to be about?

From the looks of his artwork which depicts the end of the world (here), only the three children (Edmund, Lucy and Eustace) go to the very edge of the world (unlike the final movie where Caspian goes with them, and Reepicheep has not yet departed in his coracle) so my guess would be that in the earlier scripts Caspian gets his own personal farewell scene with Aslan.

From the looks of it, Aslan first appears to him via the Gold engraving on the wall of the Cabin as depicted in this piece here (similar to the scene in the book where Caspian throws a tantrum) and then i would imagine that perhaps leads into some sort of dream-like sequence in which Caspian is "transported" (whether literally or not) to Aslans Country to talk with Aslan face-to-face, such as depicted here.

Thank you Icarus for the updated link. I love the concept art! Wonder if a lot of the ideas for scenes/shots were left undone not only for changed script reasons but for money?

I love this one: http://dorotkasapinska.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Dawn-Treader-009-696x386.jpg

Nice envisioning of the avenue of trees Lucy walks down to get to the Magician's house.

Very nice! My favorite concept is the Tumnus-and-Lucy leaded window.

Can anyone tell me if the other designers are likely to update their sites with more art once, say, the DVD comes out? I want higher-res versions of these!

WOW, some of that art is beautiful. My favourite is the one of Lucy in Coriakin's library.

Some of those cut-and-paste jobs are hilarious, though. Lucy's head on Susan's dresses, slapped in the middle of an island...I know it's not supposed to look very good, but it still makes me laugh.

Update #4:

Along the same lines as Concept Art and Storyboards, i've now got some Pre-Viz material to add to the list. Again, it gives another fascinating insight into the early days of the production and the direction they were once considering.

The video is on the website of Pre-Viz artist Rob Ostir, and can be found at the link below. The video starts with a non-VDT sequence for a something, which has three children on a log flume ride, but i'd just ignore it (it's very definitely not VDT) but after that you get to see two Pre-Viz scenes which are unmistakably from Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The first scene features Lucy in her familiar VDT outfit sitting below deck amongst some barrells reading a book when she notices a sea-girl riding a sea-horse outside under the sea - the sea girl then gets caught up in a fishing net (perhaps useful to refer back to the previous concept art on Dorotka Sapinska's website regarding the presumably later Sea People attack)

The second scene has the familiar battle between the Sea Serpent and the dragon, though this would appear to be the old LOTGK-era version of the scene. If you refer back to the concept art on Dorotka Sapinska's website regarding this scene, you will notice the ways in which it is different from the final movie version - most notably it takes place during the day, and not inside the Dark Island, and also the way the Sea Serpent appears to be more LOTGK-oriented. Also note the way Eustace slips down into the water at the end - the previous concept art showed him then sinking down under the sea, which somehow leads into his undragoning scene on a similar sort of sandy island.

During that sequence you may also notice a very familiar bit of Pre-Viz of the Sea Serpent jumping straight up from the water towards the camera which i believe we saw in one of the Prince Caspian DVD special features. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.rostir.com/PREVIS.html

Wow, where do you find these things? Interesting how dragon Eustace seems more likely thought And I'm glad they didn't end up having a battle with the sea people...that would have been way too much. The sea serpent battle pre-viz for some reason reminds me (in a bad way) of the Godzilla movies I used to watch as a kid.

Thanks Icarus. It was very interesting to watch. I'm surprised how much more developed these Pre-Viz scenes were than ones from LWW. I mean considering their role, they were pretty good.