From House Cats to Tigers

This was a fun exercise I did a while ago at Tina Price's Center Stage Gallery in Burbank.
We drew grown house cats as well as a couple of kittens that day. After doing this for a while I asked everybody to use the cats' poses, but beef them up as tiger drawings. You'd be surprised how similar the overall body rhythm is between the house cat and the big cat. These are the few sketches I did that  afternoon.
I love exercises like this, when using your model as reference for something different.
At Disney I did this with Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove. I studied model poses from fashion magazines to inspire poses for Yzma, who is of course a very old woman.

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/early-yzma.html

Walt Disney comes to the Valley

 

I love this cover illustration from Valley Progress magazine, October 1939.
The Disney characters look in their prime, as they announce a brand-new home for them in Burbank.
The studio complex was still under construction, and it is fascinating to read about the planning of the buildings that would become the main hub for the relatively young Disney organization.
And how lucky for me to have had the opportunity to start my animation career in this animation building.

I just realized that these scans originate from Animation Resources:

http://animationresources.org

Road Rage

Another great Madame Medusa scene by the one and only Milt Kahl.
Here she is on her way to the airport to take the next flight to Devil's Bayou. Medusa has to take matters into her own hands, since Snoops has difficulties in dealing with Penny, the orphan girl.

I wonder what came first in producing this scene. The effects animator's car turning, or Milt's Medusa animation. My guess is that Milt roughed out the main shapes and volumes for the car, before an effects artist would clean it up.
I love how Medusa is leaning into the curve. Every drawing a gem!

Milt used to drive a car like this one. It was a reproduction of a Panther Roadster, and he showed it off during his episode of the Disney channel series, Disney Family Album.
See fuzzy frame grab below!

More on Cleworth's Dragon

I posted about animator Eric Cleworth before regarding his work on the dragon fight sequence from Sleeping Beauty. It is a powerful piece of animation. Woolie Reitherman directed this section of the film, and if he hadn't directed at the time, he would have animated it himself. Known for his chase and action animation, Woolie was ideal to get involved in the film's dramatic climax.
But it was Cleworth who brought Maleficent to life as a horrific monster, while maintaining some elegance of the villain's human form, animated by Marc Davis.
I love everything about the rough sketch above. The flow within the pose as the dragon threatens and approaches Prince Philip. The search for stylized yet solid anatomy is breathtaking. A master drawing full of energy and guts.
There had been numerous design versions of the dragon before, this one comes close to the final design.
Eric Cleworth, underrated Disney artist.

Her is a link to a previous post on the same subject:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/02/dramatic-dragon.html

Madame Mim as an Elephant

Here are a few color frame grabs from a scene, animated by John Lounsbery. During the wizard's duel Madame Mim has turned herself into an elephant as she attempts to crush Merlin. At the moment she notices Merlin as a mouse, she freaks out and runs away.
Lounsbery choses an interesting and not an easy way to get this elephant to move screen right.
Mim rears up, sort of human like, as she tries to get away from the mouse. Then comes this complex turn, with all four legs scrambling. Milt Kahl gave Louns the first drawing for model reference, who took it from there. This is pretty cartoony motion, but Mim moves with believable weight and anatomy.

Kley in Color

Some extraordinary Heinrich Kley pieces were offered and sold recently at Kunkel Fine Art.
Drawing treasures from about a century ago. What joy to study these master drawings.

Here is the link to the website:

http://www.kunkelfineart.de/gal/index.php/en/gallery/1/35/248

Bambi Academy Tribute

Great evening last night at the Academy.

Host Leonard Maltin led the panel, and it showed how much knowledge and appreciation he has for the film. While Disney art director Paul Felix and myself represented a newer generation, Donnie Dunagan and Peter Behn were the real stars of the evening. They recalled how they were selected as the voices of Bambi and Thumper. Behn remember how frightened he was watching the forest fire during the film's premiere screening. Dunagan at age 5 fired his manager, who thought the audition at Disney for a baby deer wouldn't be worthwhile. 

It really was a historical evening. Disney provided a 2 1/2 min. pencil test from the film which left the audience in awe.

There was also a tribute to Tyrus Wong, whose fingerprints are all over this movie.

The two kids who made movie history: Donnie Dunagan and Peter Behn.