Marc Davis Designs

Years ago when I asked Marc Davis wether he animated those few scenes of the Queen in Sleeping Beauty, I didn't recall. But this drawing of the character holding newborn Aurora as she looks up to her husband King Stefan proves that Marc indeed was responsible for her scenes. Perfect profile, and large, elegant hands are part of his trademark as a draughtsman.
Marc skipped the preceding feature Lady and the Tramp in order to focus on the two main characters in Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora and Maleficent.
But since he was such an outstanding designer, Marc also researched medieval costumes for the lead as well as minor characters.
I love his approach in these doodle sheets. He is not concerned with the film's final artistic style, instead he looks for period outfits that are not too complicated to be animated.

Here is a grouping of medieval characters in color by Marc from a previous post:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgoUZNAjH34Pgsd5DoryvYrdf8O1fh5ZbNjG0cGmkNP9lUzCbxh8dLVolrch8qpi8C3mz72ZuyAfj0ZVqBQdVipFMUpPYZeiwBpkmmFIHNrb8SA55HbSv5sdFDhLrj6XF-zrKIRdAqym4/s1600/SBB-3.jpg

Rico Lebrun

Within the animation community Rico Lebrun is mostly known for his teaching stint at Disney during the pre-production phase of Bambi. In the photo you can see him giving a life drawing class featuring a deer as a model. Seated behind him are animators Frank Thomas and Retta Scott.
His incredibly analytical motion studies of deer became an important cornerstone in the development of realistic, but "animatable" characters for the film.
When I saw these sheets below for the first time, I felt like lightbulbs were going off in my head.
Lebrun shows you the immense motion range of a deer as well as possibilities for entertainment.

Lebrun was born in Naples, Italy in 1900, he died in Malibu, California in 1964. For a while he was a commercial artist on New York, later he taught at Chouinard Art Institute in LA, where Disney found him.

His later work (which includes murals and sculptures) became much more abstract and dealt thematically with human suffering, which he must have seen plenty of as a soldier in the Italian Army during WW I.

King Triton Stuff

I found more King Triton rough drawings in the bowels of my archive. The sheet above, providing instructions for clean up, was produced by my then assistant Lou Dellarosa. 

Below you can see my first pass rough drawing from a scene in which Triton is confronting Ariel.

Lou did not work from that drawing though. I drew a tighter rough version of each key in graphite which served as the basis for clean up work. Those tighter rough drawings are housed at Disney.

Some of these paper sheets are starting to show their age.
I remember how much I enjoyed working with actor Ken Mars' voice, full of authority but also kindness. I had to shift gears though. Before animating King Triton I had finished work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me, young lady!"

Joe Grant Art

This is how I remember Joe Grant during his second stint at Disney. Looking kind of serious before coming up with a wry, funny comment. The great thing about Joe was that you could talk to him about everything. He didn't mind answering your many questions about Disney during the Golden Age of Animation and Walt himself, but he much preferred to discuss current projects as well as modern artistic trends. When comparing the old with the present Disney Joe once remarked:

Oh, it was the same. Just like now, we had politics, rivalries, jealousies etc. But.....we drew better!

BANG...the truth!! I loved him for his honesty, because if you did on occasion do something he liked, it meant so much more.

Here are just a few examples of Joe's art. He could draw realistically, as you can see in this stunning image of Snow White's Witch, but he loved stylizing his designs. Ever since Joe picked up calligraphy as a sort of hobby, his art and designs became calligraphic. 

Designs for Fantasia and Lady & the Tramp.

If you'd like to find out more about Joe Grant, get John Canemaker's terrific book:
Two Guys named Joe

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423110676?keywords=two%20guys%20named%20joe&qid=1457243727&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Disney Cels

 Ever since I was a child, watching Disney animated films, I was in awe not only of the animation but also the characters' colors. I loved the muted palette of the early features, but also the vivid color choices during the 1950s. Color model artists at the studio were geniuses, they knew color theory and how color can support personality. They also knew what the cels would look like on film. In the end each Disney film became a Techicolor extravaganza, a feast for the eyes.
That's Flannery above, the station master, from the 1954 short film Pigs is Pigs.

