Rabbits

The development of Sleeping Beauty’s animals followed a certain path, from one artist to another. Character stylist Tom Oreb started out by defining these characters with definite, clear shapes.

As you can see in these rabbit drawings, the triangle seems to be the one shape that dominates the designs. Beautiful modern graphics that have very little to do with the round, chubby look of Thumper from Bambi.

Milt Kahl maintained Oreb’s shape language and translated the rabbits into a linear design, that could be animated. The sharp edges of these shapes remind me of sophisticated paper cut outs.

John Lounsbery animated most scenes that involved the rabbits. He was able to follow the strict design style, but he also added a personal touch of charm to his drawings.

Here one of the rabbits performs a perspective jump into one of Prince Philipp’s boots.

Heinrich Kley was crazy...

…in the best sense of the word! He was a compulsive draughtsman, and it seems that any white blank surface, however small, called out to him to be drawn on.

His wife Fanny had a a collection of books. At that time it was common to have a sticker on the book’s front page that would read: Ex Libris (from the books - of-). You would add your name, so in case the book is loaned to someone, the original owner is easily identified.

But Kley instead created beautiful, little ink illustrations before before writing her name on the page.

Here are a few examples.

Throughout his professional career Kley continued to draw from nature like this page of chestnut studies. They show a sincere curiosity of organic life forms, Kley found beauty in almost everything. There is also something anthropomorphic about these chestnuts. They look like monsters with their mouth open.

A lovely sketch of a dancer that would be incorporated into a final illustration.

A loose pencil sketch with a woman riding on the back of a centaur. 

Kley’s draughtsmanship and his sense of motion still inspires animation students and professionals, one hundred years later.

More Freddie Girls

…to get your week started. Charming, attractive and sometimes naughty, but always beautifully drawn. Fluid lines on paper by a young artist whose talents peaked so soon. Unfortunately he was unable to develop his great natural skills further, but we are grateful for the stunning and important work he did during Disney’s Golden Age.

Squirrel in Wire

I did this wire sculpture a while ago, it is based on the design of Sleeping Beauty’s Squirrel. 

This time I tried to be very simple and economical with the line work. I pictured the moment in the movie when the squirrel expresses sadness but also sympathy for Aurora, who dreams of falling in love. The sculpt (or 3D drawing) is just over 5,5” tall.

Disney characters lend themselves to wire sculpting, because their design is always linear. It's fun to leave out as much as possible, so your eye adds volume and detail. You want to challenge the viewer a little.

Now I need to return the squirrel to its rightful owner. So, Dan, if you are reading this, I’ll drop it off at the studio next week. Sorry it took me so long to get it back to you.

For those who are new to the blog, here are a couple of links to other Disney characters in wire:

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

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02/few-years-ago-after-i-had-finished-work.html

"Listen well, All of You...!"

Remember that commanding voice, that sent chills down your spine?

Eleanor Audley’s vocal recordings gave Maleficent a scary, bigger than life and unworldly quality. Combined with Marc Davis’ masterfully restraint animation the character became a villain for the ages. 

With Disney’s life action film “Maleficent” coming to a theatre near you, this is as good a time as any to talk about this powerful mistress of all evil.

Many years ago, when I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Eleanor Audley, I asked her to sign this German lobby card from the film Sleeping Beauty. Marc had just put his name on it a few days earlier. 

I need to get this image framed, so much history behind it.

Miss Audley remembered that soon after Sleeping Beauty finished production the studio arranged a screening of the film…just for her. She said, she was the only one in the theatre watching this big screen spectacle. “I felt privileged and I adored the film.”

I found this clip on youtube from the TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. More of Eleanor Audley’s performances. 

Incidentally, the young lady in the clip is my friend Lisa Davis, who would soon after voice the character of Anita in 101 Dalmatians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V77pkzNg1rI

So here are the two artists who were mainly responsible for developing Maleficent.

A few rough key drawings of Maleficent as she creates a vision in front of Prince Phillip in the dungeon. “Behold….!” Amazing drawings.
Here's the link to a previous post on the remarkable Eleanor Audley:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/08/miss-audley.html

Oh, by the way, I just attended a screening of “Maleficent”. Wow, what a magnificent film!!! Really!

Peregoy's Sword in the Stone

This is one of many gorgeous paintings Walt Peregoy produced to help set the style for the 1963 Disney film The Sword in the Stone. Walt was the color stylist on the previous movie 101 Dalmatians, where he had  established a modernist approach toward scene settings. Here you can see how he he continued experimenting with shapes, textures and colors. For a vis dev piece this painting is unusually large, 25 x 11”. 

I am stunned to realize just how much richness Walt gets into this image, using only various shades of green and blue.

The scene has enough realism to work as a backdrop for an animated film, but it is also highly abstract. Can’t take my eyes of it.

This pencil concept sketch (which Walt might have used as a basis for his painting) is probably the work of Ken Anderson, who was the art director on the film, and one of the artists Peregoy actually got along with (!!)

Beautiful piece, too, showing Wart as he is about to go into the dangerous forest. I love how the top branch points directly into the dark woods, almost encouraging the kid to enter.