RUSSELL PATTERSON, 1893 – 1977, became a famous illustrator in the early thirties in NEW YORK, after a less successful start as a cartoonist. these were the good old days when leading graphic artists were as famous as movie stars. patterson illustrated covers and interiors for magazines like LIFE, and later SATURDAY EVENING POST, VOGUE, VANITY FAIR and COSMOPOLITAIN. some years before the GIBSON GIRL had been celebrated, now it was the PATTERSON GIRL. patterson worked as well on BROADWAY as a costume- and scenic-designer. JOE GRANT gave me copies of a lot of patterson’s work, following is some of it.

© russell patterson

a while ago I found this picture in an older publication. it was taken 1958 during the film-festival in CANNES. an amazing document, most of the european ‘all time’ animation legends are there. I identified some of them but a lot are still missing. maybe someone can help me to identify who is left…

the following illustrations were done by DIETER LANGE, a german illustrator who contributed countless illustrations to the magazine STERN and the attached children magazine STERNCHEN from the mid fifties on. for nearly every series he illustrated he came up with a different style and a new technique. unfortunately I don’t know more about him, I wish I would. maybe one of the readers has some more information.

© dieter lange / gruner & jahr

the recreated backgrounds below, from the 1951 WB short PUTTY TAT TROUBLE, directed by FRIZ FRELENG, were painted by PAUL JULIAN.

© WB

already 25 years ago! incredible. beginning of 1984, the GEORGE ORWELL year, I had been one of the designers of the new logo for the first german tv-station, ARD 1. the general opening logos and titles for all different program sections were done in CG, at that time a very time consuming and extremely expensive adventure. I was several times in COLUMBUS, ohio, where the CRANSTON-SCURI computer animation production was located, on the campus of the ohio state university. the founder and head of the school and COMPUTER GRAPHICS RESEARCH GROUP was prof. CHARLES SCURI, considered the pioneer of computer art. I was supposed to supervise the production of the first animated logos for the german tv-station, since I had done all the storyboards. following are two of many boards from that year, and 2 pictures from cranston-csuri.

© ARD

this is some more about the ZAGREB-FILM production – HAPPY END. in my post yesterday I mentioned the pictures of the film I found in two books. they made me curious and were the reason I wanted to see the whole film. here now are these black/white stills together with the creators of HAPPY END and a lot of other zagreb-film productions.

VATROSLAV MIMICA in the 60s

ALEKSANDAR MARKS 1962

ZLATKO BOUREK 1968

THE ZAGREB FILM CAMERA DEPARTMENT in the 60s

© zagreb film

in the mid-eighties I contacted STUDIO ZAGREB and after some negotiations I was able to order VHS-copies of my favorite zagreb-film shorts from the fifties and sixties. in total – 28 films! the studio made video copies just for me, that’s why it had it’s price. unfortunately about half of the shorts were in a very bad condition, the prints they used had changed colors, and the transfer was not color- and light-corrected. but I was very happy to have the films I always wanted to see, since I only knew them from descriptions and pictures in a book about zagreb animation.
I am not sure what is left from these films after the war in yugoslavia in the nineties, hopefully they were able to save the master negatives. well, VHS is not the best archive material. that’s why I transferred the original VHS tapes in the end-nineties digitally, and I burned them additional onto DVD’s.
after I had started with my archeology-hobby and the recreation of animation-backgrounds, I checked the zagreb-archives as well. the shorts, where I really wanted to see the BG’s, were mostly in a very bad color- and image condition. but recently I began to restore some of them. it is a pretty time-consuming and difficult job, since I have no idea how the original colors looked like. a while ago I started already to post some captured scenes of my favorite zagreb-shorts. but today is the PREMIERE of the first recreated pans of a short that probably not too many have seen.
HAPPY END was created in 1959, written and directed by VATROSLAV MIMICA, designed by ALEKSANDAR MARKS, animation VLADIMIR JUTRISA, backgrounds ZLATKO BOUREK. after I had seen only one black/white image from the film in the early sixties I wanted to see this short. it took a while! the concept is a bit weird, the film starts at the end and moves forward to the beginning. but – the style is amazing, the surrealistic scenes are very long and it looks like DALI had been hired as consultant. unfortunately most of the short is too light, no color at all, even the best software can’t help. but I was able to at least recreate a few longer pans and want to show them to you.

© zagreb film

some more about composition. I analyzed an establishing shot from disney’s MICKEY AND THE BEANSTALK, the scene where the three adventurerers see the castle in the clouds for the first time. it is a beautiful shot, perfectly balanced.

the composition grid with golden section markers

the values – lights and darks

the primary colors

and the final shot

and two more examples for basic composition from disney’s BAMBI.

© disney enterprises, inc

© eugene galien-laloue

THE INSPECTOR RETURNS HOME, studio zagreb 1959. written and directed by VATROSLAV MIMICA (born 1923), designed by ALEKSANDAR MARKS (1922 – 2002), animation by VLADIMIR JUTRISA (1923 – 1984), backgrounds by ZLATKO BOUREK (born 1929). the short does not really have a recognizable story. but it is not important for me, lookwise it is a masterpiece – the style is so different from everything that had been done before. imagine these BG’s at the end of the fifties. collages that remind you more of some abstract picasso artwork, and the characterdesign that is not following any design-rules. no wonder the film started a new expressionistic look in zagreb films. its makers were the leading talent of the studio for the next decade. here are a few captured scenes.

