Welcome to the official blog/website for the animated short film Stripes. Stripes is to be an approximately 10 minute animated film about two boys in Kenya who have one of their lambs stolen by a zebra. My name is Heather Larkin and I will be writing, directing and animating Stripes. This page will have the latest updates on the status of the project. Look out for visual development art, story art, rough and finished animations, step-by-step tutorials, and more. If you are interested in supporting or collaborating on this project, please see the Support Stripes! page for more info.
Some pen and copic marker sketches I did while writing the script:

tortoise

a man bringing sticks to sell for charcoal

zebra!

yay!

a stripes problem

fighting

lamb and oryx

boys meet zebra

new friends

uh-oh

ostrich

no no no

lion!

rolling
(This is scene two out of seven)
Mid-morning. The sun is out in earnest. P and J and the livestock come to a paved, black asphalt road. The livestock arrive first, and cluster along the road (knowing not to cross). When P arrives behind them, he looks carefully left and right. On the opposite side of a road, a man is pushing forward a bicycle loaded up with bags of sticks for making charcoal. A rusted old car with comes down the road, bouncing as it runs into a pothole. The coast clear, P leads the sheep and goats across the road.
J comes up to the road last, looking bored. He looks over and sees a tortoise (safely) on the edge of the road. Excited he runs toward it. The tortoise stops and hunkers down as J gets closer. J touches its shell. J turns around and calls to P. P is at the edge of the road, having led all the livestock across. He looks back and runs over to J. He sees the tortoise and is excited. J is clearly happy to have found it and share it with P. P sits on his haunches next to J, and starts to reach out to touch the tortoise’s beautiful shell.
Honk honk! P and then J whip around. A big truck filled with goods is barreling down the road. His little striped lamb is walking back into the middle of the road. It bleats as the truck approaches. P gasps. The lamb decides to lie down, even as the truck draws closer. Honk honk! P freaks out and gets up, ready to run. J tries to stop him, but P goes for it, dashing down the road, picking up the lamb and getting out of the way, just as the truck zooms by. (J covers his eyes.) The truck is followed by a massive cloud of dust. Amazed, J runs across the road, through the dust, to P. P, a little shaky, breathes deeply. P and J exchange looks. P gives the lamb a withering scowl. The boys hear the squeak of the charcoal man’s bicycle and decide to climb down away from the road.

Animals of Kenya (from left to right): vervet monkey, elephant, oryx, warthog, impala (full body and head)

Animals of Kenya (from left to right): vulture, baboons (x2), ostrich, guinea fowl (x5), dik dik, hornbill
These are preparatory sketches of some animals found in Kenya. Doing these realistic drawings from reference help me to design the film versions of the characters.