Watercolor Backgrounds

Most painters will tell you that watercolor is the most difficult medium to work in. You pretty much have to finish the painting while it is still wet. Once dry, no corrections can be made. Oil or acrylic paints are much more forgiving. You can make changes whenever you want.
It is astonishing to see the background artistry of early Disney features and shorts, all painted in watercolor. Just look at the piece above. A background from the 1940 short Tugboat Mickey. The lighting and subtle use of color is just incredible.
The next piece is from the unproduced Mickey Mouse short film.

This one is from the Goofy short Baggage Busters, 1941.

Polar Trappers, 1938. What I like about Disney films is the fact that often the sky doesn't have to be blue or white. The painters used a color that fits the mood of the scene.

A great original Tom & Jerry set up, even though, I think the colors have faded a bit over time.

When we started production on Lilo & Stitch, it was decided that the film would benefit if presented in a vintage watercolor technique. The problem was that most background painters at that time weren't capable of painting that way. It took a lot of practice, trial and error and above all valuable lessons from Maurice Noble, who had painted backgrounds for Snow White. I was told his advice was incredibly important for re-capturing the magic of watercolor painting. From Snow White to Lilo & Stitch, what a legacy.
I believe these two paintings are pre-production. Beautiful!

Images Heritage Auctions

The Private Disney Apartment

Most of you probably already know that Walt Disney kept a private apartment at Disneyland, located just above the fire house. This photo shows Walt relaxing in the company of his wife Lilian, his daughters Sharon and Diane as well as Diane'e husband Ron.
These days the park's management gives tours of the apartment on special occasions. A while ago I had the honor to visit this extraordinary place along with some friends. One of them was carrying a bulky backpack. While a lovely Disneyland vip hostess showed us around and explained the apartment's history, my friend turned, and his backpack hit the vintage gramophone's horn. I'll tell you, that horn wobbled for quite a while before settling. Our Disney hostess was aghast...well, we all were. The unimaginable might have happened.
Lesson learned: When visiting Walt's apartment, leave your backpack in a locker downstairs!! (and don't bring clumsy friends.)

Hercules Screening

I did this drawing for Ollie Johnston in 1997 when he was celebrating his 85th birthday, which is on Halloween, October 31.
The reason I am thinking about Hercules right now is because I just returned from a screening of the film at Hollywood's vintage El Capitan theater. The movie palace is currently screening all of John Musker's & Ron Clements' animated films, leading up to their brand-new and first CG Disney movie Moana.
As far as my impressions regarding the animation in Hercules, Nik Ranieri's Hades and Ken Duncan's Meg sure stand out. My character Hercules as well as some of the others seem to work best when not "over animated", meaning when the acting reads clearly and feels natural. Some of the scenes I animated way back hold up, while others scream to be done over again. For some reason the sentimental scenes I did still work for me, when Herc is being humiliated by Hades, or when he is coping with Meg dying. Some moments with Meg at night on their first date look ok, too.

Drawings from Peter Pan

A selection of rough animation drawings from Disney's classic film Peter Pan. These Milt Kahl poses  explain once again why Walt Disney needed to have Milt do the title character. The solid draughtsmanship alone with great attention to animatable anatomy made this animator casting obvious. Since there were several animators handling Pan, the original pencil tests revealed him in all kinds of different looks, from cartoony to too muscular. After Milt hit the roof, he then re-drew some of those key drawings so that clean up would have an easier time keeping the character on model.

Hal King animated this beautiful scene with John and Michael.

Woolie Reitherman handled most action scenes with Captain Hook. Frank Thomas of course focused on the main acting sequences,

Norm Ferguson did some great work on Nana, a curious mix of pet and house maid.

I don't know who came up with these early charming design concepts for some of the The Lost Boys.

Ward Kimball drew the final designs for these lively characters, but I don't believe he did any animation on them.

The Indian Chief was Kimball's main contribution to the film. What fantastic animation! So inventive (as usual). I remember thinking about this character frequently when animating dialogue scenes with Jafar. It's so much fun to come up with weird mouth shapes, as long as they work with the dialogue reading and the character's personality.

Drawings Howard Lowery, Van Eaton Galleries and Heritage Auctions.

Lady Kluck

One of my favorite Milt Kahl characters, and I am not alone in this regard. Eric Larson kept a framed montage of Lady Kluck rough drawings on one of his office walls.
The 1970s at Disney might not go down in history as great storytelling years, but the level of character design as well as acting remained very, very high. Lady Kluck's main shape is basically a triangle. Narrow at the head and wide at her feet. Milt animated her as your fun loving aunt. She speaks her mind, while maintaining a cheerful attitude toward life.
The badminton sequence with Maid Marion is priceless. There is some fun dialogue as Lady Kluck is anticipating Maid Marion's next move: "As your Lady in Waiting....I'm waiting!"
I think I mentioned before how much I admire the way Milt articulates her wings as hands. The fingers remain feather thin as she is holding her badminton racket or her dress. And she moves with utterly believable weight. Another Kahl masterpiece!

Wendy & Michael Redrawn

Milt Kahl's superb draughtsmanship was again needed when it came to putting a John Lounsbery scene on model. Wendy has just caught her brother Michael as he came flying down.
Louns didn't particularly care for animating pretty realistic girls like Alice or Wendy, and I think that's evident in his rough animation drawing below. For that matter Milt didn't enjoy those character types either, it's just that he was able to do them masterfully anyway.
While doing this beautiful drawing for Lounsbery, Milt was probably cussing and swearing as he often did. "Nobody can draw his x!# around here...." The teddy bear needed to be there for scene continuity.

A frame from the final scene.

Her is the rough Michael model sheet comprised of Kahl drawings only.

Cinderella Mix

A few pieces of art from the sixty-six year old Cinderella, a film whose success saved the Disney Studio.
The artwork above was done for a record album.You'd think that salmon pink as a base color might not look good, but it sure does here. The more obvious choice would have been a night blue.

A beautiful clean up drawing from an Eric Larson scene. Even if you had life action reference as a guide for the animation, this type of realism is VERY HARD to draw!!

A great Mary Blair piece. Two basic colors, blue and white with pink and yellow accents.

Even as black & white prints, still stunning.

I am not sure if this is her work as well, it might be by John Hench.

A cel from the Sweet Nightingale song sequence. A great example of reducing the complex human body to very simple, animatable forms.

Again, a very simple background, yet so effective. 

Actress Helene Stanley acts out a scene in which she is entering an imaginary coach that will take her to the ball. I don't know the name of the actress who plays the Fairy Godmother.
The following film still is from the same scene.

Some images Heritage Auctions.

Mushka in Animation Magazine

Just  returned from an East Coast Disney Cruise, where I shared the stage with the one and only Stacia Martin. We gave drawing presentations on the theme of "Good & Evil". For the most part I drew shady characters, while Stacia drew heroines and heroes. The wonderful Tim O'Day hosted the program. Lots of Fun!!
Here is an article from Animation Magazine's April edition on my film Mushka. James Gartler interviewed me for this piece.
There are exciting news about the project which I will share with you soon.

Jungle Cubs

Even at a young age, Baloo couldn't stand Shere Khan.

The blog will be updated again on Sunday. Have a great week everybody!

Making a Movie...

Drawings ©Andreas Deja