The Kley Style

I think many artists at one point or another study works of contemporaries or predecessors. 

A few years ago I "tried out" Heinrich Kley's style of drawing. These are just freehand doodles of my own, keeping Kley's sense for fantasy, anatomy and rendering in mind. Fun exercises. 

Who wouldn't want to have their work at least a little bit impacted by this extraordinary draughtsman?!

I even thought how much fun it would be to try and create a short film in Kley's style.....still thinking about this.

 

Disney Roughs

There have been some beautiful rough animation drawings offered at Heritage Auctions. In about 90% of the times I am able to identify the animator. 

Here is a Captain Hook rough by Woolie Reitherman.  

This is a clean up study by Iwao Takamoto. The draughtsmanship he brought to Lady and the Tramp is unbelievable. 

An rough drawing by Milt Kahl. Alice is straightening out the neck of the flamingo.

Frank Thomas animated Hook here as he is talking to Tinker Bell. Incredible acting.

A key drawing by Eric Larson, who did not mind working off live action reference. He said that there are plenty of things that need to be changed from what you see in the photostats in order to make your scene believable. 

Frank Thomas again. Here he blocks in the best possible staging for a scene with Jock and Lady.

Woolie animated a chunk of the fighting sequence with Peter Pan and Hook. He was certainly a great action animator, but Woolie was also capable of handling great acting scenes.

John Lounsbery almost dominates the film Lady and the Tramp. He animated quite a few characters, all brilliantly. Some of his career's best work.

This is bull in the dog pound. Lounsbery also animated the policeman and the professor in front of the zoo's entrance. And of course those wonderful Italian characters Tony and Joe.

An amazing scene by Ed Aardal. So many things to control in a set up like this. The end result looks totally natural.

This is a Marc Davis scene. He definitely had the drawing as well as animation chops to handle a character with so much realism.

Charming key drawings of Merryweather by Frank Thomas.

Lovely draughtsmanship in this drawing by Ollie Johnston.

I need to look up who animated Peter here as he jumps off the bed. Perhaps Eric Larson.

The early version of Robin Hood by John Lounsbery.

 

The way Frank Thomas handled the animation of the Stepmother is still so inspiring to me. He expressed so much with often very little movement. This character was all about subtleties.

King Louie color models

Here are two magnificent key animation drawings ( xeroxed copies) of King Louie from The Jungle Book by Milt Kahl. They represent the character's early version with small, beady eyes. Walt Disney eventually did ask Milt to enlarge the eyes...so he could see them better.

According to studio notes Walt liked and approved the early pencil animation Milt had produced. He thought the character really came to life. 

It is possible that Ken Anderson applied Magic Marker colors to Milt's Louie drawings as a suggestion for an early color model. 

AI Kley

I decided that I needed to find out more about AI, when it comes to visualization. I had seen examples of AI rendered art, some looked awkward, others looked fascinating.

I took this Heinrich Kley sketch, and asked AI to turn it into a classic oil painting. A woman emerging from a large shell on the surface of the ocean. She is surrounded by fantasy creatures. The lighting should be magical. 

The second image shows what AI created.

You can see how AI interpreted my prompt. In the original sketch one of the human characters is blowing into a shell. The AI version shows him holding a round light source instead, which creates "magical lighting". 

In the Kley version the walrus on the right is smiling. This got lost in translation. But keep in mind the Kley sketch leaves a lot open for interpretation.

As you know AI is here to stay, and it is fair to say that it will do a lot of damage as well as a lot of good.

There are major ethical and philosophical issues regarding visualization, but on a different note I can not wait for the cure for cancer.  

More Hercules

 

Starting off with a very happy Hercules. At his point I don't remember which scene this key drawing of mine belongs to. I would need to look it up.

Let's go back to the start of Herc's visual development. Beginning with anatomical studies.

These are my thumbnail sketches from the scene in which he meets Meg. I drew them from video reference. He is all shy here, almost forgets his name. He clears his throat and introduces himself. 

Early design explorations for Hercules.

And he looked like this before I started animating.

Another key animation drawing. With wet hair from a scene after the fight with Nessus. 

I am just so pleased that today the film seems to have found new audiences that embrace both the satire and the pathos we tried to convey. 

Cinderella Sketches

Years ago just before Cinderella was going to be offered on DVD, Disney Home Video asked Ollie Johnston to create a few character sketches from the film. The drawings would be included as art prints in a special edition of the DVD.

Ollie was getting getting up there in age, and he felt like this assignment would be too difficult for him. So he called me to help out. I picked moments from the film that might make nice character portraits.

I tried my best to draw "on model". It was an honor to do this for Ollie and to see my signature alongside his.

David

After finishing work on The Lion King I went to Rome and Florence just to study Italian sculpture and art in general. Michelangelo's magnificent David is housed in the Galleria dell' Accademia di Firenze, and I remember how crowded the museum was that day. Probably the reason I didn't sketch the full body.

You might know that David's head and and hands are proportionally oversized, which of course has its reason. After its completion in 1504 the statue was supposed to be placed on top of the Duomo Cathedral. From ground level David's proportions would have looked perfect. 

However at the time a committee decided that the statue was too significant to be hidden away on the roof alongside other notable Old Testament figures. So David was placed in front of the Palazzo dale Signoria instead. In 1873 he was moved to his current location.

If you haven't seen this symbol of Italian Renaissance in person, it's worth the trip to Florence! I forgot to mention the sculptor was 29 years old when he finished David. (He was 26 when he started the sculpture).

Another fun fact: Raphael admired Michelangelo's David, Leonardo Da Vinci on the other hand only had "snappish" remarks.