Disney Big Figurines

Over on the blog by my friend, Kevin Kidney, longtime Disney artist, Kevin has just posted some photos of the "Big Figs" or Big Figurines that were created over the years for the Disney Catalogue and Disney Stores merchandise. Kevin and fellow artist, Jody Daily did the initial concept drawings for the figures, establishing the pose usually based on a specific moment from the film they appeared in. After that, rotation drawings would be created from the concepts in several views in order to visually aid the sculptor who would be crafting the figure dimensionally out of clay. Kevin has kindly pointed out that I did the rotation drawings for a number of them and, if memory serves, I think this is an accurate list of the ones I had a hand in that are pictured in his post:

Jiminy Cricket (in hobo garb)

Mickey Mouse Club Morty (one of Mickey's two nephews, though it could be Ferdy)

Penguin Waiter (from Mary Poppins)

Pluto

Pinocchio and Jiminy

Minnie and Goofy as Disneyland tourists (Did I do Mickey and Donald as well? I can't recall!)

The White Rabbit 

Dumbo and Timothy

The Three Caballeros

I'd previously posted the rotations for Pinocchio and The White Rabbit a few years ago here. More recently I had posted the ones of The Three Caballeros here.

Here are several of the others that I've managed to find among my files of past Disney work: 

Happy Birthday, Donald Duck!

I thought I'd acknowledge Donald Duck's 78th anniversary by posting some of the Disney merchandise that I had a hand in helping to create a few years back. Though most of my Disney work was in the form of traditional cartoon illustration, there were also many figural projects that required a series of rotational drawings in order to help the sculptor visualize it in three dimensions before going to work on it.

MMC Donald Duck Rotations

This piece was to celebrate The Mickey Mouse Club TV show from the 1950s, and I did rotations for both this Donald with the gong and a Mickey figure in bandleader costume, as the two were featured in the opening titles of that show. 

Mickey Mouse Club Donald Duck Figurine

I was quite happy with the way this figurine turned out, and the pic above was taken of the actual piece that I'd bought at The Disney Store at the time it was made available for purchase. I only wish I'd bought the one of Mickey as well!

Snow Globes Rotations

This was a commemorative snow globe that was created for the 65th Anniversary of Donald Duck in 1999, called "Donald Duck - 65 Feisty Years". I remember doing a lot of art for that merchandising programme featuring the duck in his various incarnations through the years.

Donald Duck Snow Globes Figurine

I must admit I was a bit disappointed in the sculpture of the large Donald Duck figure in the armchair, as I felt the face wasn't quite right and overall he looked a bit thick and lumpy. Still, it was likely due to the constraints of the mould-making process.

Three Caballeros Rotations

This was a fun project to work on, as the original concepts for these Big Figurines of The Three Caballeros were by the exceptionally talented Disney artists, Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily, and their poses were so expressive to translate into dimensional drawings.

Three Caballeros Big Figurines

Here's a pic of the finished sculpted figurines that I've borrowed from Kevin's site. As you can see, the poses were modified a bit from my drawings - Panchito's hands not on his hips with eyes straight ahead, and José's beak is closed, but otherwise are quite faithful to the way I'd drawn the rotations.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed seeing the process behind creating these sculpted figurines of Donald Duck. I have other examples of my rotation drawings of various Disney characters that I'll continue to post from time to time.

Happy 100th, Freddie Moore!

I've been reading on other blogs that today, Sept. 7 2011, represents the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Disney animator, Fred Moore. You can read the thoughts of other artists regarding Freddie on the blogs of Jenny Lerew and Andreas Deja. Aside from his iconic and highly influential Disney character designs and animation, Fred was also famous for his drawings of cute, innocently sexy girls. I've written before on this subject here, and I am proud to own a couple of his originals, bought about 20 years ago through the Howard Lowery auction, one of which is pictured at the head of this post.

Recently, former Disney animator and creator of Electric Tiki, Tracy Lee, has created a beautiful figurine based on one of Fred's sketches of a typical "Freddie Girl", pictured in the above photo. The sketch was interpreted into the 3-dimensional figurine by the brilliant Kent Melton, who has been responsible for many extraordinary sculpted animation maquettes over the years, as well as having sculpted figurines for public purchase with the Disney Classics Collection. I had pre-ordered the Freddie Moore Girl sculpture when it first went on sale, and received it a couple months ago, where it now sits alongside other Fred Moore-inspired figurines of the centaurettes from Fantasia that were among the first set of bisques from The Disney Classics Collection. Just adorable!

Me & 'Varo!

This is my buddy, Alvaro Cervantes. I've known Alvaro for over 20 years now, since soon after first moving to the Toronto area. This rascal was working at the time for "Lightbox Animation Studio", run by my friend, Greg Duffell. He was a real talented kid even back then, and he was always keen to show me what he'd been recently working on. Some years later, when I was going to be leaving my job as a character illustrator at Disney Canada in order to transfer down to WDW in Florida, I recommended that they hire Alvaro as my replacement. They did, and he ended up working there for about the next 10 years.

One thing that Alvaro brought to the job in addition to drawing skill, was a real talent for sculpture. He'd been dabbling in it for only a short time, but he really developed that ability in leaps and bounds. As a result, that department became far more involved in the design and development of dimensional toys for its various licensees, primarily due to Alvaro's initiative.

We've stayed in touch all through the years, including one time when Alvaro came down to visit me in Florida, where I got to introduce him to a bunch of the guys in the WDW art department, as well as several of the guys over at Disney Florida Animation (sadly gone now, having been shut down a few years ago.) Last week, Alvaro and I got together for lunch at Montana's and I suggested we should draw each other and post the results on our respective blogs. Here are our funny looking mugs for your amusement.

(Psst, don't tell Alvaro but, I only hang out with this tough looking hombre because it gives me street cred...)

Such a handsome lad...

I'd like to also give a plug to Alvaro's blogsite, which may be found here. You'll find all sorts of great sculptures on there that he's done for various clients including Disney, as well as stuff that he's sculpted simply for his own pleasure. Here's a photo showing many views of Alvaro's sculpture of "Wolverine" getting a colonoscopy. Hey, fighting supervillains can take its toll on a guy...