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Deer Development
This post focuses on the different stages that were involved in the design of deer characters for animation, particularly young adult Bambi. To get the artists ready for a film that featured characters...
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Xerox
When you study Disney cels from the Xerox years, from 1960 until The Rescuers, it’s amazing to see how much of the animator’s rough drawing was left untouched and made it to the screen. Particularly...
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Studying Francois Boucher
Years ago I became fascinated with painters and sculptures from the Baroque and Rococo period.In those times the human figure was depicted in dynamic poses, and in motion. Francois Boucher (1703 -...
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Baloo and Mowgli
Here are rough animation drawings from a couple of Milt Kahl scenes from The Jungle Book.The first one precedes this shot from a recent...
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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,...
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"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...
View ArticleSquirrel 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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
View ArticleBlog Break
I will be in Europe for a short while, so I thought I might offer these links to previous posts, that could be worth revisiting. These close up pencil tests of Tramp by Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl are...
View ArticleHow They felt about each other's Work
Back from France, where I had a blast visiting friends. Didn’t go to Annecy, just hanging out around Paris, which to me is the most beautiful city in the world.I will be without tech help for a few...
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Milt Kahl's Tigers
If there is one animal that presents a true challenge to an animator, it would have to be a tiger. Moving a large cat around is difficult enough, wether the design is cartoony or realistic. But to have...
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Ward visits Fred
In this rare photo of Ward Kimball and Fred Moore, taken sometime in 1941, Ward is showing Fred some kind of gag drawing. It looks like Moore is working on Mickey and the Beanstalk, which later became...
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Contract Negotiations
Director John Musker came up with this hilarious cartoon panel featuring Jeffrey Katzenberg and myself.After I had completed my work on Roger Rabbit I returned from London back to the Burbank Studio.At...
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A Better Ending for the Dragon Fight?
In December of 1956 these story sketches were photographed before being printed as photostats.They show a highly dramatic version of the climactic fight between Prince Phillip and the Dragon for the...
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Ink and Paint
Disney’s ink and paint artists were in a class by themselves. The control the inkers had over super thin, colored lines, put down on clear acetate sheets, was breathtaking. And they were wearing gloves...
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Anita and Perdita in Regents Park
Ken Anderson came up with this beautiful oversized concept sketch showing the female lead characters from the Disney film 101 Dalmatians. It looks like Ken was trying to do anything to get away from...
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About Special Effects and Old Men
Do you ever get the feeling that a certain commercial project by somebody was actually made for you? There are a couple of items that fall into this category, and I’d like to bring them to your...
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Bambi and Thumper on Ice
As I mentioned in a recent post, each of Disney’s Nine Old Men had not only high standards, but also strong opinions about when it came to looking at a colleague’s work.That doesn’t mean that they...
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