illustration archives 4

Krazy Kat (also known as Krazy & Ignatz in some reprints and compilations) is an American newspaper comic strip by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run. The characters had been introduced previously in a side strip with Herriman’s earlier creation, The Dingbat Family.[1] The phrase “Krazy Kat” originated there, said by the mouse by way of describing the cat. Set in a dreamlike portrayal of Herriman’s vacation home of Coconino County, Arizona, Krazy Kat’s mixture of offbeat surrealism, innocent playfulness and poetic, idiosyncratic language has made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than 80 years.
( from wikipedia )
I recommend to look at these 2 ( one / two ) articles about herriman

© george herriman

disney historic 1.2

© walt disney enterprises

disney historic 1.1

I am starting this new series with one of my favorite animated feature films, a classic artistic masterpiece from 1959 – SLEEPING BEAUTY. you might know the details about the film, so I won’t bother you with that. I am interested in the artists who created this very unusual piece of art and you will see a lot of those behind the scenes pictures. enjoy…

© walt disney enterprises

Le Trombone illustré 2

© franquin / spirou

Le Trombone illustré 1

published from 17.march to 20.october 1977 under the impetus of Franquin and Yvan Delporte, Le Trombone illustré is a supplement stapled thirty times in the middle of Spirou’s newspaper. independent of its format and spirit, this scratch-hair publication, which brought together artists from different editorial offices, was announced in n° 2026 of 10.february by the same blue footprints that had preceded the arrival of Gaston Lagaffe. a translation of the explosion of the adult comics phenomenon for adults (Fluide glacial, L’Écho des savanes, Métal hurlant, Charlie Mensuel…), Le Trombone breaks the formal conventions of the drawn story and the taboos of a rather well-meaning newspaper.

(translated from french wikipedia)

here now the first part of the covers of this incredible magazine, created by my most favorite comic strip artist – ANDRE FRANQUIN…

© franquin / spirou / trombone illustré

ollie johnston’s train documentary 1994

ollie johnton's train july 8, 1994 from hans bacher on Vimeo.

this documentary is a bit longer – 30 min, get some cups of coffee or a drink.
oh, it is uncut, just the way I taped it. I did not want to change it in any way.
you can find all the information about this historic event on my earlier posts. here and here.
enjoy…

ARD 1 – 1984

talking about the ‘good old days’ a short time ago I realized it is already 30 years ago that I worked on the the ARD 1 ( the german 1.tv-station ) logo-design. cg in those days was nearly unknown in germany. during my frequent visits in L.A. I had seen a lot of the development in computer generated images and I was fascinated by it ( that should change over the years! ). so I introduced the idea of a cg-logo to the german television guys and the ARD 1 logo became the first cg-logo in germany, and probably the first one produced at such high costs. below are my early designs, a rough story board and some very precise keyframes for the production at CRANSTON CSURI in columbus.

© ARD 1

beauty and the beast 1989

around this time of the year, 25 years ago, a small team of artists from california and europe started to work on their version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. you can read more about the story behind the scenes in several of my earlier posts ( here, here, here ) there was DON HAHN, the producer. ANDREAS DEJA and GLEN KEANE from animation, TOM SITO story, JEAN GILMORE visual development, DEREK GOGOL from london for production design, MICHAEL DUDOC DE WITT from london as well for storyboard, and me for storyboard, color and design, working in the animation studio of JILL and DICK PURDUM, in london. for a short time veterans MEL SHAW and WALT STANCHFIELD joined the team.

glen keane’s board

michael dudok de witt

derek gogol’s castle version with my colr additions

glen keane

me

glen’s board

the team discussing storyboards

mel shaw and his pastel paintings

mel shaw

glen’s early beast version

part of glen’s boards

derek’s castle

glen’s board

derek gogol and jean gilmore

opening sequence by dick purdum

tom sito pitching

andreas deja’s character design and my color

glen’s action scenes

glen’s beauty and the beast

© disney enterprises, inc

folkwang

this is where it all started – in ESSEN WERDEN in germany, sept.1969. FOLKWANG SCHOOL, – a very well known artschool, follow-up-school of the BAUHAUS in dessau 1919 – 1933. I even had a few teachers they were taught by bauhaus teachers. that’s why the education-program was pure BAUHAUS, very academic. the selection process based on a submitted portfolio was tough – only 40 students from about 500 were accepted.
of course I could not believe how lucky I was when I got the news that I made it. it was the best time in my life, being able to draw all day together with others as obsessed as I was, learning from teachers we admired. and the school itself was something, it had been a monastery in the 14th century, a pretty big arrangement of very old buildings, with that typical old smell. the mensa looked like AUERBACH’S CELLAR in THE TALES OF HOFFMAN. and the whole village of WERDEN in the hilly suburbs of ESSEN was very charming, with medieval pubs and traditional old houses.
we had lots of fun – some of the parties took place in a house, built in 1377, where two of my friends lived. a lot of the older semesters met during events like that, from all the other faculties as well. very similar to the CAL-ARTS school in valencia/L.A. we had MUSIC, THEATER, DANCE and of course DESIGN, what included GRAPHIC DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY, SCULPTURE, PRINTING, TEXTILE DESIGN, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN and PAINTING.
because I had friends in all the other faculties I had a chance to get some 2nd hand education in all those directions, especially PHOTOGRAPHY, TEXTILE-and INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. it was a very good school and a lot of the photography students at that time are today world famous photographers with MAGNUM and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. the illustration and industrial design group was very well known as well, leading in automobile- and camera design. anyway, at that time we had a lot of different things than to study in our minds.
funny is, that a few years later I started to teach there myself, part time, animation and comic strip illustration. and I became very close friends with a lot of my former teachers. the school had been integrated into the university of essen and the old charme was gone.

tale as old as time

with the following ‘historic’ photographs from 1989 I want to make reference to the post about disney’s WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY and the release of an upcoming book in august this year. the photos were done in london and L.A. during the preproduction of disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. there is my workdesk with colored storyboard pictures, the 9-picture composition was drawn by DICK PURDUM, who was supposed to direct the film together with his wife JILL. on some of the others is MEL SHAW at work on his beautiful charcoal illustrations. the book I mentioned is TALE AS OLD AS TIME: THE ART AND MAKING OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST written by CHARLES SOLOMON. there will be a lot more pictures in the book from my collection and other sources.

© disney enterprises, inc