Watchful Eye

Hello, I'm Lucas Gardner, (a.k.a. Watchful)
I'm an illustrator, designer, and filmmaker with a penchant for the graphical and grungy.
Welcome to my website—I made it just for you.

Portfolio

Contact

For any inquiries, do not hesitate to reach out to me at
[email protected]

FILM AND ANIMATION

Where We Were, September 2026

Video

experimental animation, TRT 00:06:30

The internet is a graveyard of unprecedented magnitude. So many virtual spaces lie abandoned, gutted of their occupants, slowly decaying. In time, all that's left is the warmth of nostalgia in those who remember Where We Were.Except, it isn't all that's left.The decomposition of these online spaces is halted, prevented, by the internet's unmatched capacity for preservation. The virtual terrain is littered with the mummified remains of these places and people indefinitely. Returning to that simulated warmth, then, is only a few short keystrokes away.Where We Were is a semi-surreal desktop exploration of the strange nostalgia we have—for places that never really existed and people we never really knew—and the abandonment that creates it.


I Wish I Could Forget You, June 2026

Video

experimental horror, TRT 00:03:25

When I was young, too young, I found a video of a real human death. It was, and still is, hard to put into words what that did to me, what it meant for my developing mind. I’ve always been able to feel it there, its infinitely rippling effects, but I never did find the words. Instead, I created images.

I Wish I Could Forget You is a reminder that the dampening spray of our old, heavy clouds are always going to exist. They will come and go, but they are tethered to us.

Techniques used:
3D animation, analog processing


BUGGED, May 2026

Video

It's hard to learn about yourself when the whole world seems to want you to learn about it instead.Spawned from the affects of noisy apartment living and influenced by my passion for entemology, visual effects, surrealism, and the flattened image, BUGGED started off as an experimental project that took on a more narrative shape as it progressed. Nonetheless, it was a fun opportunity to work with unusual set rigs and more complicated visual effects.Screened:
Trifest


MAKING FACES, March 2026

Video

experimental horror, TRT 00:04:30

Acceptable expression is something many people deal with--including myself. Often, I find my face motionless and irreproachably cold in times I have felt like expressing joy or sympathy or sorrow.Further still, the encroaching everpresence of technology within all aspects of life has imprinted upon me and many others the notion of being inadequate--falling short or sticking out in undesirable ways. Looking through technology to find meaningful expression has never felt right, but recently it has begun to feel much, much more wrong.Making Faces is about all of this. Taking influence from artists like Olivier de Sagazan and films like Dimensions of Dialogue, this film is my best attempt to express how I feel about expression.Screened:
Trifest, Dare to Dream


CITY SAFE, January 2026

Video

experimental, TRT 00:01:07

City is sweet and surreal and nice / city is cold and killed and infested with monsters to hurt us.

An experimental structural/collage/documentary film manifesting the fear, dread and rage that institutional, unconstitutional violence instills in its urban public—its victims. CITY SAFE is a maddened response to this ever-impending, ever-impinging threat.

Techniques used:
slow-shutter photography, thermal printing, direct animation
Screened:
DePaul Premiere, Chicago Underground Film Festival


ALL FILMS

Animation Reel (2024)

Video

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