Thursday, April 26, 2012

Clarice


Within an early version of "Beauty and the Beast" Belle had a little sister, called Clarice.
I had a lot of fun doing some rough development on this character. Clarice adored her older sister and wanted to be part of everything Belle was doing. When Gaston came by the house, trying to charm Clarice's sister, she did everything she could to be present and listen to the conversation.
I liked this character concept, and one evening I did a lot of drawings trying to show her personality.
Here are a few of those sketches.
By the way, at that time I was also asked to come up with a design for Belle based on the look of a young Ava Gardner.






26 comments:

  1. Beautiful work. I love hearing about the various stages the films go through and what ideas came and went along the way. I hadn't heard of Clarice before.

    Your Belle design is pretty close to what ended up in the movie, very close. Who makes the decisions as to who animated what? I mean, they asked you to do a design for Belle, yet you animated Gaston....how does assigning characters work on a film like this?

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    1. These drawings were done early on during pre production.
      Once an animator is assigned to a certain character, the final look
      will be worked out by that animator. He or she also sets the standard for the acting, with input from the directors of course.

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  2. These are beautiful, Andreas! I had never known about Clarice. That premiere at the El Capitan, by the way, was so incredible - almost like that theater was designed for it! A true classic.

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  3. Absolutely stunning...thanks for sharing with us! :) I'm a huge Beauty and the Beast fan (as you can probably tell from my username), so I always love finding out more behind the scenes info about this wonderful film. :)

    Your drawings of Belle are just beautiful.

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  4. These sketches are really quite beautiful Andreas! You infused a ton of personality and energy into these. Thanks for posting this. These are very inspiring!!

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  5. Yes these show real talent to be able to draw such a delicate little girl and young women, great job Andreas, just curious what pen are you using here for these, it looks like your doing this without even erasing.

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    1. It's just a regular ballpoint pen. No erasing, if you make a mistake, just draw over it.

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  6. Niiiiice! The Clarice drawings are so loose and free, and full of vitality! Very inspiring! Thanks!

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  7. These are great! I would've loved to see Clarice in the final movie...

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  8. Amazing as always, Andreas! Clarice is wonderful, and your take on Belle is quite gorgeous. You make it look so simple, like the nerve endings at the end of your fingers extend into your pencil. ;)

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  9. I never knew about this -- but to be honest, I can't really see Belle with a sister now. :) Beautiful work, Andreas!

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  10. I liked that version of belle much better than the final one in the film. you did a lot more 'baroque' versions of her, maybe you have still some of those sketches. and the little girl was good too, as your first arrogant aristocratic version of gaston. they systematically got rid of all the good stuff...

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  11. I may have to animate your Belle a little bit for fun..your facial feature relationships are very strong and well defined. I see why they used these as a springboard for revisions.Did you get to animate her at all ?
    As always, thanks fer sharing the goodness!

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    1. I only had started a test scene with Belle, never finished it.
      I was offered Gaston, and that was that.

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  12. Wow! Clarice is a wonderful surprise! (Reminds me of a darling and less annoying version of my little sister...) And your Belle is simply gorgeous. My love of B&TB has grown even more. :D Thanks for the great post!

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  13. I like this version of Belle better! :-) Really elegant...Clarice is fantastic as well.

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  14. Are those sketches of Clarice with the cat inspired at all by Ollie Johnston's Penny and Rufus?

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  15. Great sketches of Clarice. Just curious, why did they decide to drop the character? Did she not really add anything to the story?

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    1. Clarice and Belle's aunt were cut from the film, the story didn't need them.

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  16. Think of how weird that would've been if in 1991 Beauty and the Beast, featuring little sister Clarice, lost Best Picture to The Silence of the Lambs, featuring big girl Clarice.

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    1. You know it took me two seconds to get it.
      And yes, that would have been weird.

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  17. Holy smokes man, these are absolutely amazing! Her personality is adorable! They really should have kept her in the film in my opinion!

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  18. Arjun beat me to my question! I immediately thought of Penny and Rufus when I saw that one :)

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  19. The high cheekbones and big almond eyes make this early Belle look like a cross of final Belle and Jasmine to me.

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  20. I didn't know Belle was supposed to originally have a sister. You learn new things every day!

    I love the alternate Belle pose, although the end result was more true to the character. You're really a great, great artist!

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