Medusa, Woman of many Faces

These are a few more of Milt Kahl's extraordinary roughs for Madame Medusa.

It's the range of expression that floors me. Look at the mouth shapes, they can be small, almost minimal, or wide...and I mean WIDE open.

Milt said in an interview:" I sometimes go very far with open mouth shapes, more than other animators. I guess, I am feeling something there...."

As a matter of fact,  the mouth is open so wide, he almost breaks the jaw.

But....if you ever studied people's dialogue when they are in an extreme mood,

or singing (especially opera), you find out these extremes exist in real life.

Part of animating believable dialogue is to go this far OCCASIONALLY when a particular strong vowel calls for it. 

A character says :"How are you?". Which of the three words is emphasized?

It could be either one. Listen to the track and decide . Go bigger on that one vowel.

If you have a big mouth shape on ALL three, your dialogue and acting will look

too broad, overdone and unnatural. On the other hand if you don't go broad once in a while, your animation will look bland and too understated.

All this stuff comes with experience and developing an opinion about when a piece of dialogue looks and FEELS right in animation.

Early "Jungle Book"

Here are a few "Jungle Book" pre production images I want to share with you.

The first painting is a background study by Walt Peregoy. Walt had been in charge of color and some layouts for "101 Dalmatians" and "Sword in the Stone".

He brought a great sense of experimentation to these projects with unusual colors and strong graphic design.

By the time the style of  "Jungle Book" was being developed, Walt Disney opted for a softer, more painterly look for the backgrounds. Peregoy disagreed with that approach and left the studio.

Personally I love the final art direction, but a jungle influenced by Peregoy's abstractions would have been stunning, too.

This is a simple Peregoy jungle backdrop with a character cel overlay.

The drawing is by Milt Kahl, and I love the rough quality in it.

Here we have another early Milt Kahl drawing, made into a painted cel. It's interesting to see that Milt drew black spots on Bagheera. I think it looks kind of cool as it reflects the appearance of a real black panther. But for economical and perhaps aesthetic reasons they were dropped in the final design.

As far as the background sketch, I am 90% sure it is the work of Vance Gerry.

In any case it's interesting to study these works in progress and to find out what kind of art was produced to get to the final result.

TS Sullivant 3

Another selection of TS Sullivant illustrations from Life Magazine.

The beautiful balance between detail and simplification is something worth studying. Look at the lioness in the first image for example. Her face, hands and feet are drawn with realism, her upright body pose is effectively simple.

Everything reads very well. Lesson: Simplicity is best, add a few details to give the design some texture and focus.

The rhino in the next cartoon is pure joy, proportions and appeal to perfection.

Sullivant draws everything well, and with a sense of invention. Bunnies, tigers, monkeys, humans and even dinosaurs. Although the dialogue on that one makes you kind of sick, knowing what it refers to. Gotta love your animals...

On a different note, Milt Kahl's daughter Sybil has left a comment on the Madame Medusa post.
It's pretty funny, check it out!

Professor Ludwig von Drake

One of my favorite Disney characters! 

Milt Kahl came up with his final design in 1960, based on the classic Donald Duck formula. But by then Milt had studied Picasso, and that influence is visible in Ludwig von Drake and most other characters Milt designed in the sixties and seventies. There is an astonishing balance between pleasing shapes and lines.

I would think it isn't easy to put a suit jacket on to a cartoon duck body and make it look natural. If you look at the top left drawing on the model sheet, you see that it is tailored like a real jacket, folds and creases occur in the right places.

As usual Milt made sure that hands are drawn to perfection. The fingers retain a slight feathery feel and are very expressive. 

Since his personality is that of a befuddled TV host, he does a lot of talking and explaining. Milt and the other animators who handled him often looked for props they could incorporate in Ludwig's acting. His glasses, a letter or a piece of chalk to write with.

Two of the best TV shows were ""An Adventure in Color" and "Kids is Kids", watch its opening sequence on the bottom of the post.

The first few scenes are by Milt, then Frank Thomas follows. I wonder if you can tell when the switch happens.

Ollie Johnston also did some very nice Ludwigs in other shows.

This is a design sheet, it looks like Milt is trying to figure out what an "O" mouth would look like on this beak.

Here is a drawing Milt did for a Frank Thomas scene.

 A selection of beautiful rough key poses.

This sheet shows that Milt could draw Ludwig's head from tough angles and make it look fantastic.

And this was animation for television!!

Fritz Hug

It's always fun to discover artists who know how to draw and paint animals well. 

Fritz Hug is one of the best in my opinion. There is a sense of caricature in his work which brings out the essence of the animal. I love his looseness combined with anatomical accuracy.

A little while ago I purchased a few books featuring his work, and I have been looking through them regularly.

One thing is for sure, this man really loved animals.

Fritz Hug was born in 1921 in Dornach near Solothurn, Switzerland and spent part of his childhood in Java.  His art studies took him to many different regions of Europe as well as to Africa. While in Africa in 1950-51 he worked with Dr. Albert Schweitzer at the Lambarene Hospital in Gabon.

From 1967 until his death in 1989, Fritz Hug produced a number of works on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund, showing endangered species of wild animals and birds.

Madame Medusa

When Milt Kahl was asked in an interview if he had a favorite character he animated, his response was: "Oh I enjoyed a few, I just loved doing Madame Mim,

Shere Khan was a lot of fun, and so were the butler and old lawyer in 'Aristocats'.

But I guess I enjoyed Medusa more than any one of them."

And it shows. His last animation assignment at Disney -just like Marc Davis's- was a tour de force of character acting. It has a "I'm going to give it all" feel to it.

Marc told me that Milt promised him, Medusa will "wipe his Cruella off the screen".

Then he added with a chuckle: "Of course that didn't happen".

So there was definitely a friendly competition going on between these two great animators and their characters. Milt sort of designed Medusa's features opposite from Cruella's. 

Cruella  has a small nose, Medusa's is longer. Cruella's hair parts in the middle, Medusa's off to one side. Cruella has a pointy jaw, Medusa is almost chin less etc.

I have to admit, when I first saw Medusa in "The Rescuers" in a London theater,

I couldn't believe my eyes. So much inventiveness in her drawing and motion.

How on earth can you show an animated character removing her make up?

Wasn't that something only a live actress could pull off...but in animation? Incredible!

I have spent way too much time studying this character, on the other hand I think I got a lot out of it. Dialogue, graphic but dimensional drawing and just being gutsy in general.

These first few felt pen drawings are design studies, done before Milt started animation. They don't differ that much from the final look of Medusa.

These thumbnail sketches show Milt's brain at work, trying to figure out the best way for Medusa to put on her coat. Wonderful stuff!

A lot of these pencil roughs were drawings that Milt threw away, because he changed his mind about the drawing or the acting pattern. 

But again, they show his thought process beautifully.

What a fantastic pose!!  Unfortunately Medusa moves right through it, so you barely register it. It would have been nice to see it for four or six frames longer, before she rises up with the suitcase.

You just feel the physical pressure when Medusa tries to close the suitcase.

Lipstick half wiped off. What a great graphic statement!

Here are a few very loose roughs for the scene where Medusa uses a chair as a prop when approaching her dressing table. These are so full of character, and done without the help of live action reference. Takes your breath away!

Here are the final key drawings for that scene.

Medusa might not benefit from the kind of rich story material that Cruella had,

but she sure steels every scene she is in. A true animated masterpiece!