© zagreb film

HERBERT LEUPIN, 1916 – 1999, is one of the most successful poster artists of all time. he won over 90 awards, created about 500 posters! born in basel, suisse, he studied in paris where he was strongly influenced by his teacher PAUL COLLIN, a famous poster designer, graphic artist and stage designer, as well as collin’s strongest rival ADOLPHE JEAN-MARIE MOURON, better known as CASSANDRE. before WWII started LEUPIN returned to basel to become an independent graphic designer, and where he led the so-called BASEL SCHOOL together with STOECKLIN, BRUN and BIRKHAUSER to dominate swiss advertising for the next two decades. most of his posters advertise for simple products like mineral water, soap, cigarettes and shoes. but he designed as well for coca cola and the circus knie. I love his work, the simplicity in his design. at a very early age I started to collect some of his advertisings. below are a few of his works.

© herbert leupin

the recreated backgrounds are from disney’s 19346 SILLY SYMPHONY – THREE BLIND MOUSEKETEERS. DAVID HAND, 1900 – 1986, who directed this short, had started at disney in 1930 and soon became a director, responsible for some of the best shorts of the studio – LITTLE HIAWATHA, THREE LITTLE WOLVES, THREE ORPHAN KITTENS, WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN are only a few of them. he was the first director in charge of a feature film – SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS 1937, – and a few years later – BAMBI 1942. in 1944 he followed an invitation of J. ARTHUR RANK to set up an animation studio in great britain, where he created the series ANIMALAND and MUSICAL PAINTBOX, and became the biggest influence in british animation.

© disney enterprises, inc

some of my favorite scenes from the disney short MICKEY AND THE BEANSTALK, part of the 1947 compilation FUN AND FANCY FREE. the film has some of the most stunning camera-angles and beautifully painted backgrounds, a real masterpiece.

© disney enterprises, inc

DAS STERNCHEN ( little star ) was an added eight pages children magazine inside the bigger-format german weekly magazine STERN, founded 1948 by HENRY NANNEN. the children magazine started in 1953 and lasted until 1961 when it was changed into a doublepage within the bigger STERN. from the very beginning well known german writers and illustrators contributed their art, amongst others ROLAND KOHLSAAT and his series JIMMY DAS GUMMIPFERD ( 1953 – 1977 ) as well as LORIOT with REINHOLD DAS NASHORN ( 1953 – 1970 ). early on my father collected the magazine for me and my brother and bound them at the end of the year into a thick ‘collector’s book’. they were treasures for us and probably they started an interest in illustration and comic strip very early. following I put together a small collection of my favorite covers mostly from the fifties.
this post will be the start of a series about GERMAN ILLUSTRATION. during the last weeks I went through my archives and there are thousands of illustrations from the fifties on. I am sure I am not the only one who is interested in them. so far I haven’t seen any of these treasures anywhere in bookform, what is a shame.

© stern / gruner&jahr

1937 was a good year in terms of disney short releases. there were some of the best – DON DONALD, LITTLE HIAWATHA, MODERN INVENTIONS, HAWAIIAN HOLIDAYS, THE OLD MILL, LONESOME GHOSTS and – CLOCK CLEANERS. the following pretty long recreated pan is from that mickey mouse short.

© disney enterprises, inc

some more HEINZ EDELMANN illustrations for the FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE MAGAZIN

© heinz edelmann / FAZ

and the last part of the SNOW QUEEN captured images

I color-corrected all posted images since the color version of the film on the DVD release is not right.
© soyuzmultfilm

this is the first of a series of new posts where I try to analyse animation backgrounds by their composition elements. it is in a way going backwards to the point where the layout artist started to plan the scene all the way to the selection of the right colors. here now the first example broken down into these steps. I chose one of my favorite pan background from disney’s BAMBI. the BG is a recreation using screen captures from the DVD release. the original BG does not exist anymore.

recreated background

layout

values – distribution of darks/lights

dynamics/basic composition

basic primary colors

visible framing + composition

© disney enterprises, inc

during the period around the BELLE EPOCHE, 1890 – 1900, is a genre ‘PARISIANISM’, created by four painters – THE PAINTERS OF PARIS -, LUIGI LOIR ( 1845 – 1916 ), JEAN BERAUD ( 1849 – 1936 ), EUGENE GALIEN-LALOUE ( 1854 – 1941 ) and EDOUARD-LEON CORTES ( 1882 – 1969 ). towards the end of the nineteenth century there were dramatic industrial, technological and economic changes in france, and the artists of that time recognized the importance to document the modern day life. it was said about BERAUD that he painted ‘the parisians of paris’, but LOIR to paint ‘the paris of the parisians’. I introduced you already to EUGENE GALIEN-LALOUE, my favorite artist of the group of four. here now is some of their artwork for you to compare.

LUIGI LOIR

JEAN BERAUD

EUGENE GALIEN-LALOUE

EDOUARD-LEON CORTES

© luigi loir / jean beraud / eugene galien-laloue / edouard-leon cortez