Search ResultsFor "mary blair"
Books &Commentary 24 Mar 2011 07:15 am
Disney books
- Lately, Disney’s book divisions have done some wonderful work. The Archive series: Animation, Story, Design and soon to come Layout & Bg are all stunningly attractive books. These are top of the line items from Disney Editions. John Canemaker‘s Two Guys Named Joe also comes from the same division, and it’s a beautifully designed and attractively produced book.
But what about the lower end of the Disney Publishing empire? In the bygone days the animated features would be made into Little Golden Books utilizing artists from the studio. Mary Blair, Al Dempster, Bill Peet, and Eyvind Earle all contributed to books for the Western Publishing offshoot. Today there are still some Little Golden Books being made from Disney material. The Pixar product, such as Toy Story and Wall-E, as well the Disney Princesses and The Princess and the Frog all have editions.
However, I came upon something even lower down the pipeline. Here are three books that were produced for Walgreen’s pharmacy megastores. Heidi bought them 3 for $3.98. None of the books gives a hint of illustrator or writer. The illustrations, on a very cursory glance, look as though they might have been frame grabs pulled from the movies.
Bambi’s cover. It’s a nice watercolor evocative of the film. Though one
wonders why they played with the logo’s type. The “m” now has a
little swoosh on its lower right. Not part of any other version of this title.
Our first interior illustration looks like it might
have been a frame grab from the film, itself.
This tries hard to look like it might have come from the film.
But all the characters are moved around differently.
They do a nice job of layout using this iconic image against the type.
Looking at this book, I’m amazed how many well-know still images there
are in the original feature. Those old guys knew what they were doing.
Here are a couple of double page spreads. I like the way they
handle them in these books. You can see that there is a plan.
By now, the illustrations look more like Bambi 2 than the original.
The characters were obviously done on separate levels. Notice the
mother’s leg doesn’t match the background. She’s out of place.
Something you might have seen back in the days with the use of cels.
Two pages covers the climax of the film, Faline’s encounter
with the dogs and the fire rates one illustration.
The final illustration takes us into “Bambi’s Children” and
has nothing to do with the original film, anymore.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan gets off to a bad start with a RED cover
and an action illustration. Not quite the film.
Get to the title page, and Peter is WAY off model.
Oh well.
When I think of that beautiful opening shot in the film, it isn’t
quite this. I’m afraid, the Bambi book will be the best of the lot.
The double-page spreads do still play a bit with the form.
Not much magic left in this Neverland.
Some nice action.
Most of the book is done in Long Shots. I’d say that’s
not the best choice for smallish illustrations. And the
airbrushed white is too opaque to work as a border; it
gets to look like a virus in the air.
The book is too much on the red side. Everything here is
violet and yellow. Not quite the colors invoked by the
orinal designers.
101 Dalmatians
Uh oh, we’re in trouble.
The title page makes for a good composition with bad colors.
The technique, using gouache starts to peek through.
They’ve captured the pose and lost the film.
Where’s that beautiful cut-glass rose in the door?
Too bad they’ve ignored the wonderful background styling
of Ken Anderson and the painting of Walt Peregoy.
A lot of action. Not a bad image though Cruella’s been simplified.
We’ve ignored the great design of the film and have gone to “storybook 2009″.
(The books were done in 2009.)
The two page spread makes use of its format, I have to say that.
Gone the xerographic look, this is how they end this book.
All in all, I’d have to say it’s probably not a bad deal for parents looking for cheap books to entertain their children. The Bambi book holds up nicely. Peter Pan wastes a great story and 101 Dalmatians works hard to reduce their story into a small book you’d buy in a drug store.
The art and delicacy of the Little Golden Books is gone. Take a look at this, or this, or this. They all varied wildly from the film, but with a sense of originality and design. These three Walgreen books all try doggedly to resemble the film while losing the artistry in the book.
Bill Peckmann &Comic Art 18 Mar 2011 07:30 am
Kurtzman Kartoons
- Harvey Kurtzman offers a wealth of golden cartoons. Here’s a reprinted selection that Bill Peckmann forwarded to me; I think you’ll enjoy it. Bill wrote:
- This book of Harvey Kurtzman reprints came out in 1976. They are of three “filler” features that HK did for comic books in the late ’40′s. These pre-date the work he did at EC Comics. You can see the early seeds of MAD comics that came a few years later.
His style is timeless, like that of Mary Blair or Bill Peet*. These could have been done yesterday. Love those animated poses. Fortunately he did do a new cover for the book when it came out. There’s also an intro by Robert Crumb.
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The back cover
Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for sharing.
Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 16 Mar 2011 07:32 am
Kahl’s Llama – part 1
– Milt Kahl animated the lion’s share of the Lake Titicaca segment of Saludos Amigos. He took the idea of a llama dancing to the panpipes of a small boy; then he exaggerated the movements for the dance to Donald Duck’s poor attempt to play the flute music.
