Milt's Tigger

Way back on the original Winnie The Pooh shorts, Tigger was the last character to be translated from a book illustration into an animation design. His transformation was more substantial than any of the other personalities. Luckily it was Milt Kahl who was in charge for Tigger’s final appearance in the Disney films. Illustrator Ernest H. Shepard’s original concept looked like this.A cel from one of Milt’s scenes.Milt just went to town with this...

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Rien Poortvliet

In the US Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet is probably best known for his lavishly illustrated books on Gnomes.But his real passion was to create paintings of everyday life on a farm, and sceneries depicting a hunter’s experiences. He loved the Dutch countryside, which he portrayed endless times in beautiful oil and watercolors.Poortvliet was self-taught, he never attended any art classes. His goal was through observation to improve as an artist every...

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Sculpted Drawings

Milt Kahl and some of his colleagues had a way of drawing and animating characters that seem to inhabit real space. Individual parts of the body connect organically, and there is a flow from one form into another. A full understanding of the character’s anatomy as well as perspective is the key to achieving this type of dimensionality. Rough drawings, like the one above, often indicate how the animator solved drawing problems. They also show...

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The Wolf

The film Make Mine Music, which includes the short “Peter & the Wolf”, wasn’t released until 1946, but this model sheet dates all the way back to February of 1941.I love these drawings (a lot)! Who would ever think of caricaturing a wolf like this? With a very long snout and overly articulated anatomy. This artist could draw and had a flair for cartooning. Look at the exaggerated perspective, so eerie, just fantastic! I would guess that Disney...

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