It always fascinates me to see an artist's style change over the years or decades. Ward Kimball drew these caricatures of colleague Harper Goff sometime during the 1950s. Goff was a Disney story man/art director for the film 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea. Alongside Kimball he also played the banjo in the Disney artists jazz band Firehouse Five Plus Two. I just found out that later he would art direct the iconic, original Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Kimball's graphic style is very much - labeled as - mid century modern. Sort of non Disney, experimental. But let's not forget that he co directed the 1953 short film Toot Whistle, Plunk & Boom at a time when a few Disney artists were trying to branch out into new visual horizons.
Here is a reminder of Kimball's drawing style a decade or so earlier. Fred Moore was setting the Disney style at that time. The characters looked round, dimensional and as Art Babbitt would say "juicy".
Both styles of course absolutely brilliant!!!
Mr Deja, your last post about Kimball still misattributes him a pencil drawing of the Mad Hatter which was done by John Lounsbery, according to Heritage Auctions and the original draft sheet - could you please clear up the confusion?
ReplyDeleteFor all to know:
ReplyDeleteMy last post on Ward Kimball included a drawing of the Mad Hatter by John Lounsbery. Yet Kimball's animation dominated the tone of that sequence of the film.
Wow awesome artwork. Very graphic and juicy lol. And Jimminy Cricket is one of the best Disney characters ever. It seems like a lot of animation was becoming more graphic in the 50s...you can almost see a similar if not milder trend in the mid 90s.
ReplyDelete