Looking at concept art allowed me to become aware of the thousands of creative ideas and designs that the Disney artists explored before settling on the ones that made it to the screen.
– Didier Ghez –
Introduction
If you are reading this article right now, I presume that you love Disney movies and all their well-known characters that have a special place in the heart of many many people. But have you ever thought about how those characters and dream worlds come to life? … we tend to think of the Disney animators straight away. But also as an animator, you have to find inspiration somewhere, right?
It all starts with the magic and talent of Disney’s concept artists. And that is exactly what this great book is all about: artists who are paid to be creative, to have ideas, to think differently, to try crazy new things, and finally to inspire other artists at the Disney studios, for example the animatiors.
They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Golden Age, The 1930s is a very ambitious project by author Didier Ghez, who also worked on the amazing Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality (my first Disney coffee-table book ever). This is only the first volume of what is going to be a series of books dedicated to the hidden concept art of the Disney studios through the decades. Since volume 3 will be published this fall, I also plan to show you volume 2 soon on my blog.
The book consists of four main chapters dedicated to four leading Disney concept artists of the 1930s: Albert Hurter, Ferdinand Horvath, Gustaf Tenggren and Bianca Majolie. Due to their European roots and their own cultural background, they looked at thing differently – a crucial qualification for a concept artist! Of course they were also very talented artists and illustrators (just look at those amazing drawings and ideas).
Didier Ghez explains that it was very important to him to choose artists that, at first sight, weren’t the obvious choice. He wants us to discover “new” never before published artwork created by some extremly talented artists, that are too ofter overlooked. And it was about time that someone went treasure hunting in order to finally gather all this inspirational art in a single book. Since the author is a very gifted historian as well, it shouldn’t be surprising that his research was extremly in-depth, therefore his book doesn’t only give us a huge amount of art, but also some well-written text about the eventful work and lifes of the chosen artists.
Get a glimpse of a very small, selected part of their work down below (there is just so much of it in this beautiful book). I am sure you will recognize the one or the other Disney character that we know and love today!
So, let’s have a look at some art work and get inspired…
Albert Hurter
Born in Zürich (Switzerland) in 1883, Albert Hurter left Europe in 1914 to avoid World War I and came to New York to work as an artist. Later on he went west and finally started to work for Walt Disney. He joined the Studio in 1931 (at almost 50).
The wide range of his work ist just mind-blowing and goes from crazy insect-like creatures to grotesque figures and mechanical animals that look more like transformers or engines.
He created concept art for nearly every animated Disney feature of the era and beyond (also features that only were produced after he passed away): Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp.
Ferdinand Horvath
Ferdinand Horvath (born in Budapest) was a way more extrovert and impulsive person than Albert Hurter. Nonetheless his drawings were less experimental and fancyfull. On the other hand his work was more geared to specific Disney productions and therefore often had a more direct impact on the final picture.
His character was rather unsteady, which shows in the fact that Horvath left The Walt Disney Company multiple times (to work for the Warner studio for example), only to return to Disney after a certain amount of time. In 1939, Walt Disney wasn’t willing to hire him a third time. His life was full of ups and downs… still, he remains one of the most talented concept artists of that era.
Gustaf Tenggren
When Gustaf Tenggren joined The Walt Disney Company in 1936, he already was a quite well-known artist, since he had already worked for the most important magazines of the time. He also was a successful children’s book illustrator (Andersen’s Fairy Tales for example).
His artistic style was less cartoony, but his work had more of a classic fairy tale vibe to it. At that time Disney met his biggest challenge: The production of his first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For this reason, Disney was hiring a lot of people, amongts others Gustaf Tenggren. Although the picture already bore the signature of Albert Hurter, he still had some great influence on it. His full capacities later showed on Pinocchio, where every element of the feature is somehow linked to the Swedish artist.
Bianca Majolie
Let’s move on to the first woman to join Disney’s Story Department, Bianca Majolie. Although born in Rome (Italy), she went to school in Chicago. One of her classmates was none other than Walt Disney. He later recognized her talent and hired her. She did learn very quickley and her artistic style evolved while working on many different projects: The Silly Symphonies, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Peter Pan, Cinderella and many others.
After some very intense years at Disney, Bianca Majolie couldn’t handle the stress anymore and went on a long vacation (nowadays we would call it a burnout I guess). When she came back her desk was occupied.
Without doubt, Majolie paved the way for other women that would start working at the Disney studio later on.
Résumé
They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Golden Age, The 1930s is a great book that is quite unique in its nature. There is a book called Before the Animation Begins, written by John Canemaker (some of you might know him), that is also dedicated to the often underrated concept art. Didier Ghez even mentions it and explains its complementary character… so I guess we just need them both.
Like I said, this is only the first volume of a whole series that will cover more than 70 years of concept art. You can imagine how much research and work that means! The author’s passion and dedication towards the project clearly shows in this beautiful book. The text is very well written and easy to read… and even if you are more interested in the visual part, you will end up being fascinated by the remarkable lifes of these artists. Still, I would say there is 10% of text and 90% of art work, so we crearly get quite some inspiration thanks to all the amazing visual material. Another strong point of this book is the incredible diversity of concept art in there, for the better part never published before: pencil sketches, character and colour studies, backgrounds… and just so much detail.
I also love the layout of this book, since it has the same dimensions like all the other Disney books edited by Chronicle Books (a great many of “The Art of” books… The Art of Frozen or The Art of Tangled for example). Hence they fit perfectly into your bookshelf next to each other.
Last but not least, the paper quality is great (like for all the other Chronicle books), so for me flipping through this beauty is a pure delight.
Personally, I can’t wait for volume 3 to be in stores. Meanwhile, I’ll try to keep the pot boiling with an article about volume 2.
Where to get it?
Title: They Drew As They Pleased: The Hidden Art of Disney’s Golden Age – The 1930s
Author: Didier Ghez
Year: 2015
You always can get the book online via Amazon. The original price was about 40 € ( the same in $). If you are interested in this book, I would suggest to buy it now, since the current prices are pretty good: Only 17 $ on Amazon.com for example! By using the link below (klicking on the respective picture), you help me to keep The Disney Bookshop going.
I hope you enjoyed reading this review – let me know, what you think about it.
US readers:
French readers:
German readers:
