A few of my early Black Cauldron exploratory sketches were recently auctioned off at Heritage Auctions. They come from the film's producer's Joe Hale estate.
I made the drawing above while I was still in Germany before joining Disney in August of 1980.
I had read Lloyd Alexander's books after finding out that Disney was going to produce an animated feature based on his story material.
I still think Alexander's books are fantastic, and would make for a terrific live action film. Or a Netflix series.
I mentioned this before, that when trying to design the oracular pig Hen Wen, a big sow came to mind because she was supposed to have magical visions.
But instead I was asked to come up with a cute piglet type for whatever reason.
If I remember correctly this witches sketch was also done way back in Germany.
This rough design of Taran was based on something Tim Burton had drawn. The idea being to somehow "disneyfy" Tim's character concepts. Well...that just didn't work.
Whoever ended up with these pieces needs to know that the medium used was felt pen and Magic Markers. When framed it is essential to use UV glass, otherwise the colors will fade drastically.
