Above is Tim Burton’s studio. Wherever he goes in the world he brings the cork boards where he can pin up doodles, sketches, paintings,fragments of information and survey them for inspiration.

it all begins with drawing. At the start of this fascinating exhibition at the Design Museum we learn that young Tim Burton grew up in Burbank, a suburb of Los Angeles where life was very quiet, ordered and conventional. But Tim loved monsters and disrupters – characters or creatures who enter ‘normal’ environments and cause chaos and change. I really liked this example of life drawing, above. He has drawn the model but just look, down below is a fantasy creature – clearly far more interesting to the artist than the pose in front of him.

Having established that he was going to use his artistic talent to make his living, Burton spent some formative years working for Disney, creating animations. Too slow. No, he wanted a far speedier medium. Yes, the creations might all begin as pencil sketches or paintings but soon they became 3D entities when models were made. The world of stop-frame animation suited him far better. With his team of designers, he would create the body of a character and then make a dozen different heads with a variety of expressions which would, ultimately, create the moving image.

This extensive exhibition has some great examples of costumes and props. I was really interested to see the Edward Scissorhands costume – made with a real mash up of fabrics, leather, buckles and buttons.

Not only figures but whole ‘worlds’ are brought to life through these models.

I think this exhibition will entrance all Tim Burton fans and inspire any budding animators, artists or film makers to consider ways of bringing their imagination to life. Definitely a show to catch. It’s on until 21st April 2025.