Category ArchiveMary Blair



Articles on Animation &Disney &Illustration &Mary Blair 03 Apr 2012 07:44 am

Mary Blair – American Artist

- The current issue of American Artist Magazine has a piece on Mary Blair’s work in Hollywood. I thought you might like to take a peek at the issue.


Contents page

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Disney &Mary Blair &Models 26 May 2011 07:29 am

Cinderella Drawings – 6

- Here are some more model sheets from Cinderella. #4 through #12 are drawn by Mary Blair. There are a couple by Marc Davis that are in among the remaining group. You can check with Hans Perk‘s resourceful site A Film LA. There you’ll find the drafts for the film, and you can find out who did what.

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The Duke

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The King

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More Mice

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Books &Disney &Layout & Design &Mary Blair &Models 07 Sep 2010 05:58 am

Mary Blair – 9

- This will be the last of my Mary Blair posts. Today, I’m going to concentrate on her more personal and private work. Some of these are paintings, some greeting cards, others theatrical designs.

I’ve taken artwork exclusively from the Japanese book, The Colors of Mary Blair. John Canemaker writes an introduction to the Japanese book and that’s also a fine piece of writing.

However, I’ve consistently gone back to Canemaker’s excellent US book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair.


The Blair Family


Set design for Cole Black and the Seven Dwarfs


Costume designs for the same show.


This was a musical that featured the music of Duke Ellington.


The show never opened on Broadway, and it’s too bad that
Mary Blair never had a theatrical show that she designed.


An oil painting that’s reminiscent of the work
of the brilliant black artist, Archibald Motley.


Some greeting cards.


Some paintings of her children.

Disney &Illustration &Layout & Design &Mary Blair &Models 30 Aug 2010 07:44 am

Mary Blair – 8

- For It’s A Small World for the Pepsi pavilion at the 1964 NY World’s Fair, Mary Blair produced a lot of preliminary designs. All of them glisten like little gems. Last week I posted art for the larger part of the pavilion; this week we go into the smaller interior parts. All of it is beautiful

These scans were all taken from the featured book, The Colors of Mary Blair.
Of course, there’s also John Canemaker‘s excellent book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Disney &Illustration &Layout & Design &Mary Blair &Models 23 Aug 2010 08:10 am

Mary Blair – 7

- Back to Mary Blair’s great work. We move from the film work she did for Disney to the art work she did in designing It’s A Small World for the Pepsi pavilion at the 1964 NY World’s Fair. There’s so much artwork for this that I’m going to have to break it into two posts.

Here’s my selection for the first group:

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The artist at work.

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An architectural drawing of the site.

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Books &Disney &Illustration &Layout & Design &Mary Blair &Models 16 Aug 2010 07:36 am

Mary Blair – 6

- The last of the full length animated features that Mary Blair helped to design was Peter Pan. Her artwork for this film is stunning, and fortunately it’s been published in many places.

Of course, there’s John Canemaker‘s excellent book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair.
Then there’s the Little Golden Book of Peter Pan, .
These scans were all taken from the featured book, The Colors of Mary Blair

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Books &Illustration &Layout & Design &Mary Blair &Models 09 Aug 2010 06:35 am

Mary Blair – 5

- Alice. More pictures from the Japanese book, The Colors of Mary Blair. There are lots of pictures from this book that I’m not posting; I’d urge you all to buy it.

The three key feature films that were influenced by Mary Blair are Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland and Peter Pan. There’s a wealth of model drawings from each of these three available in various books. John Canemaker‘s brilliant work, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, pulls all three together into one chapter and handles them beautifully.
Each of the films has a companion storybook that is illustrated with Mary Blair’s models. Peter Pan, Alice In Wonderland, Cinderella.

These Alice drawings are overexposed, but I picked a bunch I like.


(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Books &Disney &Illustration &Layout & Design &Mary Blair &Models 02 Aug 2010 07:22 am

Mary Blair – 4.

This continues my series of color stills from some of the beautiful work in the exquisite Japanese book on Mary Blair, The Colors of Mary Blair. If you have the resources to buy this book, you should.

- The big three for Mary Blair, as a designer of Disney animation, were Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. We’ll spend all of this post on Cinderella. Many of these illustrations made it into John Canemaker‘s invaluable book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. Others have made it into a Cinderella storybook with text by Cynthia Ryant. Still others appear only in this Japanese edition.

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A couple of Marc Davis models.

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Books &Disney &Layout & Design &Mary Blair 26 Jul 2010 06:31 am

Mary Blair – 3.

- Continuing gwith some selected stills from the Japanese book, The Colors of Mary Blair, I’ve chosen concept art for three films; one animated: Two Silhouettes, two live action: Song of the South and So Dear To My Heart.


Concept art for MAKE MINE MUSIC’s Two Silhouettes

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Concept art for SONG OF THE SOUTH

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Concept art for SO DEAR TO MY HEART.

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Books &Disney &Illustration &Layout & Design &Mary Blair 19 Jul 2010 07:58 am

Mary Blair – 2

- I’d like to continue showing some of the Mary Blair work pictured in the Japanese book, The Colors of Mary Blair.

The work is sensational, of course, but they aren’t very well identified (in English). Hence I’ve chosen images almost at random without really knowing what projects they’re designed to illustrate. When I do have information, I’m passing it along. I suspect others of you may be able to identify it better that I. (I certainly don’t consider myself an authority on Mary Blair.) If so, please feel free to leave comments.


Mary Blair at Disney.

These first 5 images are from Penelope, a feature about a
time-travelling girl that was never produced.

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The following group come from various sources.
Some are from Penelope, although others look like they were
done on the South American trip, with the bold colors.

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The following group of six are labelled: “Upsidedownia.”

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Here are some watercolors Lee Blair did for Fantasia:

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And a couple for what looks like Pinocchio.

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