I think it is always interesting to compare preparatory work with the final illustration, especially when you are looking at art from Marc Davis. These color images are stunning, but it's the pencil sketches that tell you how Marc approached the research for his characters and compositions.
These images are as good as it gets when it comes to staging ideas for personalities and environments.
The pencil sketches were pinned onto a board and photographed in August of 1960. Marc had finished work on Cruella De Vil, but 101 Dalmatians wouldn't be in theaters until January of 1961.
I see the same confidence with which Marc animated Cruella displayed here in the designs for Chanticleer, which was hopefully going to be the next animated feature.
Disney anthropomorphic animals enter a modern aera, more designy and sophisticated than anything from the Golden Age of Animation.
To this day they cry out to be animated…as moving drawings.
ReplyDeleteinstructive!!!awesome:)
Thank you for sharing these. It´s interesting to see how he tested and changed poses and compositions.
ReplyDeletePure gold. I love how expressive these drawings are, how bold and clear the shape language is! Makes me want to push myself harder! :)
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ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever tried to put all this Chanticleer art into some sort of chronological order to tell the story? With a beginning, middle, and end?
ReplyDeleteIn 1991 Disney published this 32 pages version of Chanticleer:
Deletehttp://www.amazon.com/Chanticleer-Fox-Chaucerian-Disney-Archives/dp/1562820222/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378952543&sr=1-2&keywords=chanticleer+and+the+fox
Awesome. Thanks for the heads up!
DeleteYeah we have that, and glad it was done at such a good time too.
DeleteVery inspiring, thank you!
ReplyDeleteSigh. It's too good not to be animated. I'm a bit curious about the story as well. :D
ReplyDeleteI remember an article, in which Bill Peet explained that he had a great clash with Marc Davis over the Chanticleer project, and that ultimately the Jungle Book received priority (which was favoured by Bill), and obviously Marc was very upset with this. Did Marc Davis and Bill Peet ever reconciled over it, or never spoke to each other?
ReplyDeleteThank you immensely Mr. Deja for the illustration examples, students can truly learn a great deal out of them, even the colour composition is very instructional for us.
It was actually Sword in the Stone, Chanticleer was up against.
DeleteI don't think Marc was upset with B.Peet. However he was upset when a management person spoke up during a Chanticleer meeting that included Walt Disney. That person said: I don't think you can get personality out of a chicken!
Marc and Bill remained friends and had a lot of respect for one another.
Thank you for your kind reply, because in a late 1980's photo I saw Marc and Bill talking at some academic meeting, so I didn't understand the bad things written in that article, but now I have a clear picture, it is important for me to know history as it actually happened.
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