Mickey Mouse Model Sheets

Here's a couple of Mickey model sheets I found hiding on my hard drive.

Dan Gormley - Donald Duck

I'm not positive but this looks like the work of Dan Gormley to me. Gormley drew a lot of covers for Dell Four Color Comics and maybe even some of the interior covers as well. I'm mostly familiar with his work on Walter Lantz's characters so maybe someone out there know for sure whether this page is by Gormley or not. This page is from Dell Four Color Comics #328.

Disney - "A Cowboy Needs A Horse"

I'm posting this one mostly just for the backgrounds, it's worth the effort just for the first two shots of the apartment. As for the cartoon, meh. Not much going on in this one. The indian chief's design is pretty cool, along with the train conductor, but the kids are rather generic.

A Cowboy Needs a Horse

Uploaded by klangley

Another Mickey Model Sheet

Here's another model sheet of Mickey that I copy from in what seems to be my eternal quest to draw Mickey properly. Just can't do it. Maybe someday. I'll try and post more often but I've had little time to spare for blogging lately.

Donald Graham

I have been on a quest for some time to get a hold of Donald Graham's book "Composing Pictures" without paying an arm and a leg. Believe it or not, I've seen it on sale for as much as $400. Luckily, it turned up in a local library recently and I've been scanning it for a couple of weeks now. At a little over 400 pages it's quite a monotonous job. For those that don't know, Donald Graham was an instructor at Chouinard Art Institute and later commissioned by Walt Disney to instruct drawing classes for his animators. I found the few pages on storyboarding informative and thought I'd share.

Disney's "Mother Goose Goes To Hollywood" Model Sheets

"Mother Goose Goes To Hollywood" is probably my favorite of the Silly Symnphonies, mostly because the caricatures are so great. Here's some model sheets that I've had sitting on my hard drive.

Les Clark - "Mr. Duck Steps Out"

Here's a clip that I love of some great animation by Disney legend Les Clark. It's the type of fun and entertaining scene you just don't see anymore.

Les Clark-Mr. Duck Steps Out

Uploaded by klangley

Donald Comics

Here's a few Donald strips by Al Taliaferro from 1938.

"Pluto's Blue Note"

I'm a sucker for Pluto cartoons. There's always a great walk cycle or two in them. In this case there's a really great dance scene with Pluto. This one was nominated for an Academy Award in 1948.

P----s Blue Note

Uploaded by klangley

Jack Kinney - "Motor Mania"

Jack Kinney has made my list of favorite directors. (Thanks for getting me into his work Thad) He seems to be the one at Disney who was best at making cartoons along the rowdy Warner Bros. style. His shorts aren't sweet and sugary like his contemporaries were making at Disney. Just check out "Duck Pimples" "Hockey Homicide" and this great short "Motor Mania". Goofy's just a road raging dick throughout. Also, the backgrounds by Claude Coats are great. I'd love to own one of those.

Motor Mania

Uploaded by klangley

"Cured Duck"

Here's another great Donald short. "Cured Duck" features one of the most colossal shit fits ever animated.

Cured Duck

Uploaded by klangley

"Donald's Crime"

Here's a classic Donald short directed by Jack King. I know very little about Disney animators so I can't really point any one particular person's work. Check out the awesome backgrounds when Donald leaves Daisy's yard.

Uploaded by klangley

Donald and Pluto

A whole cartoon built around Pluto's ass. Fantastic. Check out the animator drafts from Hans Perk's collection if you want to know who did what. I had to enable comment moderation because of one man's erotic Woody Woodpecker fetish. Sorry.

Mickey Mouse - Basic Principles

... And yet, I still can't draw Mickey correctly.

Night On Bare Mountain

Here's some art from my favorite sequence in Fantasia.

Mickey Mouse Model Sheet

Does anyone else find drawing Mickey as hard as I do? It seems like if one little line is wrong he ends up looking nothing like Mickey. He's built on simple shapes but I just never seem to really get it right. Oh well, I guess that's what practice is for. Here's a couple of model sheets of Mickey. Check out Mark Mayerson's post that he did back in June for some great Fred Moore models from "The Little Whirlwind". Then check out Hans Perk's animation drafts from the same cartoon.