A full figure cel of Pinocchio, 1940. Much warmer color tones, even the blue areas are muted.

A great cel from Three little Wolves from 1936. Amazing Fred Moore animation.

A cel produced as a book illustration by the ink and paint department. That's transparent paint used for the shadows.

The finale from Dance of the Hours. Beautiful contrast between the brown hippos and the green alligators. Very little original artwork survived from from Fantasia, and you can see problem with cel paint.

1953's Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom's colors remind me of a refreshing fruit salad.

Nice combination of muted and bright colors on this group cel from Alice in Wonderland, 1951.

Even miscellaneous characters get outstanding color treatment.

As I mentioned before, animator Marc Davis was never happy with Maleficent's final colors. He would have much preferred a combination of black and red, instead of purple.

Most images Heritage Auctions.

More on Disney cels and the ink and paint department here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/07/ink-and-paint.html

Pinocchio Maquettes

Joe Grant and his character model department were very busy during Disney's golden age. The artists produced inspirational drawings, rough model sheets and of course those stunning character maquettes. I love their choice for each pose, dynamic and rich with personality. And the fact that the sculptors applied a loose, non-slick approach to the figures adds an intuitive, natural and lively quality to their work.

For Pinocchio even props like the clocks in Gepetto's workshop were recreated to aid layout artists as well as animators.

Stromboli's wagon was actually filmed in motion, and the footage was used in the film. This process gave some relief to the effects animators who otherwise would have to animate the wagon's motion from scratch.

The donkey coach that takes "naughty boys" to Pleasure Island.

This model of Monstro helped animator Woolie Reitherman to get dramatic scale into the chase sequence at the end of the movie.

Horse and Jockey in Wire

I made this wire sculpture quite a few years ago. It was inspired by one of Heinrich Kley ink drawings. I loved the action in his sketch, and wondered if could get this sense of motion onto a sculpture. I also wanted to try and have it free standing, despite the out of balance poses. It turned out to be a fun challenge.

Once I find the time I would like to do a Madame Mim in wire to go with this Merlin:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/05/merlin-in-wire.html

By the way I mostly use thin steel wire, which costs almost nothing at places like Home Depot.
I bend the wire with  my fingers, no other tools, except for tightening the knots with pliers at the end to stabilize the sculpture.

Hollywood Animation 25 Years Ago

I can still hear the chuckle in Marc Davis' voice when he told me over the phone:

"We made the cover of MODERN MATERNITY magazine."

 Charles Solomon's article on the state of animated films at the end of 1990 had just been published in MODERN MATURITY magazine. I was flattered beyond belief to be included in the cover with Marc. I remember the photo shoot like it was yesterday. Feature animation at that time was still in Glendale on Flower Street. Marc and I were led into a specially darkened room with a red light washing the back wall. There was a spotlight aimed at a Mickey Mouse drawing I had prepared. 

The photographer asked us to hold still during the long exposure, which seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

I think it was somewhere around three minutes, and all I could think about was that poor Marc had to stare at my drawing, probably finding all kinds of flaws with it.

Who framed Roger Rabbit as well as The Little Mermaid had been released, and Disney's animation crew was riding high on the success of these films. But we had NO CLUE what was to come in the future. The Prince and The Pauper combined with The Rescuers Down Under as theatrical releases proved to be a bump in the road toward unimaginably successful projects that followed. Then a few years later the company would gradually loose interest in its signature type of animation, before abandoning Disney animation, as we know it, altogether.

I count myself lucky to have been a part of the resurgence of feature animation. And to find out that our films and characters still resonate with students and audiences to this day is simply extraordinary. As I continue to present my lecture on the Nine Old Men in regards to my book, people tell me during the signing session that movies like Aladdin or Lion King made them want to become animators. 

It is the kind of satisfaction I really can't describe in words.

It is very humbling to find myself among all of the distinguished animation artists who presented insightful comments in this article.