Some of you might not be aware that in 2019 Disney published a two book edition called: Marc Davis In His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks. By Pete Docter and Christopher Merrit.
Each volume has 750 pages. Combined they seem to show everything that Marc Davis ever drew for Imagineering. Absolutely incredible!!
After 101 Dalmatians Marc's (and Ken Anderson's) proposed animated project Chanticleer got cancelled in favor of The Sword in the Stone. Marc was crushed since he had produced a lot of stunning artwork for Chanticleer.
So Walt Disney offered Marc a brand new challenge away from Animation. According to him, Walt needed someone with his talent to add storytelling and humor to new as well as existing rides at Disneyland. And the rest is history. Milt Kahl was NOT happy to see Marc leave the Animation department, and when a few years later Walt asked Ken Anderson to help out at the park as well, Milt had a "spirited" conversation with the boss about draining the animation talent pool. Ken ended up doing some work for Imagineering, but in the end he remained full time with Animation.
Here are just a few samples of Marc's gorgeous work (scanned from the book) for the Jungle Cruise, which originally opened in 1955. But this attraction really came to life when Marc got involved later.
Get these two books at Amazon, if you want to study staging, solid drawing with flair, character development and much more:
Da ich das Buch sehr wahrscheinlich nie in den Händen halten würde 😓....Vielen, vielen Dank für das Posten dieser hochgradig inspirierenden Werke! 🤗😃
ReplyDeleteBeim Anblick des draufhauenden Gorillas habe ich grinsen müssen! 😁Und die indischen Elefanten, einfach nur goldig! 😍Habe mir Bilder und Standfiguren von indischen Elefanten angesehen und letztendlich einen solchen einfach aus Bauch heraus gezeichnet ...Da habe ich bemerkt, welche Darstellung sich geradezu in meinen Kopf gebrannt hatte 😆
Maybe I'm very out of place or I don't have much to do with it, I love the expressiveness and essence of the old western animation. When I saw that you had this blog and that you used to answer I thought I could solve it by asking a veteran in this field, I have tried to study classic disney animators, I have always loved how their strokes captured so much character and fluidity, but I have not found information on how to achieve that feature. I am passionate about your work and thanks to you I can extract knowledge about it, but going to the point, I have seen that in this style and the vast majority of animators usually give several passes to the stroke to find that energy, but what is the technique to do so? I believe that at the moment they are called tapered strokes and that they used to use the shoulder, elbow and wrist (the whole arm) to have that freedom, at the same time I would like to know with what pressure it is done, because when I analyze roughs I see that they do it with lightness, for example frank thomas, who has influenced me a lot, used to have this light and loose stroke but other times he applied more pressure in his strokes, and they looked thicker and dense, is that because of the type of pencil or sometimes they look for giving that effect? I would just like to know if there are any principles in this characteristic stroke, I do not know if you get to see this or if you even answer, but it would help me a lot since there is not much information about it. Thanks in advance
ReplyDeleteI would think that just comes with practice and skill...and confidence...most drawing materials will give different stokes depending on how much pressure you apply....so the beautiful line quality imo probably just reflects the skill and experience of the artist.
DeleteI wish I knew your name. Let me tell you, dynamic lines should be the last thing to think of when drawing. Just focus on observing and drawing..all the time. Animals, people, the world around you. You will find your OWN style.
DeleteThank you Andreas! Look out for more previously unreleased Marc Davis and Ken Anderson WED art in the Disneyland 70th book Don Hahn and I have coming out next month... Some amazing Claude Coats concept art as well (including the fabled "Uranium Hunt!")
ReplyDeleteCan't wait, Chris!
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