Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Tubby and the Lantern is a book illustrated by Rowland B. Wilson and written by Al Perkins. It was recently sent to me by Bill Peckmann. Here’s Bill’s comment on the book:

RBW’s book was very good when it came out in 1971, but I’ve got to say that looking at it today, it has a much richer texture to it because we now know what Rowland did with the rest of his life and career. Row’s work is/was always so well thought out, whether it was done in a simple or more robust style.

Book’s cover

Title page

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To be continued.

- Of course, we all recognize the style of Paul Coker Jr. if only from all the Rankin-Bass animated shows he designed. Bill Peckmann has sent me two stories Coker did for HELP magazine back in Jan. & Feb. 1961. Here’s Bill:

Here are two Paul Coker Jr. story assignments that he did for Harvey Kurtzman’s HELP magazine in the early 1960′s. Harvey always had a great eye for new talent and Paul did not let him down. It’s very nice to see Coker in continuity form, beautifully designed characters and panels!

Issue #6 cover

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Issue #7 cover

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- The brilliantly talented Rowland B Wilson, certainly paid his dues at a number of animation studios. We’ve seen his work with Richard Williams’ Soho Square studio and with Disney and Don Bluth’s Ireland studio.

Today, I have some sketches and designs he did for Disney while working on The Little Mermaid.

Not all of this material made it to the film, but the incredible wealth it brought the directors had to have affected the overall production. This invaluable material comes courtesy of Bill Peckmann.

The first group to view are Production Designs that he did for various sequences throughout the film.

All art displayed © Walt Disney Prods.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

The following are character designs Wilson did for The Little Mermaid for a character that never made it into the movie. Though, I think “Ink the Squid” may have developed into “Sebastian the Crab”.

Then there are some of the creatures seen above land at the Glaciar Tray which apparently was designed to be part of the film.

The migrating Caribou

There are pelicans and geese as well as mountain goats.

Then there is this short seqeunce of interaction between two fish:

All art displayed © Walt Disney Prods.

This material is a treasure. I want to thank Bill Peckmann for sharing it with us.
Rowland B. Wilson was an artist of the highest standard, and I can’t get enough of his work. True inspiration.

- Don’t forget that there’s a wonderful new book on the market. I’d like to keep it in your attention, hence I’m trying to give a lot of attention to the great work of Rowland B. Wilson.

Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes for Cartooning and Animation seems to offer quite a bit of attention to Mr. Wilson’s animation art as it does his brilliant illustration and cartooning. The book looks unique, and to have someone like Rowland as the guide to this world has to be a gem.

- James Stevenson‘s book, The Sea View Hotel, is a beauty. The illustrations are all B&W washed pen and ink, yet it feels like it was done in color. I thank Bill Peckmann for sending it to me, and here’s the second half of it. Go here to see the first half.

Cover

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- Before we get into today’s posts, I have to remind you again
that we’re in the last days of our
Kickstarter Campaign.

Thanks for your support.

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- It’s turning back to a more naturally cold March in New York. This after a glorious week of refreshingly beautiful weather.

I’m sure the weather inspired Bill Peckmann to send the delightful, German book, Sommerfest im Märchenwald by the great illustrator, Fritz Baumgarten. The book’s a gem, and I hope you enjoy it.

The cover

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- There’s a wonderful new book on the market, and I want to keep it in your attention. So I’m trying to give as much attention to the great work of Rowland B. Wilson.

Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes for Cartooning and Animation seems to offer quite a bit of attention to Mr. wilson’s animatoin art as it does his brilliant illustration and cartooning.

Keep it in mind.

- Yesterday, we saw a lot of B&W models by Rowland B. Wilson done for Don Bluth‘s feature, Thumbelina. Today, I have a cache of photos taken by animation producer, Phil Kimmelman, when he visited Rowland in Ireland. Many of the models overlap, except that these are in color.

These all come by way of Bill Peckmann‘s great collection, thank you very much.

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Rowland at his desk.

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Rowland (L), Phil Kimmelman (Ctr)
Bill Frake (R), unknown in rear

- Thanks to Bill Peckmann‘s extraordinary collection of design material, I have access to quite a few model sheets by Rowland B. Wilson.

His models for Don Bluth‘s feature, Thumbelina, fill a binder. I’m gong to have to break it up into two posts.

Here, I’ll reproduce the article Rowland had written for the in-house organ “Studio News.” This follows with models for some of the lead character models.

These models were done in pencil and ink, sometimes in color. Unfortunately, all of these are 8½ x 11 xerox copies. Blacks wash out and washes blacken. Regardless, they all come across fine enough to get the idea.

Any feature takes a lot of work. You can understand that just in the large number of model sheets that grace the production. When you have a talented artist such as Rowland Wilson doing that modelling for you, your art is off to a good start.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Here we have the model that Rowland drew for Thumbelina.
This is definitely not the rotoscoped princess that we saw in the film.

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Here we have a lot of different costumes Thumbelina
will wear as she travels on her expeditions.

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An original idea – a character who wears
more than one costume in a film!

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Jacquimo Swallow

In color but copied in B&W.

