A Cool Heinrich Kley

This is an awesome oil painting by German illustrator Heinrich Kley. I believe it is titled "The Race".Most of us know Kley from his delicious pen and ink drawings of anthropomorphic animals, delicate nudes or nightmarish visions. But he also did a lot of color work,some realistic, some set in a fantasy world like this one.Frank Thomas was a big admirer of Kley's work. After all, Walt Disney and Kley did the same thing: They both showed what...

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Clarice

Within an early version of "Beauty and the Beast" Belle had a little sister, called Clarice.I had a lot of fun doing some rough development on this character. Clarice adored her older sister and wanted to be part of everything Belle was doing. When Gaston came by the house, trying to charm Clarice's sister, she did everything she could to be present and listen to the conversation.I liked this character concept, and one evening I did a lot of...

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Fairy Godmother

Look at the strength in this pose above!What a beautiful thing to study, there is this warm personality combined with a great graphic composition. The Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella" changed quite a bit from storyboard to final footage. Her design used to be more realistic, along the lines of the Stepmother and Cinderella herself. I assume it was Walt's idea to enrich her personality by making her act absentmindedly and change her appearance...

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Animation Today

It feels wrong to have a post without images, but I lost my tech help for one week, so for now I'd like to share some thoughts with you on the current state of animation.Recently I had the chance to spend some time at DreamWorks and at Blue Sky Studios.I found the energy and enthusiasm in both places very exciting. It still feels a little bit odd though to talk to animators who grew up on the films I worked on at Disney. Comments like "I was eight years old when I saw Aladdin, and that's why I wanted to be an animator" make me feel.....old for...

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"No Carrots!"

This scene proves that Milt Kahl was capable of animating most subtle and realistic acting extremely well. Prince Phillip has just fallen off his horse Samson into the water, and he is not amused. The previously promised carrots for Samson are not going to be handed out.Some of you might know that Milt absolutely despised working on the prince. During one of our get togethers I asked him, how he could do such a beautiful job on a character...

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Dopey

This is a Fred Moore staging sketch, showing Sneezy (I think) interacting with Snow White.Here we see Fred's version of the girl, more cartoony than the final model, which of course is much more realistic. It makes you wonder if the animators could have gotten the same emotional range out for the character, using a design like this one.Come to think of it, this Snow White drawing could very well be a caricature of an employee at the studio. In any...

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Robin Hood Roughs

More of Milt Kahl's work for "Robin Hood".The first sheet shows designs for Maid Marion and Lady Cluck before animation began.The drawings look like they are just about to "click", meaning they are waiting to be animated in order to establish that perfect Kahl look.The following Milt roughs were done for an Ollie Johnston segment of the film, the last part of the archery tournament.Maid Marion seeking comfort from Lady Cluck presents a staging challenge,...

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Skippy & Co.

A little late as an "Easter Post",  but I hope you will enjoy these drawings of Skippy, his sisters and friend Toby Turtle from "Robin Hood".Milt Kahl drew these development sketches based on character concepts by Ken Anderson. At first glance they look like typical Disney formula designs from the 1960ies and 70ies.But the magic is in the subtle proportions, especially in the faces. The older bunny sister is particularly appealing with her slightly...

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