Marc Davis Character Drawings for Fans

Like many animators Marc Davis would occasionally draw character sketches for fans, even after his career in animation was in the distant past. Sometimes these sketches showed a different drawing style than the original character concepts. After all Marc dad not drawn these characters in decades. But there is still a charm and appeal along with the essence of their personalities.

This large sketch was given to Marc's wife Alice, who of course was a fan of his work as well.

I love the characters' comments as they pose for a group shot.

Two Key Drawings of Maleficent

 

Maleficent locks the door to the dungeon cel in which she holds Prince Philip prisoner. Here are the two main rough key drawings by Marc Davis that define this particular piece of action. You can see her hand turning the key, while the rest of her body moves very little as not to distract from the subtle motion.

Both hand positions for the key turn are perfectly chosen. What impresses the heck out of me is that in the second drawing Marc shows a slight flexing of the character's lower arm muscle called brachioradialis (I had to look that up.) This is not something he would have gotten from studying the live action reference because of its minuscule nature. This is something Marc KNEW from studying human anatomy his whole life. When an arm turns THIS happens.

As an animator the more you know about anatomy and motion range, the more you can apply that knowledge to your work and make it that much more believable. 

A lesson from Marc Davis brought to you by.......

Fred Moore's Cuban Caballero

 

These absolutely stunning design drawings by Fred Moore depict a Cuban bird character that never made it to the big screen. He would have been the fourth caballero for one of Disney's South American feature films. This is Moore at his best! Here is a great write up on this character by the late Jim Korkis, animation historian:

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-cuban-cabellero/