Art from The Mouse that Soared: Part 2

To give an idea of what the jumping-off point for painters is like on a production, I’ll share some of the pencil layouts I was able to find. These bottle caps were drawn by Fred Gardner, the character by Chris Sasaki, and the graphic design for the cap by Lauren Bair. Let me just say that if you really want to learn how to paint something, do it eight times in a row. This assignment really tried my patience!

There is a kind of checks-and-balances that happens with painting (and ideally at every step in production). Once color went on this, I realized that the ridges on the undented bottle caps went the wrong direction in regards to the perspective. After checking with Fred to make sure it wasn’t an intentional design choice, I fixed it. Things like that happen every so often: when it’s form and light articulating the image instead of just line, mistakes and visual shorthands are suddenly apparent. A design can feel unexpectedly cluttered, barren, off-kilter, or poorly composed. Conversely, line drawings that some think are too sparse, flat, or graphic, can suddenly come to life in sophisticated dimension and shape.

This pair of images is from the same sequence. The second one (affectionately titled “The God-Light Shot” by a certain Mr. Baldwin) was initially going to be a still that the camera cut away to in hilarious Spumco fashion. But eventually that idea was scrapped and some poor schmuck actually had to model the thing.

Fred Gardner also designed the above Hero Log. The cutaway detail eventually became the background card that the end credits roll over (I knew there was a reason I almost killed my computer painting it at such hi-res!). Again, I feel pretty lucky that some of my original work got to be seen on screen.

As the production designer, Fred gave the painters a lot of room to make creative embellishments and leave their unique mark on the designs. But it is a precarious thing because animation is not about possessiveness; you can’t take off on your own terms like a runaway freight train. A good painter will always try and tap into the original designer’s true aim–even on an emotional or intangible level–as dictated by the story, and emphasize or further extract that quality out of the image with their own unique skill set. I really believe this is the X-factor for all shrewd hires in animation, regardless of discipline.

More art coming up in Part 3!