Here is Ward, practically as a kid at about twenty-five, animating rich acting scenes with one of his iconic characters Jiminy Cricket. It is astonishing to realize just how young the Disney crew was when the studio produced its early classic films.
Just look at one of his rough animation drawings. It's solid, full of life, has a ton of flair and that Disney charm. According to Kimball and the other animators it was Walt Disney, who was able to get his artists to this unimaginable level of excellence, and had them do things they didn't know they were capable of doing. Walt's exuberant passion for the animated medium rubbed off on everybody.
Terrific story sketches like this one served as a springboard for great character animation.
Kimball was a fantastic artist. 'Fantastic' in the sense that he had great imaginary powers and could put them down on paper, stretching caricature as well as fantastical morphing of creatures to a level previously unimagined in animation. He also seemed to have all consuming love of art that fueled all of this. Maybe this is why he didn't enjoy working from heavy live-action reference? Was it boring to him? It seems he could have done it, but out of his own genius, desired not to since there was nothing to explore in it.
ReplyDeleteIt´s fun to see, that after over 70 year animation is still superb. And also that, that i work same way, just paper , pencil and lightable. :)
ReplyDeleteHiya there.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome picture you have here.
I've been, for some time, wanting to seen a Exposure sheet from the old day, and there it is.
I think it would be really good to study some old animation, but not just the drawings, also the XSheet.
Could this be possible?
Having more detailed scans or pictures from XSheet's?