Sorry for the post delay

Sorry for the post delay. This wasn't due the usual post delays- rain, sleet, snow... nothing will stop us from our appointed rounds. But I was under the weather. On top of that, the deadlines at work never cease. The beast must be fed. I hope to post the storyteller's log later this week. In the meantime, here are some old caricatures I did during my days at Disney feature animation.

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Mike Gabriel, Joe Grant

Dave Pruskima, Jim Pentacost

Mike Gabriel, Angelique Yen

Ron Clements, John Muster

?, Tom Sito

Burny Mattison, Will Finn, Nik Riniri?

Chenoa Mitsui

Disney's Hercules Descent to Hades Storyboards

These are storyboards from Disney's Hercules, the descent to Hades sequence. These were completed using watercolor on watercolor paper and charcoal on story pads around 6x9 inches. I loved working with charcoal because you could get such moody effects. The downside was that the mood got all over me and my clothes. It was also hard to correct mistakes or add fine details when using charcoal. It might be cool to start in charcoal, scan it and then work digitally over it.

Below you'll see some full size panels and a complete 4x8 presentation board.

Enjoy. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Here are some of the full size samples. As usual for the process, I created several versions of this sequence fine tuning and refining the story. Unfortunately, as beautiful as it was, most of it was passage work and needed to be condensed. Travelogues do not work well in narrative films.

Directors, John Musker and Ron Clements chose James Woods to play Hercules. Before that they auditioned Jack Nicholson for the part. He came in looked at the storyboards and pulled out a lighter to act out the part. It was eerie.

Before the age of digital art, we used to present our storyboards on 4x8 foot cork boards. The story panels were pinned to the boards. I have no idea how many fingers were pierced making all of those animated film. This was yet another version of the sequence.

Treasure Planet storyboards and visual development

Here's some visual development art from Disney's Treasure Planet. I used acrylic on illustration board. It was fun to explore a science fiction world. We called it visual development. When did it become concept art? So am I a "concept artist?" Darn, I just printed new business cards...

Storyboard panels from the Cosmic Storm when the star goes supernova. I completed over 200 acrylic paintings about 6x9 inches for this sequence. 

Piglet's Big Pink Movie

I found some more posters we made for Piglet's Big Movie. Very clever unfortunately they never got used. 

And what a wonderful tale it was... Of course Eeyore kept losing it.

Men in Black, the sequel. Stuffed Animals in Pink.

This one would have made a great New Yorker cover.

Piglet's BIG movie color script by Fred Warter

These small paintings were created by art director, Fred Warter as a color script for Piglet's BIG Movie.

A color script is a guide for the crew to follow so everyone uses the right colors. More importantly, it is a way to track the emotional journey of the movie. They focus on light, atmosphere, and color relationships. Enjoy. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Aladdin weirdness:Genie of the lava lamp

When you make an animated film, you create thousands of drawings that you won't use. It's just part of the process. Sometimes you just get an idea and you have to go with it. You never know where an idea will take you. Here's one of those goofy ones that I did while doing visual development for Aladdin. Usually, one doesn't spend a lot of time on these because you know it probably won't be used. But, you never know what can happen when you rub the magic lamp. (RUB TO ENLARGE IMAGE, I MEAN CLICK)

Now that I look at again, it kind of looks like what the director of Aladdin, John Musker, might have looked like during the 1960's. John is one of the most incredible caricaturists that I've ever met.

Aladdin visual development early watercolors

Found some visual development that I created for Aladdin. This was the first feature I worked on for Disney. It was a really exciting and fun time. I didn't really know what I was doing, but did my best. I had so much to learn. These were completed with watercolor on thick watercolor paper with a smooth surface.

This was back in the day when an animated film didn't have to make over $300 million to be considered a success. So we were still below the radar of the money people. Fun times and great friends.

Why a duck? Why an ark?

Here's a fun piece by art director, Dan Cooper, that he did for Pomp and Circumstance. Unfortunately, this old copy doesn't convey any of the incredible color and light subtlety of Dan's original. For a real treat watch Fantasia 2000's Pomp and Circumstance and pay attention to the color and light. 

If you look carefully you'll notice that the ark is actually shaped kind of like a duck. Only a great art director pays such attention to detail.

I learned so much from all  of my crew. Thank you all.

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You can see some of Dan's personal paintings at his blog: http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com/

Piglet's Big Movie beat boards

Here's a poster we created for Piglet's BIG Movie. I think we didn't use it because Victoria's Secret had the same tag line. Oops!

Below are one set of story beats for Piglet's Big Movie. It's really great being a director because you have all of these incredibly talented people whose job it is to make you look good, I mean make a great movie. Beat boards are kind of like storyboards but they just include the main beats of a story. A movie might have thousands of storyboards but it might have 20 to 100 or so beat boards.

I have wonderful memories of all of the friends I made while working in the hundred acre wood. There's a link to the credits at the end of this blog, but I'll note the artist when I can remember them. I apologize if I don't remember exactly. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

We can up with the idea of letting the characters draw like children and our Japanese studio did a wonderful job of bringing the crayon drawings to life. I think this design was by Sue Nichols or Robert Sledge.

This one looks like a Robert Sledge drawing.

This whimsical one was by Sue Nichols who storyboarded this opening sequence.

These are the final frames, art directed by Fred Warter.

Robert Sledge

This might have been Sue Nichols or Andrew Austin.

Robert Sledge.

Andrew Austin.

Andrew Austin.

I think Roo drew this one.

Robert Sledge.

We had such trouble getting this waterfall to look just right. It was one of the very few computer graphic elements used for the movie.

Robert Sledge.

Andrew Austin.

PIGLET'S BIG MOVIE CREDITS There were over several hundred people who contributed to making this such a wonderful film. Thank you all.

The people that I worked with on a daily basis made a BIG impact in my life- Michelle Pappalardo-Robinson my producer and Ferrell Barron- associate producer. Brian Hohlfeld wrote our screenplay.   My right hand was film editor Ivan Bilancio. (I'm left handed.) I feel bad we never got to go surfing together. 

It was incredible watching our composer Carl Johnson at work leading a full symphony orchestra. Also a blast was meeting the voices behind the characters. In the starring role, John Fiedler as Piglet. Jim Cummings as Pooh and Tigger. (He would have conversations between Pooh and Tigger. Mind bending to watch) Kath Soucie as Kanga. Andre Stojka as Owl. Nikita Hopkins as Roo. Peter Cullen as Eeyore. Ken Sansom as Rabbit and Tom Wheatley as Christopher Robin.

And last but not least was Carly Simon who wrote and sang the wonderful songs for our movie. She once asked me if I had a personal project I wanted to complete. I now have an answer- I finished a screenplay and am now in the process of making it a graphic novel. I hope one day she can read it. It's a trauma drama about transforming a life of anxiety.

Oh, bother. I forgot to thank Mr. A.A. Milne.