How Mr Skelly offers 'vulnerable connection' to love, death and grief

Mr Skelly is a character created by animator Christian Watson. (Supplied: Christian Watson)

An animation series tackling themes of grief, regret, love and gratitude has attracted an online fanbase of millions.

While the topics are often heavy, Tasmanian-based artist Christian Watson tries to balance his musings with levity and beauty.

Artist Christian Watson sets up his phone on his kitchen bench, ready to take a video, then hits record.

On cue, his four-year-old son, Alaska, jumps up into his arms.

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

Minutes later, Christian is in his home studio replaying the video on his tablet and drawing skeletons by hand over the moving figures.

That simple family video is quickly shaping into art that connects with millions of people around the world on social media.

Christian Watson is an American artist living in Tasmania. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)

Christian is the creator of Mr Skelly, an animated skeleton that delves into topics such as grief, regret, love and gratitude.

"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.

"We just wanted to create a character that anybody could find themselves relating to.

"Ever since he basically appeared on the screen, people have been putting themselves into his life."

To capture realistic movement, the skeletons are drawn over videos of Christian's family.

The backgrounds are then hand-painted digitally from photos.

"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.

"Then it becomes this little punch of story in seven seconds, which is really cool."

Christian's musings on life appear as captions to Mr Skelly.

"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.

Christian Watson says in Tasmania, "everywhere you look, it's like a painting". (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)

While the themes are often heavy, Christian aims to offset challenging topics with levity.

"I try to balance being a bit whimsical and fun … and talking about more difficult topics such as death or grief or trauma," he said.

The work has resonated with online audiences across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

In three years, the num