EYVIND EARLE wrote in his autobiography – HORIZON BOUND ON A BICYCLE –
‘I knew I was going to style SLEEPING BEAUTY, as well as paint all the key backgrounds, and all I had to do was to do it in my own style. how utterly simple it was going to be for me. at home I began practicing doing SLEEPING BEAUTY’S forest scenes. after all, my favorite artists were ALBRECHT DUERER and VAN EYCK and BRUEGEL, and all GOTHIC ART, and the HOURS of the DUKE DE BERRY. the whole project fit me like a glove. AL DEMPSTER told me it wasn’t fair of me to practice on my own time at home, but after all, I had been trying to get into disney for fifteen years, all during which AL DEMPSTER, CLAUDE COATS and RALPH HULETT had been making a good living while I struggled and struggled. now it was my turn to show them what I could do…
…JOHN HENCH had just about finished two masterful drawings in black/white of two forest scenes. they were given to me to paint as I wished. JOHN HENCH’S renderings were renaissance rokoko to my mind. I wanted stylized simplified gothic. straight tall perpendicular lines like gothic cathedrals. the figures should be straight and tall and thinned out and elongated like gothic sculpture…
…I took JOHN HENCH’S masterpieces and straightened up the curving, bending, winding trees. I used one-point perspective. I rearranged the bushes and trees in geometrical patterns. I made a medieval tapestry out of the surface I possible. all my foregrounds were tapestry designs of decorative weeds and flowers and grasses. and since it is obvious that the gothic style and detail evolved from the arabic influence aquired during the crusades, I found it perfectly permissible to use all the wonderful patterns and details found in PERSIAN MINIATURES. and since persian miniatures had a lot in common with chinese and japanese art, I felt it was ok for me to inject quite a bit of japanese art, especially in the close up of leaves and overhanging branches…
…and then, since everything came from nature in the first place anyway, I started taking close-up photographs of every different bush or tree I could find in the san fernando valley, and then took VAN EYCK, and PETER BRUEGEL, and ALBRECHT DUERER, and BOTTICELLI, and THE HOURS OF THE DUKE DE BERRY, and the PERSIANS and JAPANESE and GOTHIC ART, and on top of that I injected a little piece of EYVIND EARLE. wherever my taste lead me is where I wandered in my search for the perfect styling of SLEEPING BEAUTY.’
tomorrow the final chapter.
© disney enterprises, inc
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.
Fantasticly Detailed work. Great quotes from Eyvind Earle displaying such confidents.
Thanks for posting Hans! I love Eyvind Earle’s art and it is interesting to see his influences!
Cheers,
Ainsley
Great post Hans. Thank you!
Great post to one of my favorite Disney movies….
Thanx.
HORIZON BOUND ON A BICYCLE is an excellent book that I’ve come to treasure. How smart of you to put together these posts.
I’ve always seen SLEEPING BEAUTY as an opera of an animated feature. There’s a stateliness that the very wide screen offers as the layout often places the principal characters dead-center while the scenery seems painted about them to create stunning compositions. Even to the point of having some of the characters painted on Bgs. To someone in love with design it’s a magnificent film, and Earle’s work pushes it to a realm we’ll never see again.
Some nice artwork, but a perfect example of a designer out of touch with things in a film that are most important. Even WITH a strong story and characters (which are sketchy, at best, in this film), the artwork should NEVER overwhelm it. The film is as dull as they come, and might have made more money by hanging the artwork in Wyland galleries than in the theater.