Marc Davis Roughs

Last year I posted some of Marc Davis' color designs for the unproduced feature Chanticleer.

Here are a few of Marc's rough character designs and staging ideas for certain story situations.

Two things are worth pointing out:

I can totally see Marc's Fine Art sensibility in some of these sketches. There are unusual abstractions taking place that go beyond standard Disney drawing. Just like the edgy avant garde design of Cruella De Vil, these drawings show a search for new graphic representations of Disney personalities.

Secondly it is SOO reassuring to see that Marc worked hard at his compositions. There are often several versions of the same image. I guess, that makes him human after all.

These drawings give you an idea of Marc's creative process. He took the challenge of shaping new animated animal characters very seriously. They are anthropomorphic representations of their species, but all of them are based on thorough knowledge of actual anatomy.

I know that the cancellation of the project was quite a blow to Marc's enthusiasm for animation, but in the end it resulted in Marc's transfer to WED, and what would the parks be without the his rides?!

By the way, I could post more of Marc's work on Chanticleer if you are interested.

John Pomeroy's Penny

Ollie Johnston animated most of the orphan girl Penny in The Rescuers, but other animators did key acting scenes as well, including Milt Kahl and John Pomeroy.

John had joined Disney in 1973 with the intent to do background paintings, but he soon developed a fascination for character animation. He showed extraordinary talent, so Ollie put him under his wing to be part of the Penny unit.

These are John's drawings for a scene in which the girl has just met the mice Bernard and Bianca.They had found her bottle with a note for help. 

"Did you hear that, Teddy, our bottle worked!  (Pause) Didn't you bring someone big with you (like the police)?"

There is a nice sensitive quality in these sketches that reveal strong insight into Penny's personality. The change of mood from initial excitement to being somewhat confused is beautifully portrayed.

After working for many years at Don Bluth Productions, John returned to Disney to work on films like Pocahontas and Treasure Planet. Since I was assigned to different movies at that time, we unfortunately never really worked on the same project together. Perhaps sometime in the future...

James Affleck Shepherd

J. A. Shepherd is not as well known nowadays as he should be. 

I first came across his work during the production of Roger Rabbit in London, when animator Chuck Gammage showed me one of his illustrated books. It was called "Zig Zags at the Zoo" and was published in 1894. Shepherd caricatures animals beautifully, and he often depicts them in anthropomorphic ways. He has no trouble whatsoever mixing animal with human anatomy to create unique personality types.

Shepherd was born November 1866 in London. As an illustrator he published his cartoons in Punch and Strand Magazine.

The gorgeous images shown here are from the 1926 edition of Joel Chandler Harris' "Nights with Uncle Remus".  I find his approach very charming, but also sophisticated. Shepherd knew exactly how to simplify the appearance of animals to bring out their main characteristics. 

Like a pre-animation Milt Kahl.

That lion is just amazing! A completely plausible pose.

Every pose a gem in this fun composition!