Animation Artifacts &Books &Disney 14 Jul 2009 07:39 am
Snow White drawing
- This past week I bought an inexpensive drawing on e-bay. I wondered why no one else had bid on it. The drawing was a little rough of Snow White. Regardless I got it and continued to wonder about it.
I scanned through John Canemaker‘s wonderful book, Treasures of Disney Animation Art. Lo and Behold there were some other drawings of Snow White, and it was obvious that the same artist had drawn them, Jack Cutting.
The drawings in the book show a short piece that was cut from the film, the soup eating scene. Snow White realizes the soup is boiling over, jumps in a turn and runs back to the pot.
These are the six drawings John includes:
1 
2(Click any image to enlarge.)
3 
4
5 
6
Here’s the drawing I just bought, which seems a bit more rough than the others. In all other aspects it looks similar, and the handwriting on the drawing matches those in the Canemaker book.
Of course, it might be the work of an inbetweener. The tentative numbers and the tentative fingers make me think it might be so. However, the drawings are clean over rough, which is not likely something an inbetweener would do. (Perhaps an overconfident one.) Regardless, I’m happy to have it. At first I thought the drawing came from the sequence where Snow White is running from the hunter into the deep dark woods.
But looking a little closer, it seems to be part of the animals pulling Snow White to the dwarfs’ cottage. This frame grab was the closest I’d gotten. My drawing is obviously a rough (what they call in NY, a clean-rough. Meaning the animator worked clean.) Obviously the assistant pulled it together for the scene.
You’ve gotta love animation.
on 14 Jul 2009 at 7:57 am 1.Pierre said …
Wow…congratulations! That must be so nice to own a piece of genuine animation history. Of course, you’ve made your own fair share of animation art!
I’ve never really checked ebay for animation art because I always seemed to run across sericels and other animation art made specifically for resale. I may have to look further into this!
on 14 Jul 2009 at 11:52 am 2.Swinton Scott said …
Great drawings…. I was thinking about this earlier today. I know the Disney artists took their time to make these drawings. But did that time stretch out once the Bambi crew showed what near perfect animation could look like, and the rest of the feature crews had to follow suit and take more time per drawing? After all, trying to keep up with Milt Kahl takes a lot more time than scibbling Fergy style animation.
Glad you got the drawings, they look really nice.
on 14 Jul 2009 at 12:11 pm 3.Michael said …
Jack Schnerk was an assistant on Bambi. He said that they took endless amounts of time on each drawing, but suddenly they announce there was six months left to complete production. Everyone was expected to work lots of overtime at least six days a week to complete it. He said he ended up sleeping in the studio and working most Sundays as well. Anyone leaving the studio was given a difficult work situation, and he left when the film was completed.
on 14 Jul 2009 at 12:58 pm 4.Michael Sporn Animation – Splog » Snow White drawing | Design Graphics said …
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on 14 Jul 2009 at 1:04 pm 5.Rusty Mills said …
Nice drawing to acquire Michael. I would point out though that she is wearing a cape in your drawing and think your first hunch that it is from the sequence where she is in the woods with the hunter, is more correct
Thanks for sharing.
on 14 Jul 2009 at 1:20 pm 6.Michael said …
You’ll note that I show the frame grab of the drawing (cleaned up) from the sequence where the animals pull her to the Dwarfs cottage.
on 14 Jul 2009 at 9:12 pm 7.David said …
Was that Jack Cutting or Jack Campbell ? I think Jack Cutting had moved into directing on shorts by the time of Snow White , but Jack Campbell was definitely on the Snow White unit along with Ham Luske and Grim Natwick.
At any rate , what a nice piece of an historic animated film to find on eBay !
on 14 Jul 2009 at 10:40 pm 8.Michael said …
Canemaker, in his book, definitely credits Jack Cutting, and I trust what he has in that book.
on 15 Jul 2009 at 1:38 pm 9.Rusty Mills said …
My bad I missed that part of the post. I bet if you checked with Hans Perk he might have the draft of Snow White and be able to isolate the scene and who did it for sure.
on 15 Jul 2009 at 3:52 pm 10.Michael said …
I wouldn’t impose on Hans. I’m sure he has enough to do, and I’d like to think I’ve solved it. Eventually, I’ll see the drafts and will be able to confirm my thoughts on the animator.
on 30 Jul 2009 at 5:51 pm 11.keith anderson said …
I took a homeless man to my home for dinner. He said he did the cartoons for snow white and seven drawfs. He did some drawings for my two children and they looked exactly like the characters. He signed them. Could you please tell me his name. He said his wife and child were killed in a car accident and he gave up living and just traveled by box car, staying in jails. Thank You!