The One and Only...

I see the essence of Walt Disney animation in this cel. (And yes, I am the proud owner of this iconic piece of art). Pinocchio just before he comes to life. There is such a beautiful feeling of "wooden" WEIGHT. No question, based on a Milt Kahl drawing. The ultimate in appeal, color and...well, magic.
Milt, Frank and Ollie were very young animators when they all focused on the film's title character.
It must have been daunting to try and meet the standards set by senior, experienced  artists like Tytla, Fred Moore , Norm Ferguson and others. But the young guys proved that they were able to make major contributions.
Milt with his impeccable sense for design and dynamic motion, Frank with complex acting and Ollie with warm, sympathetic animation. SELF EXPRESSION by the animators was key in those days to make audiences believe in the personalities.
The visual development department generated equally inspired work.

Go and get this remarkable book on the making of this Disney masterpiece:

http://www.amazon.com/Pinocchio-Making-Disney-J-B-Kaufman/dp/1616288094/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1434961592&sr=8-5&keywords=pinocchio

Menagerie Exhibit

In 2010 an exhibition about animal art opened at the Forest Lawn Museum in LA. I was a part of an eclectic group of artists who were asked to contribute to the show. Any medium was represented, drawing, painting and sculpture. The above illustration which was featured on the invitation is by artist William Stout.
I had two pieces in the exhibit, a wire sculpture of a toad, and a large watercolor of a lioness hunting a zebra.

The wildlife piece can be viewed here:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCzfCMm6f-88NVyk_UI5C5i212_KRMQoeoEVlCsyuF-91wLKmvVNEk1ZENXhIHGa6oRQ_1dwUnqPYFM1EoRDyl_6JJsfC4y9hZ6W7z8UFYAxNpL5DBz5hMtb5e2Pk0V2mUJOrrpm_2xI/s1600/ATB-3a.jpg

Look who stopped by the show's opening! Tyrus Wong, who also showcased a piece of art. It was a beautiful vis dev piece from Bambi. Unfortunately I don't have an image of it to show here. 

Today Tyrus is 104 and going strong. He is such an inspiration to me because he is constantly adapting to new challenges. After working at Disney on Bambi, he left the studio and produced stunning concept art for live action movies.

What a thrill to be included in an exhibit that featured art from this Disney Legend!!

Photos with Tyrus by Carla Fallberg. 

Anita

I am lucky enough to count both of these artists as friends. Frank Thomas and Lisa Davis, who voiced Anita in the Disney classic film 101 Dalmatians, interact with a couple of Dalmatian puppies at the studio around 1959 or 1960.
Frank did animate beautiful scenes with some of the puppies as well as their parents Pongo and Perdita, but none with Anita.
This character presented a design challenge as a new human leading lady. Marc Davis had just finished animation on Aurora for Sleeping Beauty, and his early scenes with Anita show a certain resemblance to the princess ( Anita and Roger meet awkwardly in the park before falling into a lake.)  Les Clark got involved and did a few scenes when the puppies are born, but it wasn't until Milt Kahl came on board that this heroine's final design was set for the film.

This cel shows a Marc Davis drawing for a Les Clark scene.
In the end Milt Kahl drew Anita looking like Julie Andrews, which was coincidental, since the actress wouldn't become a household name until Mary Poppins a few years later.

Lisa and I are planing to get together and discuss her involvement in the film. We will take a few photos to be posted here along with lots more artwork that will demonstrate Anita's visual development.  So stay tuned!

"See You All on Monday..."

John Lounsbery animated the "Friday Mickey segments" for The Mickey Mouse Club. He has a terrific handle on the character, who wears  a very involved Cowboy outfit with lots of detail.
You can tell that  Lounsbery enjoyed animating Mickey, every drawing is loaded with charm. He took the classic Fred Moore model and made it his own, a Mickey for the 1950s.
The drawing in which Mickey pulls his hat down is one of the most appealing Disney drawings I have ever seen!

Sullivant 12

ON THE ARK

Noah - "There, now. Shem! I knew I'd forget something."

Shem - "What is it, pop?"

Noah - "Tomato-cans for the goats."

It's been a while since I posted any T.S. Sullivant material. So here are a few more high res scans right off original pages from Time and Judge Magazine, dating back from 1904 (image above) to 1925. What a blessing for us that this man was so incredibly prolific!

Simply Great Drawings

This amazing stylized drawing of Aurora reminds me of the graphic quality found in church stain glass windows. This clean up image is small in its original size, but look at the precision of each pencil line. The shape arrangement is incredible. This is what happens when you combine the efforts of talents like Tom Oreb, Marc Davis and Iwao Takamoto.

Same movie, a rough animation drawing of the male lead, Prince Phillip. He is in mid action, about to pull on his horse's reins to turn screen right. Animator Milt Kahl had become obsessed with depicting hands in the absolute best way possible, in a single drawing as well as in motion. 

Making a handsome male face look good from this angle is no small feat either. 

Four of the Dwarfs from Snow White try to stop Sneezy from yet another explosive exhale. I assume that the story sketch for this scene already showed interesting staging, but only Fred Moore could make a this situation communicate in such a simple, but entertaining way. Four hands holding up one nose should be impossible to draw, but here it is. 

A great study of the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, drawn from a tough angle. Upshot, 3/4 rear.
Even with the aid of having a dinosaur maquette at hand, this perspective would be a challenge to any artist. Animator Woolie Reitherman gets it right by analyzing the main volumes first (head and neck), then focusing on how details like cheekbone and eye unit connect to the main mass.

