A Look Into Tim Burton’s Creative Process
“Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?”
The Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Frankenweenie. There’s no way you haven't at least heard of one of these movies. And when you think of Tim Burton, you likely envision his ghoulish characters, wide exaggerated eyes, and unique color palette. Born in Burbank, CA in 1958, Burton often felt isolated, an outsider. Despite this inability to “fit in,” Burton managed to feel comfortable with himself and all of his oddities, according to his interview with The New York Times. Much of this childhood experience would later inspire his aesthetic and stories that millions of people worldwide would come to know and love.
Burton’s Creative Process
Sketching
As could be seen in the exhibit, Inside the Mind of Tim Burton at the MoMA, Burton always uses sketching as a means of organizing thoughts and information — “the conduit of imagination and an important part of his thought process” (LACMA).
For the longest time, Burton decided that he couldn’t draw until teachers at his university, CalArts, said: “Don’t worry about it. If you like to draw, just draw” (NYTimes). This changed his mindset, unleashing his creativity and opening doors to all kinds of imaginative worlds. Many of Burton’s most prominent sketches are character design — sketches that capture all of the essences of a character; all their angles, expressions, and outfits.
“Burton is driven to create and likes to make things. He is an incessant sketcher, drawer, and doodler.” (LACMA)
German Expressionism Influence
Burton’s distinct style is recognizable by anyone who’s seen his movies. Creepy characters with dark, elongated features, circles around the eyes, and a washed-out complexion. Much of this style is heavily influenced by German expressionist artists and filmmakers in the early 20th century (LACMA).
Distortion, spooking shadows, heavy makeup, dreamlike settings, and some overarching feelings of dismay are characteristics of both Burton’s work and German expressionism. The scenes from The Cabinet of Caligari are strikingly similar to scenes in some of Burton’s movies. In particular, I found that this scene felt very similar to the famous scene from Nightmare Before Christmas compositionally.
Color
As analyzed in Little Burton Blue: Tim Burton and the Product(ion) of Color by Debbie Olsen, color is an essential part of Burton’s distinct style. Burton consistently creates compositions with “deeply saturated color that contacts markedly with monochrome colors.” Blues, greys, and purples make up the faces of the characters which allow for vibrant yellows, reds, and oranges to stand out.
Collaboration
Like many contemporary artists, Burton works with a team to bring his vision to life. Collaborating with artists, film composers, costume and production designers, animation character creators, and actors, Burton has been able to produce some of the most iconic pieces in film history. Tim Burton Productions was founded in the late 1980s by Burton himself.
Summary
Though there are no clear step-by-step instructions on how exactly Burton works his magic, I formulated a general methodology of creative practice based on Burton’s practices and influences.
- When creating a story you want to tell, sketch! Sketch all the angles of a character and don’t get too caught up in the details. Use sketching as a way to organize your idea and thoughts.
- Look to other art movements for inspiration. German expressionism clearly resonates with Tim Burton. Think about what kind of story you want to tell and see if there’s a period in art history that shares some of the elements of your story. Study why that movement is successful in having a specific connotation and emulate it in your own work.
- Use your own experience as inspiration. Burton’s stories are all influenced by his childhood and the isolation he experienced as a peculiar boy. Think about what parts of your life have impacted you the most while being relatable to a wider audience.
- Carefully select a color palette that reflects the mood of your story.
Application of Burton’s Creative Process
To try applying the techniques Burton uses for his films, I created a digital painting of an original character.
Outside Influence
A period of art history that I particularly enjoy is Fauvism (early 20th century). Fauvism is characterized by by strong colours and fierce brushwork. One of the most familiar fauvist artists is Henry Matisse (tate.org)
Henri Matisse 1905
For my comic, I decided to refer to this style of art for my color palettes, brush strokes, and composition.
Color Palette
After deciding to make my comic have a fauvist feel to it, I limited my colors to the colors in this beautiful fauvist painting.
Character Design
I sketched out the subject of my portrait from a few different angles and played with some hand gestures as well. The character is loosely based off of my face. I exaggerated and elongated the features as Burton would while still maintaining my own style.
Final Product
And here is my final product! I decided to make this piece digitally because I could still get the feel of brush strokes on my iPad while away from my desk and paints. Though the digital painting only captures one angle of my original character, I feel confident that I would be able to recreate the same style painting with the same character posed differently.
Conclusion
It was a really fun challenge to push my creativity to a different level by referring to Tim Burton’s creative process. If I’m being honest, I was hoping to find out about the stop motion process, but turns out he doesn't actually make the puppets himself. Regardless, his creatives processes and methods of storytelling were very insightful and can be applied to many other aspects of the arts and design.
A Worthwhile Reading
Works Cited
Bernstein, Rachel, et al. “Tim Burton: The Artist’s Process.” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011.
Burton, Tim, et al. Tim Burton. The Museum of Modern Art, 2009.
“Inside the Mind of Tim Burton.” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Dec. 2009, www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2009/1215/Inside-the-mind-of-Tim-Burton.
Itzkoff, Dave, and Tim Burton. “Tim Burton, at Home in His Own Head.” The New York Times, 19 Sept. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/movies/tim-burton-at-home-in-his-own-head.html.
Tate. “Fauvism.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fauvism.
“Tim Burton and the Product(Ion) of Color in the Fairy-Tale Films The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.” University Press of Kentucky, 2014, pp. 267–286. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vkkxt.16. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021.
“Tim Burton: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/313.
