{"id":705343,"date":"2026-05-31T01:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705343\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T01:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:03:15","slug":"mr-skelly-animations-tackling-human-themes-of-death-loss-winning-over-fans-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705343\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr Skelly animations tackling human themes of death, loss winning over fans worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artist Christian Watson sets up his phone on his kitchen bench, ready to take a video, then hits record.<\/p>\n

On cue, his four-year-old son, Alaska, jumps up into his arms.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Videos of the family are overlaid with hand-drawn skeletons to capture realistic human movement. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Minutes later, Christian is in his home studio replaying the video on his tablet and drawing skeletons by hand over the moving figures.<\/p>\n

That simple family video is quickly shaping into art that connects with millions of people around the world on social media.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Christian Watson is an American artist living in Tasmania. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Christian is the creator of Mr Skelly, an animated skeleton that delves into topics such as grief, regret, love and gratitude.<\/p>\n

“We gave him a name, Mr Skelly, but we’ve always thought we can’t really tell if it’s a man or a woman or a boy or a girl, or if it’s an old person. You can’t tell the race, the gender, the religious beliefs,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We just wanted to create a character that anybody could find themselves relating to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Ever since he basically appeared on the screen, people have been putting themselves into his life.”<\/p>\n

Storytelling in seven seconds<\/p>\n

To capture realistic movement, the skeletons are drawn over videos of Christian’s family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The backgrounds are then hand-painted digitally from photos.<\/p>\n

“We storyboard everything together and overlay the videos of Mr Skelly that we animate onto these backgrounds. We then add in sound effects, music and quotes,” Christian said.<\/p>\n

“Then it becomes this little punch of story in seven seconds, which is really cool.”<\/p>\n

Christian’s musings on life appear as captions to Mr Skelly.<\/p>\n

“I’ve shared a lot of these messages before through other mediums and have never found a similar response as when I did it with a skeleton,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really funny because I should have always known that a skeleton would be accessible to everybody.”\"A<\/p>\n

Christian Watson says in Tasmania, “everywhere you look, it’s like a painting”. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

While the themes are often heavy, Christian aims to offset challenging topics with levity.<\/p>\n

“I try to balance being a bit whimsical and fun \u2026 and talking about more difficult topics such as death or grief or trauma,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I try to put Mr Skelly into these situations [with] beautiful backgrounds like mountains or spring flowers.”<\/p>\n

The work has resonated with online audiences across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.<\/p>\n

In three years, the number of Mr Skelly followers has grown from about 300,000 to more than 8 million.<\/p>\n

Many comment on how the posts have helped them to navigate their own challenges.<\/p>\n

“Every day you get more and more people who are genuinely coming because they feel a vulnerable connection with Mr Skelly and the animations,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That gives me so much inspiration. That people are motivated in some way to better their lives or to overcome whatever hardship they’re enduring. It’s special for me.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Skelly is a “character that anybody could find themselves relating to”. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

The content has done so well that Christian employs a small team of artists he has met through Instagram.<\/p>\n

Christian’s wife, artist Elle-May Watson, also collaborates.<\/p>\n

“We break a lot of things down in communication together and then we speak about the world as a whole,” Elle-May said.<\/p>\n

“That’s where we connect as a couple as well, and then that helps provide a lot of the inspiration for the quotes.”\"A<\/p>\n

Elle-May Watson collaborates with her husband Christian Watson on the Mr Skelly artworks. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Tasmanian landscape ‘like a painting’<\/p>\n

US-born Christian grew up in the state of Oregon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He spent some time in Queensland where Elle-May is from, before the couple moved to Nubeena in southern Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Home for the young family is a tiny coastal town on the Tasman Peninsula, 90 minutes’ drive south-east of Hobart.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Christian Watson says Nubeena “is the epitome of what it means to be peaceful”. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

“Coming here was a big mental reset,” Elle-May said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“Being surrounded by the water and getting our own space as a family. It’s been really nice just to have room to think and create a slower life for ourselves.”<\/p>\n

The local landscape inspires much of the background art for Mr Skelly.<\/p>\n

“Everywhere you look it’s like a painting, it’s so beautiful. I’m constantly inspired by little vignettes I see of fields of flowers or mountain scenes or water scenes,” Christian said.<\/p>\n

“When I moved to Nubeena, I was like, ‘this place is the epitome of what it means to be peaceful’. I just wanted to actualise that in art.”<\/p>\n

Christian is a vocal critic of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in art.<\/p>\n

“I understand that there are some benefits from AI, from technological advancements and medicinal advancements, which is wonderful,” he said.<\/p>\n

“What we’re seeing a lot of now, especially online, is artists who are losing their work to AI or having their work stolen in order to train AI models.<\/p>\n

“You don’t really feel like you own anything, which is a really hard thing for an artist because it’s a part of our identity that this work we create is ours.”<\/p>\n

Despite his reservations, Christian’s connection with his audience motivates him to continue.<\/p>\n

“There’s so much to be hopeful for in this world. Life is a beautiful gift, despite all of its difficulties,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I just hope for the best in everybody and that we can make this world feel a little bit more like home for each other.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artist Christian Watson sets up his phone on his kitchen bench, ready to take a video, then hits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[343180,1840,293119,64,63,9841,1300,134,2456,1202,343179,343181,149228,8539,248038,2801,101],"class_list":["post-705343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-1924us","tag-animation","tag-animator","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christian-watson","tag-death","tag-entertainment","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-mr-skelly","tag-procreate","tag-skeleton","tag-tas","tag-tasman-peninsula","tag-tasmania","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}