I always get excited when I come across an animal artist (from the past or from the present) that I never knew anything about. Other artists' styles and points of view can really inspire and make you think about your own approach toward animals.
I am wondering if you have any favorites in the world of animal art. Let me know, it might be somebody I haven't discovered yet.
Here are three great artists whose work I found out about not so long ago.
Eugen Bracht
Here are just a few examples of production designs by the extraordinary Peter Moehle. Previoudly I had worked with Peter at Disney's Orlando Studio on Lilo and Stitch. On that film Peter created concept art as well as finished background paintings in watercolor.
For MUSHKA I wanted rough suggestions for several of the film's locations. He nailed the style immediately, and Background supervisor Natalie Franscioni-Karp used his ideas in her settings to great effect.
As I am organizing my archive, I came across this old wildlife sketch from way back. In 1983 I was animating on The Black Cauldron. But on weekends there was still time for personal art.
Let's see what else might surface as I try and get organized...
Here are a couple of character layouts featuring Rose and Arvilla Tugthistle from the unproduced Disney film My Peoples.
Arvilla is a character who acts as confidant to Rose. I remember animating a test scene in which she remarks that Rose "needs a man". And that she found somebody for her.
His name was Herbert Hollingshed, and I will post some of my drawings of him soon.
Both characters are a little overdrawn here, but I was still searching for the right stylistic approach in terms of character design.
