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Walt and Ludwig
As a kid I've always loved TV shows in which Walt appeared alongside this befuddled character, Professor Ludwig van Drake. With Paul Frees' voice work and terrific animation by some of Disney's best...
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Back Online
I apologize for the long post-less time period. A few weeks ago I left for Italy in such a rush, I completely forgot to announce a break regarding my blog.The folks from the famous Nemo Academy in...
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Sketchbook St. Pauli
St. Pauli is is a region in Hamburg, Germany that includes the city's red light district. This sketchbook by Wilhelm M. Busch was published in 1987, the last year of his life, but I don't know exactly...
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Animated Elegance
Here is another post featuring Madame Bonfamille from The Aristcats. I sort of have a thing about the film's opening sequence, which introduces the main human characters. Edgar, the butler, George...
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Nobertine Bresslern-Roth
Nobertine Bresslern-Roth was an extremely gifted Austrian painter and graphic artist. She lived from 1891 until 1978. She was an expert in depicting animals either in portraits or in dramatic...
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Roquefort
This sympathetic mouse character from the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats was animated by my mentor Eric Larson. Eric enjoyed one of his last animation assignments, before focusing full time on...
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More Mme Bonfamille
It seems extraordinary to realize that Milt Kahl animated Mme Bonfamille's scenes without any live action reference. Milt had such command and control over the mechanics of the human body, he was able...
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A Lecture on Animating Hercules
That photo was taken years ago after we had just finished work on the 1997 film Hercules. I had fun animating this character, even though it was a challenging assignment. Though stylized in appearance,...
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Celebrating Pinocchio
I don't know why there isn't more hullabaloo around Pinocchio's 75th anniversary. The film remains a milestone in animation history. Artistically and in terms of dedication there is no other film like...
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Jiminy Cricket
Designing a character can be a tricky thing. Sometimes the first few sketches an artist does hit the mark right away, and everybody agrees that this is the character as he or she should appear in the...
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Milt Kahl Overload
Look at what blog reader Jeff created with images from this and other blogs...pretty impressive! A design wonderland! Milt's drawing style might have changed over the decades, but any of these drawings...
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Jiminy Cricket II
A little bit more on Jiminy Cricket, Kimball's iconic character. This is gorgeous frame from one of the opening sequences of the film. Rembrandt lighting in a Disney film.Young Ward, a kid really,...
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Merchandise
A silly photo for a German magazine after The Lion King had been released. I remember the photographer being fascinated with some character figurines, which were placed on my animation desk. It was...
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Chernabog
It's astounding to see rare cels like this one from Fantasia. It shows it's age, but nonetheless showcases the overwhelming craftsmanship of Disney Animation during the golden age.The Devil on Bald...
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Einstein and Dodger
I only worked briefly on the film Oliver & Company, before moving to London to animate on Who Framed Roger Rabbit instead. These are a couple of leftover design sheets for Einstein and Dodger.I...
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For the longest time I had written off my tape with Hercules pencil tests as lost. But that tape recently resurfaced, and looking at the footage now brings back a lot of memories. I was one of the last...
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All Eyes on Flower
A beautifully staged publicity sketch for the film Bambi. At the center of attention is the skunk Flower, who is being told that even he could become twitterpated.Bambi's, Thumper's and particularly...
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Remembering Ollie
For some reason I have been thinking about Ollie Johnston for the last few days. I guess I miss calling and visiting him. It's been already seven years since Ollie passed away, to me it seems like only...
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The Way to Use Live Action...
....is basically like this. Study the reference and PLUS it.The two poses in the photo already give you nice silhouettes. Everything reads very clearly, but look what happened when the animators got a...
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Leftover African Cats
Here are just a few animal sketches in brush pen, that didn't make it to the final selection of drawings I made to help promote the 2011 Disney film "African Cats". These sketches were not made from...
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