When expressing Tony's volatile gestures, John Lounsbery knew that interesting and precisely drawn hands were very important to achieve entertaining character animation. People say that Lounsbery's drawing of hands looks identical to Kahl's, but I can see a difference. The definition of knuckles and the palm of hands differs, yet both artists were fearless when it comes to articulating the most complex hand moves.

The guts of early rubber hose animation is astounding. Anything goes in order to get gags across in a surprising and funny way. No extensive life drawing experience necessary. The animators were free to invent animation for absurd and surreal situations. 

I recently watched one of the old Oswald cartoons on the big screen, it made me laugh all the way through. This stuff is as timeless as the sophisticated feature films that followed. 

Most images/Heritage Auctions.

Leftover African Cats

Here are just a few animal sketches in brush pen, that didn't make it to the final selection of drawings I made to help promote the 2011 Disney film "African Cats". These sketches were not made from real life. Instead I drew these poses looking at a TV monitor showing a very low res version of the film.

I believe any artist studying wildlife needs to include film footage as a resource. You just don't always get interesting animal behavior from looking at a sleeping lion at the zoo. Don't get me wrong, drawing at the zoo is incredibly important, after all you are in the presence of the actual animal.

It's just that they don't hunt, fight or make love (well, sometimes they do.)

I can't wait for the next BBC nature documentary, their cameramen are amazing. So are Beverly and Dereck Joubert, who work for National Geographic. 

Here is the original post for "African Cats":

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-cats.html#comment-form

The Way to Use Live Action...

....is basically like this. Study the reference and PLUS it.
The two poses in the photo already give you nice silhouettes. Everything reads very clearly, but look what happened when the animators got a hold of this material! Hook is leaning forward instead of back. It makes for a more dynamic pose, but more importantly it connects him more with the object of his interest in the sky. And Smee definitely leans backward in anticipation and fear of the ship's canon going off.  I love the fact that he pulls his cap all the way down to his nose, and using his thumbs instead of index fingers to block his ears is an interesting choice. (I never would have thought of that.)

Hook was animated by John Lounsbery, Smee by Ollie Johnston.

Remembering Ollie

For some reason I have been thinking about Ollie Johnston for the last few days. I guess I miss calling and visiting him. It's been already seven years since Ollie passed away, to me it seems like only yesterday. It was always wonderful to get together, Ollie never minded answering all my questions regarding his work. One thing I remember was his utter respect and devotion to his boss Walt Disney. And I was stunned when, out of the blue, he once said: "I think Walt would have liked working with you." He knew I was passionate about animation, but hearing it like this....
The above image appeared in the trade papers when Ollie passed on, I was a little involved in designing this page.

As a train enthusiast Ollie drew this funny self portrait next to his lovely wife Marie.
Image/Howard Lowery Auctions.

A field day to the Johnston residence, which involved riding his train.
Ollie, Andy Gaskill, Steve Fiott (publisher of Storyboard Magazine), Hans Bacher and yours truly.

There was a party celebrating Ollie's 90th birthday at Disney Feature Animation. Next to me is Ed Oboza, Ollie's dedicated house keeper, and of course the one and only!

There is plenty of Ollie's work throughout this blog, here is a previous post that shows his range of characters:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/ollie-johnston.html

All Eyes on Flower

A beautifully staged publicity sketch for the film Bambi. At the center of attention is the skunk Flower, who is being told that even he could become twitterpated.
Bambi's, Thumper's and particularly Owl's pose clearly help guide the viewer's attention toward Flower, who stands isolated in the lower left corner. A simple and very effective composition.

Here is a link to an earlier post about Bambi book layouts:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/12/bambi-book-layouts.html

Hercules Pencil Tests

For the longest time I had written off my tape with Hercules pencil tests as lost. But that tape recently resurfaced, and looking at the footage now brings back a lot of memories. I was one of the last animators to finalize the character's design, everybody else had found a way to incorporate graphic elements, found in the work of British illustrator Gerald Scarfe, whose edgy drawing style served as the inspiration for the film's overall look. 

As Hercules' personality was developing I felt I needed to take it easy as far as heavy stylization. He was supposed to be shy around girls and frustrated at the lack of progress in trying to become a hero.

A little clumsy, but good natured and ambitious.

In the end Adult Hercules shows only a minor Scarfe influence, just enough to fit in with the rest of the cast of characters. 

While animating I recall trying to get to the core of his emotion, which presented a challenge during short scenes. I often thought that a bit more footage for certain scenes would help me to get the business across in a stronger way.

Actor Robert Gant acted out most scenes, and I enjoyed the process of doodling thumbnail sketches in front of a monitor. That way I could pick and chose poses I liked, and eliminate others that didn't work for me. Overall the live action reference was very helpful.

The reel includes first pass animation pose tests as well as final refined versions. There are a whole bunch of scenes I'd like to rework, others I am ok with.

Here is the link to an earlier post about Hercules' design evolution:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/06/hercules.html

Einstein and Dodger

I only worked briefly on the film Oliver & Company, before moving to London to animate on Who Framed Roger Rabbit instead. These are a couple of leftover design sheets for Einstein and Dodger.
I remember trying (but failing) to come up with design that wouldn't remind the audience of other Disney dogs. Dodger looks like Tramp's little cousin, and Einstein...well, you know.
I had the chance to do a pass for all characters, including Fagin, who turned out somewhat more original.
I'll post other design doodles from the film once I locate them.