Next week Heritage Auctions will auction artwork from Laika Studios, marking the first time that the Portland-based animation studio has ever made its production artwork available to the public.
All three of the studio’s features will be represented in the auction: Coraline, ParaNorman, and its current Oscar-nominated film The Boxtrolls. But the artwork from Coraline, the studio’s first release in 2009, is especially rare because it is the only one of those three films that never had a proper ‘art of’ book. (The film had a “visual companion” book that I recall being largely film stills and photos, but light on artwork.) And while the art-book ship has sailed, Heritage’s auction is a nice consolation prize offering a unique look into the pre-production and concept art made for the film.
The gallery below showcases some of the Coraline development art that will be auctioned. The artists represented include Aaron Sorenson, Mike Cachuela, Tadahiro Uesugi, Stef Choi, Bill Boes, Dan Krall, and director Henry Selick. Many of the artists haven’t been identified by the auction house, so if you can fill in the blanks, please comment.