Mary Poppins' Fox

I have always liked the fox in "Mary Poppins".

The design is so appealing and his shapes and forms are very contrasting.

Big ears and eyes, very thin, long nose, skinny neck and legs, huge bushy tail.

Very graphic, but based on real anatomy.

The use of squach and stretch is pretty gutsy, too, as you can see in those few key drawings that show him jump off screen.

Here  Milt Kahl is sketching the character in relation to a tracing of Dick van Dyke.

When this picture was taken Milt's mind was already on "Jungle Book", as you can see from the storyboard on his desk.

Just for Fun

A while ago I wondered what I would come up with, if I animate a scene featuring a cow and a pig sitting at a bar, drinking Martinis and talking about.....things.

I got as far as this pose test, designs were somewhat inspired by TS Sullivant.

The dialogue is borrowed from the movie "Sordid Lives" from 2000.

With apologies to Mr Sullivant.....and some of you!

Do you think I should finish the scene, maybe add a little watercolor effect ?

Fred Moore

Fred Moore's talents baffle me. How can someone so young show so much skill

as an animator? He was 19 years old when he started at Disney in 1930.

I heard the story that he submitted drawings done on grocery paper bags, I wonder if that's true.

In any case, this kid changed the Disney animation style forever.

And not just Disney, you can see his influence on all the other studios as well.

Fred had a knack for a variety of things. He perfected squach and stretch, characters now showed real mass and therefor looked more believable than ever  before.

And drawings with charm....oh boy ! No wonder Walt put him in charge of the dwarfs in "Snow White". Look at these rough doodles below, fantastic intuition for personality.

Where did all that come from ? He hadn't had the time to observe and experience much at that young age. (Or do a lot of bad animation before becoming great).

He was just gifted like crazy.

Frank, Ollie, Marc and Milt all told me what a nice guy he was. "Couldn't do a drawing without appeal!" And Fred helped everybody, looking at their scenes and

drawing over their animation. He really WAS the Disney style at that time.

I will not get into the tragic aspects of his later life here. Let's just look at some of his stuff and get inspired.

Old European Masters

Occasionally when I travel  back to Europe, I revisit the great museums over there

and sketch the work of old masters. Particularly the periods of the late Renaissance

and Baroque are interesting, because figures in sculpture and painting show movement.

I find it useful to study classic art and to absorb the sense of anatomy, composition

and general aesthetics.

The funny thing is that when I was living in Germany as an art student, I took all this art for granted. I had always been there and it was always close by.

After moving to LA and spending years away from  "Old World Culture",

I now look at Bernini, Barye and Michaelangelo with American eyes.

With a bigger sense of Awe, I suppose. And that's a good thing.

The following sketches were made in places like the Musee d'Orsay and the Vatican Museum.

I often use a brush pen, which somehow helps to avoid stiffness in your sketch,

yet bad drawings on the whole are entirely possible.