Van Eaton Galleries

I have been purchasing animation art from Van Eaton Galleries here in LA for many years. Once in a while the owner Mike van Eaton comes across pieces that I want to own.  Sometimes I feel like I overpaid for certain artworks, other times I underpaid. But Mike always surprises me with Disney animation art that you'd think doesn't exist anymore. It has been an absolute pleasure to do business with him over the years. Just look at these recent offerings, amazing!

Here is the link to Van Eaton Galleries:

https://vegalleries.com

Mirko Hanak

"Mirko Hanak was one of Czechoslovakia's most popular illustrators of children's books. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Prague and published the first of his dozens successful books in 1951.  Hanak's love of nature has often taken him into the wilds with his sketch book to capture birds and animals in their natural settings.  It is for these animal pictures that Hanak is famous in his native land and abroad."
A brief write up from one his illustrated books. I am very fond of Hanak's art, because it combines Asian painting techniques with Western sensibilities.

Just imagine...for a moment, an animated feature influenced by his art! It would be entirely possible as a mix between hand drawn and CG animation techniques. But for now we are stuck with  nauseating realism. As for myself I am trying my best to offer a new look for my film Mushka, combining drawings with CG rendering.
I will post more of Hanak's  stunning work soon !

A Must Have

I mean it. This new Ueber Coffee Table book by Taschen is one of the best books on Disney Animation ever. There is so much new visual material, it will make your head spin. I did not write any of the book's chapters, but I was a consultant on it. A true labor of love by everyone involved.

I posted a couple of key drawings from this scene with Ferdinand and the Matador, clearly inspired by the story sketches:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/05/ferdinand-and-matador.html

The visual material includes all stages of production, from designs and story sketches to final film frames. There are also notes from story sessions, screen credits and behind the scenes photos.
The book weighs a ton, 624 pages with over 1500 images.
Christmas came early this year!

Here is the link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Film-Archives-1921-1968/dp/3836552914/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_img_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R5CFFTJKBJKEQWDBCDQ1

Chuck Jones Drawings

A small gallery of Chuck Jones sketches from some of his short films or otherwise. I love the kind of tension  going on between lines and volumes. He is always trying for the "Unusual", making what might seem ordinary look extraordinary. And personality is the key, as well as entertainment. The energy found in his work just floors me.
There is something to be learned from every Chuck Jones drawing, which makes him a master draughtsman in a classical sense.

Most drawings Heritage Auctions

Here is a previous post on the one and only:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/08/chuck-jones.html

Happy Halloween!

The Old Inspires the New

The connection between these images might prove to be utterly coincidental. But I couldn't help but wondering, if a couple of story sketches from Fantasia inspired certain gags in later Disney films.

Remember in Jungle Book when King Louie becomes annoyed at the little monkey mimicking his musical antics? That's what's happening in the Fantasia sketch between the old and the young satyr.

A beautiful sketch by Sylvia Holland  reminds us of a situation in The Fox And the Hound.

I doubt there is a connection between the old and the new, but who knows? Perhaps Disney story artists from the modern era found inspiration from discarded artwork decades earlier.

Story sketches Van Eaton Galleries

Pinocchio Art III

More art from Pinocchio that explains why many people regard this film as the best animated feature ever made.
The thoughtful planing for each scene is evident in Gustaf Tenggren's layout painting from the film's opening. A stunning piece of art that suggests mood, color and camera mechanics. Tenggren also did this village study based on architecture from the Southern German town of Rothenburg.

An early Geppetto rough animation drawing, probably by Art Babbitt.

A rough key and in-between drawing from another Babbitt production scene. Staging and acting are all there, but clean up artists had their hands full when adding detail and solid volumes.

A great cel with two of the film'a villains (Pinocchio has more villains than any other film that I can recall). This might be a color model cel, there is no dry-brush on the characters' cheek hair.

An early version of Lampwick, before Fred Moore got his hands on the character.

Story sketches suggested inspired staging and motion, and the animators took full advantage of this material.

A clean up drawing from a Bill Tytla scene. You can tell how much the animator internalized the character's emotions by the choice of facial expressions like the one here. This artist is totally expressing himself.

Production cels and backgrounds show an enormous amount of artistic integrity and passion for the art form.

Images Van Eaton Galleries and Heritage Auctions

Don't miss out on the once in a lifetime Pinocchio exhibition still running at the spectacular Walt Disney Family Museum:

http://waltdisney.org/exhibitions/wish-upon-star-art-pinocchio