Thursday, January 22, 2009

El Capitan Pinocchio Panel!













The Announcement reads: Hollywood’s legendary El Capitan Theater celebrates the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” with a special limited engagement of Walt Disney’s legendary masterpiece, digitally restored with enhanced picture and sound, from January 23rd through February 12th. There will also be a special Panel Discussion before the film on January 22nd at 7:00pm.

Hosted by the inimitable Don Hahn, the panel discussion included Sherri Vandoli from Ink and Paint, Eric Goldberg, legendary animator, and yours truly. It was like a mini-studio on stage, as we each contributed in showing our roles in the process of making an animated film. A wonderful surprise to all of us was the guest of the evening, Dick Jones, the voice of Pinocchio! who told some wonderful stories and shared his memories about the making of the film.

I explained and showed some of the process of making maquettes for Animated Features. As an example I was sculpting a head shot of Jiminy, as you can see in the pics above.

The movie looks wonderful and I encourage all to go see it while you can... it's animation at its best -- great story, great craftsmanship, and overall great movie, proving hand drawn animation is simply one of the best art forms around if it's done right!



Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Haunted Mansion Concept Drawing for the Walt Disney Classic Collection!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Bil Keane gets The Sergio!

Perhaps a little late to post this as the event was last year but nevertheless neat news. Bil Keane creator of Family Circus was the latest recipient of The Sergio Award (named after Sergio Aragones and sculpted by yours truly) presented by CAPS at its latest banquet in November. Here are pics of Jeanne and me with Mr. Keane, son Disney Animator Glen and Sergio himself... Congratulations Mr. Keane for making us laugh for so many years! Special thanks to David Folkman (Art Director of Hogan's Alley) for the wonderful pictures and to Chad Frye, artist extraordinare for recomending me to sculpt The Sergio, thanks my friend!

Friday, January 02, 2009

FCA Christmas Cover!


Here's this past years '08 cover to my dear friend P.C. Hamerlinck's FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section in AlterEgo Magazine... and the thumbnail. Happy New Year!