Animation Artifacts &Books &Disney &Mary Blair &Models 24 Jun 2008 08:03 am
Mary Blair Boards
- Let’s imagine.
Mary Blair is the most brilliant of all the color stylists to have worked at the Disney studio during its heyday. Among the photographed storyboards loaned me by John Canemaker was this board of Mary Blair images. The only problem is that it’s B&W. So, we have to imagine the array of greens and blues and yellows the designer would have used for this very colorful sequence.
This is the board in it’s entirety. Now, to split it up so you can look at the images a bit more closely.
1a
_____To enlarge any of the images, click on them.
1b
1c
1d
2a
2b
2c
2d
3a
3b
3c
Here’s an image from Canemaker’s book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. I just wanted to remind you of how these other images probably look in color.
on 24 Jun 2008 at 1:49 pm 1.Tim Hodge said …
While it is a little disappointing not to be able to enjoy Mary’s unique color stylings in these paintings, I have to say that seeing how well they reproduce in b&w is a testament to her talent.
By that I mean, that color is incredibly difficult to control well, particularly the balance of light and dark values. Her paintings read as well without hue as they do with.
It’s a good test of one’s work to look at it totally desaturated (or make a xerox copy).
Mary Blair was truly a master.
on 24 Jun 2008 at 2:56 pm 2.biblioadonis aka George said …
Those are amazing!
Thanks for sharing them with us.
on 24 Jun 2008 at 7:20 pm 3.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
What Tim Hodges said, ditto that for me! It’s a tribute to Blair that her work holds up so well in black and white!
on 25 Jun 2008 at 7:44 am 4.Stephen Macquignon said …
This is a nice set of Mary Blair art work I thought some may be interested to see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pekochan/sets/72157600087571854/
on 25 Jun 2008 at 7:59 am 5.Michael said …
Thanks for the link, Steve.
on 07 Jul 2008 at 7:08 pm 6.Harley said …
Wow! Cool, cool stuff. Thanks for sharing!