Finished Cowboy Design

Cowboy Colors

These are some color studies for a cowboy character I'm designing right now :D

Teddy Bear Design

Disney's Nine Old Men: Marc Davis

I have been enjoying studying up on Marc Davis. He did a lot of design and animation for leading ladies in the Disney's earlier days which included Cruella De Ville, Alice, Cinderella, and Maleficent. I was more impressed with the designs he did for Disneyland though.  He designed many characters for rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, It's a Small World, and, one of my favorites, The Carousel of Progress. 

Here are some of his beautiful designs (I didn't draw anything from him this week because I'm a lazy bum... sorry :P)

Disney's Nine Old Men: Milt Kahl

As an animation major I feel like I should more about Disney's Nine Old Men than I actually do at the moment, so for the next few months I'll, hopefully, be sketching from their work and learning more about each of their specific talents. This weeks man is Milt Kahl.

Milt Kahl was able to give such fantastic life to his characters which included Peter Pan, Alice, Cinderella's fairy godmother, Edgar from The Aristocats, and Madame Medusa from The Rescuers. Just look at this pencil test he did of Roger from 101 Dalmations! He was able to make such a simple action as putting a coat on interesting.

Milt Kahl was so talented that other animators would bring him their work to touch up or have him make a drawing that they would then continue their animation off of to make it better. I will definitely be studying his work more in the future.

Here are some sketches I did to study his work:

Sugar doo doo doo doo doo doo awww, honey honey doo doo doo doo doo doo

Archie comics! Woot. They were first created in 1939, and I was amazed to find out that they are still being created today. crazy. Personally I always liked Betty more than Veronica, but after 70 years Archie still hasn't made up his mind o_O

And if you don't understand my title, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9nE2spOw_o

Mystery revealed!

I didn't do any drawings today because I was pretty worn out after going to comic con which, by the way, was a lot of fun. I got to see William Shatner, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Dee Bradley Baker, and Colin Baker who played the 6th Doctor in Doctor Who. They were all fantastic, but now I want to talk about my last drawings!

Those cute little drawings were from some of Disney's old cartoons Silly Symphonies. If you've never seen one of these delightful shorts you should. They were a series of cartoons where the character's movements were timed to match a musical score; Walt Disney used it as a way to experiment and further what his studio was able to accomplish in animation. These cartoons are also where characters such as Pluto and Donald Duck were first introduced. If you really haven't seen one I'd recommend The Three Little Pigs. Pay attention to how the animators made the pigs and wolf move to the music, and let me know what you think!


P.S. You all should check out Katie Cook at katiecandraw.com I discovered her at comic con and I think her work is fantastic.