This was the first attempt that was done to use the material gathered by the Disney Good Neighbor mission to South America. Mary Blair and Jack Miller were the two who turned their sketches into a cartoon story. Their choice of Donald playing off the Llama made for some fine comic situations.
John Canemaker gave me the drawings posted here. It’s a scene with about 400 drawings, so it’ll take some time to post them all, but we’ll do it in parts. It’s a beauty. You can almost hear the beat as you watch the silent QT movie.
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The following is a QT of this part of the scene with all the drawings posted here.
Animation Artifacts &Disney &Frame Grabs 18 Nov 2010 08:37 am
Operation Wonderland
- On the DVD of Alice in Wonderland, there’s an extra little short that supposedly gives you a tour of the studio and a lesson in how animated films are made. (Do you think we’ll ever see one about Dreamworks or Pixar? I’d like to get a video tour of either studio.)
Since I’ve been focussing on Alice’s Milt Kahl scenes, I thought it’d be interesting, as an accompaniment, to post some frame grabs from this theatrical short that was done to promote Alice.
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Of course, the film has to start with Walt
riding a toy train around the studio.
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Two storyboard guys sitting in the middle of the studio.
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Storyboard: the walrus grabs a clam.
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Ward Kimball in a funny jacket.
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The actor posing as the Walrus for the camera.
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Walt in a funny pose.
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The Walrus & Carpenter sequence.
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Walt and Winston Hibler. Hibler eventually narrated
most of the Disneyland shows and True-Life adventures.
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Flowers from storyboard to final film.
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Walt gives a demo of the animation camera and
seems to be wrinkling the cels as he does this.
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Walt operating an animation camera. Ludicrous.
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Walt and Kathryn Beaumont (who’s
supposed to be doing schoolwork.)
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Kathryn Beaumont and Ed Wynn.
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Les Clark.
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John Lounsbery on the right. The other animator looks to be
Fred Moore. Older and heavier than we’ve seen him in the past.
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Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter.
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More of wacky Ward Kimball pretending to draw.
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Kathryn Beaumont and Jerry Colonna.
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Jerry Colonna leads us into pencil test of the scene.
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This scene was animated by Ward kimball & Cliff Nordberg.
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John Lounsbery is on the left.
I’m not sure who the other two are.
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The cards in action in the film.
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One of the highlights of the film is this dancer doing
march steps for the cards – to be studied.
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The multiplane camera in operation.
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The cameraman at the top always looks a bit devilish.
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No “how animation is made” film would be complete
without the sound effects guys making a racket.
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Walt and Wilfred Jackson.
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Walt going over some artwork with
John Hench (L) and Claude Coats (center)
Thanks to Hans Bacher and Gunnar Andreassen for identifying them.
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Before riding his toy train into the sunset, Walt sits
in front of his real toy, the multiplane camera.
If anyone can identify any of those I couldn’t, or if you think I’ve mistakenly identified anyone, please leave a comment.
There’s an art gallery of images, many of which are by Mary Blair (and I’ve already posted her pictures a while back.) I’ll finish this post with some more of the images on the dvd.
1Mary Blair in B&W.
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More of the same.
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Thiis looks like it comes from HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN.
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Lots of David Hall designs, here.
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More Mary Blair.
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To see more Mary Blair designs for Alice go here.
Books &Disney &Illustration &Layout & Design 04 Oct 2010 07:11 am
I Can Fly
- I had intended to give a rest to Mary Blair‘s incredible work after having posted so many recent pieces by her. However, I just bought a copy of her first children’s book, after separating from the Disney studio.
I Can Fly is extraordinary. After getting a copy in my hands, I realized I had to share it – even though it’s out there in numerous ways. So that’s what today’s post is about. This is Mary Blair’s book, I Can Fly. Words are by Ruth Kraus.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
The inner covers.
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The title page.
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All of these are double page spreads.
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Note that this is identical to the inner covers (above)
with the addition of the child and puppy overlay.
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The back cover
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.
Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 06 Sep 2010 08:16 am
Recap – Thomas’ Little Tailor -4
- Hans Perk reminded me that yesterday was the birthday of the late Frank Thomas. To celebrate: Rather than post my usual Mary Blair piece (which I’ll post tomorrow), I thought I’d recap this last part of Thomas’ Brave Little Tailor scene. You can link to earlier parts if you like. The scene is a masterpiece and possibly my favorite Thomas scene of all time.
- So, finally, we’ve reached the end of this magnificent Frank Thomas scene from The Brave Little Tailor. The other three parts can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.
Many thanks to friend, Lou Scarborough for the loan of the xerox copies so I could post the scene.
We start with the last drawing from Part 3.
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The following QT movie represents all 246 drawings of the scene.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
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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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:
1The 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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