Since 2023, Christian Watson’s hand-drawn animated skeleton, Mr Skelly, has amassed more than eight million followers on social media platforms. Elle-May Watson captures the world through her camera lens. Together, they’ve built a creative life in Tasmania that’s as inspiring as their art.

Mr Skelly was first sketched in 2023. What was the spark?

Christian: While I definitely love the idea of Mr Skelly being invented for my children, Lavender and Alaska, it was more of a collaboration of purposes, as opposed to strictly being for them. The truth is, coming out of a tumultuous time as a family and relocating from Queensland to Tasmania, we were after peace. I have always imagined myself as a skeleton, often wondering how much it might be to purchase a full x-ray of my­self. I collect a lot of antique taxidermy, historical things, etc, and always find my own finite mortality quite interesting, so I set out to draw myself a simplified skele­ton. Up to that point, I had been practic­ing basic animation and digital painting, combined with our yearning for peace. I wrote the quote: “Life’s too short not to be at peace” over a field of flowers and an animated drawing of myself as a skeleton – soon to become what’s now known as Mr Skelly! It was so well received around the world, that it sparked a new idea in me to help this character grow.

Skeletons can live in territory of fear or kitsch, yet Mr Skelly offers warmth. How did/do you cultivate that?

Christian: I love branding, and I hate the concept of our skeletons being consid­ered evil or spooky things or even simply Halloween decorations. Skeletons hold our lives up every single day and often are neglected for all the good they do. I really wanted to simplify a skeleton and take away the often-seen harshness, soft­en the features, and pair it with whimsi­cal movements and magical backgrounds to create what you see now.

The frame-by-frame, hand-drawn ani­mation is unique these days. Why is this important to your creative process?

Christian: There is a resurgence hap­pening among illustrators and animators to bring back slow processes, even in the face of AI, as a way to self-express. I animate, for example, in 12fps, or frames per second, animating on “ones” which means every one frame is held for only the length of the frame. So for an average of seven seconds of a video, we hand draw 84 individual frames. I think you get a lot of beauty in this process by being realistic and imperfect along the way.

Elle-May, your photography is beau­tifully atmospheric. Where does that come from creatively?

Elle-May: It’s just a mode of feeling I have, my most comfortable outlet is world building. I’ve always daydreamed a lot. I took up photography around 14 and never really stopped so I guess it’s a default outlet for me, (probably to regu­late my thoughts and feelings too).

You’ve described your life as one where work and living are inseparable. Are there days you’d both love an off switch or is it mostly rosy?

Elle-May: No. I feel like we’ve moved towards what we have loved and in that, there is also all the aspects of home/ personal life building. Sometimes things get to be A LOT but I’d say Christian is really good at handling things head on and I’m good at taking a step back for perspective, so in that, for most of the time, we can balance out any tension of work or home life and I get satisfaction in figuring it out 🙂

Christian: Elle is right in that we have a pretty good balance, if one is stressed out, the other jumps in. I think neither of us project our situations onto the other, we kind of just allow the space for one another to do what’s necessary and come back down to earth from difficult moments. It’s pretty rare that we share together in stress, and make sure that we aren’t dumping on one another, haha. For the most part, it’s all integrated, and it’s good because of it.

What’s one thing each of you does that the other could never do?

Elle-May: It’s hard to say could never, maybe I’m taking the question too seri­ously, lol, I feel like I’m not the best at branding – that Christian does really well, in that, probably management too!

Christian: I have a very hard time being as spontaneous as Elle-May is, she is so quick to do things that are truly incred­ible, and I wish so much that I could be like that haha. But my brain unfortunately prevents it, I am way too desperate for organisation and planning. But it honest­ly all equals out on the scales.

You’ve lived in Oregon, Queensland, and now Tasmania. Why here?

Christian: Tasmania is a perfect cumu­lation of all of the places we have ever visited or lived, that we have loved. It has incredible weather, history, good food, it’s reclusive just enough that we can enjoy our privacy and quiet walks down the beach. It really is such a haven for us as artists and people, and I don’t think either of us can imagine ourselves yearning to live anywhere else.

What does winter unlock for you, creatively or personally?

Christian: I love when the light feels like dusk all day, love waking and going to bed (not sleeping but cosy in bed) when the sun goes down and just time to really feel restful. I also LOVE the intensity of the wind we can get on the Peninsula, days where the wind and water unleash together, going to the shoreline, running out in it, then getting cosy inside.

Elle-May, is there a quality to the winter light in Tasmania that you actively chase with your camera?

Elle-May: Always the fog and mist, I love it in all seasons. I also love those really dark days of winter or the ones where it’s dusk light all day!

What does your perfect winter day in Tasmania look like?

Elle-May: Feet in the ocean as the sun is rising, with our children, to play/ explore/build something in nature or photograph, an empty beach but lots of wildlife (always exciting to see what’s washed up, too). Get home to the fire­place lit and the slow cooker brewing something we can eat all day alongside fresh baked bread, drip coffee going. Time to read a little, play music or paint, good discussions, watch an intriguing movie and just be inspired!

You can check out Mr Skelly by following on Instagram and Facebook at @1924us, and Elle- May’s work at @ellemaywatson. They have also just released their first Mr Skelly book, How Lucky Am I to preorder via www.1924.us.