Jacquimo 1

Jacquimo 2

Jacquimo 3

Jacquimo 4

Jacquimo 5

Jacquimo 6

Some other birds in the course of the film.

This film is far from the best of Don Bluth, but it goes to show how much solid work is done for any feature film. There’s also quite a bit to be learned from any feature. Many of these models didn’t end up in the film (take a look at Thumbelina herself in yesterday’s post) but the drive was a forward one.

Off to the modelshow:

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Another color one copied in B&W

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Some notes

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Finally, here are two color photos Rowland took of his presentation art.

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- Given the current release of the Jolly Frolics DVD that has just been released via TCM, and given the release of the new book by UPA book When Magoo Flew, by Adam Abraham, I thought this a good time to repost this brochure which seems to tie into the exhibit at the MoMA.

- Bill Peckmann sent me this brochure back in 2011. I’d not seen it before he’d sent it, so became a bit of a treasure to me, a big fan of UPA.

Here’s Bill’s note:

This is a studio brochure/mailer* reprinted from American Artist Magazine Nov. 1955. I remember reading the article in high school, it had a huge impact. I remembered it for many years after because of the scarcity of animation articles at that time. And, because it appeared in an “art” magazine, it seemed to make “cartooning” legit.
Did Disney art ever appear in an “art” magazine around this time?

*This brochure was given to me by Ruth Mane (UPA Alumni) many, years ago.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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There’s no doubt this article followed up on the Museum of Modern Art‘s 1955 show of UPA art. Amid Amidi posted an extraordinary piece about this show on his Cartoon Modern site. By the way, this is an exquisite site. It’s just a shame that Amid let it lay after his promotion for his book Cartoon Modern. Take some time and browse around that site when you have some time.

A snap of one of the walls at the 1955 MoMA UPA Exhibit.
(from Amid Amidi’s site, Cartoon Modern.)

Given the new book coming onto the market, Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes for Cartooning and Animation, I thought it appropriate to take a fresh look at some of his brilliant art for the animated film.

Last week I showcased some material previously posted, which had been done as preproduction art for Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. Today, we look back to some of the work for Disney’s Hercules. It’s all pretty stunning material. Unquestionably the work of a master.

This is a book that was put together by Suzanne Lemieux Wilson, and it looks to be as much about animation as about cartooning. I’m not sure exactly what’s in the book, but I’m certainly eager to find out, and will give you a report as soon as I see it.

- Here’s Hercules.
This entry includes character sketches for characters that developed into something completely different, or didn’t end up in the film at all.

Once again, I must express my debt of gratitude to the generosity of Bill Peckmann for lending me the art to post here. And to Suzanne Lemieux Wilson for some additional sketches. Thank you, both.

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Megara

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Hades – version 1

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Hades – version 2

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Hades – version 3

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Death

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Pegasus

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Centaus 1 drawing

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Centaurs 1 color

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Centaurs 2

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Bakeus – drawing

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Titans 1 – Bakeus – color

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Shakeus – drawing

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Titans 2 – Shakeus – color

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Titans 3

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Titans 4

These watercolors are less character designs than they are inspirational pieces. They are inspirational. How stunning this art. I would have loved seeing something like this on the screen rather than Gerald Scarfe‘s. But that’s just me.

As with some of the last posts, I’m showing the larger piece (and they are large) and then going in for some tighter blowups.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Typed beneath this image:
HERC AND PHIL ADDRESS ZEUS ON MT. OLYMPUS
The realm of the gods is in the sky. The landscape is made of sky imagery –
the classic buildings, the trees, the hills are the colors of rainbows, thunderheads,
lightning, rain, hail and stars. Trees have tops made of clouds and trunks of rain
or lightning. Buildings evolve out of mist as do the gods themselves.
The gods can be large or human scale as needed.

In mythology, Zeus changed himself into a swan, a bull, a cloud,
and even a shower of gold.

Everything is as changeable and colorful as a sunset.

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Hercules and the Hydra.

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Typed below this image:

THE HOME OF THE GODS.

A skyscape. Trees, mountains and waterfalls appear and dissolve away.
We can see shapes in the clouds – temples and statues.
Lightning flashes and stars gleam in unexpected places.
The whole skyscape is slowly drifting.

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This ain’t heaven.

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This one looks almost as though it were painted
on black velvet – appropriately enough.

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Suzanne Wilson also sent these very rough cartoons RBW did:
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I have been a fan of James Stevenson‘s work forever.
He’s an intelligent, imaginative, brilliant draftsman and writer. Two of my all time favorite books are a collection of drawn editorials he did for various publications. Something Marvelous Is About To Happen and Uptown Local, Downtown Express.
(In the past, I’ve featured a couple of articles from these books, and will do again in the future, no doubt.)

I’ve been a big fan of his many children’s books and have purchased the rights to two of them and made animated shorts of them, Monty and What’s Under My Bed?

It was a pleasure to see the art sent by Bill Peckmann.
Stevenson’s wonderful book, The Sea View Hotel. Here are the scans sent to me by Bill:

The Sea View Hotel – book cover

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Yes, there’s more to come.