Self-expression was encouraged, as is evident in the pages of Didier Ghez’s third beautiful volume of They Drew As They Pleased. Individual personal styles emerge with each chapter.
– Andreas Deja –
Introduction
Big News: The work of french Disney author and historian Didier Ghez will be honored with the Annie Award in february – which is kind of the Oscar of the animation industry. Since I know nearly all of his books, I can assure you that this appreciation of his talent and work is absolutely justified.
As a faithful reader of my blog and / or follower on Instagram, you might already know the amazing series of books Didier Ghez is currently working on: They Drew As They Pleased. If not, jump to my article about the first volume of the series. You’ll discover a lot of beautiful art work and the most important information to get an idea of what this project is all about. I already loved his first book, but I even prefer the newer volumes (They Drew as They Pleased is a fascinating series of books about Disney’s largely unexamined concept artists, with six volumes spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1990s… #cantwait). Both of them are the same size as their predecessor, so they’ll fit perfectly into your bookshelf next to each other.
They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Musical Years, The 1940s Part One and They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Late Golden Age, The 1940s Part Two continue to show us the diversity and creativity of the talent and art, but also the artistic evolution of the Disney artists of the 1940s. That being said, you won’t find clean-up animation, film stills or finished animation for the Disney films in these books, since they are dedicated to the sheer brilliance of concept art created for those movies. The main reason why this kind of art is produced at Disney, is to inspire the animators by trying new – sometimes quite crazy – stuff, to give them ideas and inspire them.
Before we have a look into volume 2 and 3 of the series, I invite you to read the interview that I did with author Didier Ghez…
Interview
Didier Ghez is the author of the books Disneyland Paris – From Sketch to Reality, Disney’s Grand Tour and the They Drew As They Pleased Series. He runs The Disney History blog (disneybooks.blogspot.com), The Disney Books Network website (www.didierghez.com), and serves as managing editor of the Walt’s People book series (19 volumes released to date).
Didier is currently working on They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Mid-Century Era, which discusses the lives, careers and art of artists Lee Blair, Mary Blair, Tom Oreb, John Dunn, and Walt Peregoy.
On the occasion of his nomination for the Annie Award – or the June Foray Award to be precise – I had the chance to do this interview with the author.
The Disney Bookshop: Didier, your work as a Disney historian is being honored with the June Foray Award. What does that mean to you?
Didier Ghez: I was stunned to learn that I am being awarded the June Foray Award (the award for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation). There is no honor that could mean more to me and no award that could excite me more than this one. Disney history has been my passion for more than 30 years and I always researched it for my own pleasure. I also love to share my discoveries with as many Disney history enthusiasts as possible, with neither financial objectives nor to satisfy my ego. That being said, if there is one award I was dreaming of getting one day, in my old age, it was the June Foray Award. Getting it and getting it at just 44, to me totally by surprise. And of course, I would not have gotten it if it weren’t for all the animation historians who helped me tremendously throughout the years and who carry on supporting me today.
The Disney Bookshop: When did you start to work on your first book and what inspired you to do so?
Didier Ghez: The very first book I worked on was Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality, an art book about the creation of Disneyland Paris. The project was brought to me in 1998 by my friend and editor, Alain Littaye and I said yes immediately. I was fascinated by the work of Disney’s Imagineers, had been writing about Disney history since I was a teenager, and I lived in Paris at the time, so tackling this ambitious project made a lot of sense to me. As toThey Drew As They Pleased, I started working on the first volume in the series in 2014 after getting the go-ahead from Chronicle Books. But in reality this first volume and the two that followed (and the 3 that are currently in progress) are the fruits of more than 25 years of research and some of the books I most wanted to write.
The Disney Bookshop: What is it that keeps fascinating you about Disney’s art and animation?
Didier Ghez: The stunning talent of the Disney artists, the behind the scenes, the creative process, the projects that made it to the screen and those that did not. Looking over the artists’ shoulders and taking a time machine to do so (through their diaries, interviews and correspondence) is one of the most addictive processes ever.
The Disney Bookshop: You are the author of the legendary “Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality“ book – which I absolutely love – can you imagine doing another book about another Disney Park?
Didier Ghez: Yes, of course. I would dream of writing a book about the creation of EPCOT or about the making of Tokyo Disneyland. Sadly this does not seem to be in the cards for the moment.
The Disney Bookshop: I love your books of the „They drew as they pleased“ series. I know you are currently working on another book of the series. Can you tell us something about your new book?
Didier Ghez: The next volume in the series, volume 4, will be titled The Hidden Art of Disney’s Mid-Century Era – The 1950s and 1960s and will focus on artists Lee Blair, Mary Blair, Tom Oreb, John Dunn and Walt Peregoy. As is the case for the previous volumes more than 90% of the illustrations will been displayed for the very first time in book form (including those in the Mary Blair chapter). The modern look of those years is both arresting and truly beautiful. It shows “Disney” as you have rarely seen it before. I have a feeling you will be as fascinated by what you will discover as I was!
Thank you for the interview, Didier !
The 1940s – Part I
They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Musical Years, The 1940s Part One is about the late 1930s and early 1940s …. with World War II and the the great depression a dark time in the world. Still, at the Disney Studio hope and creativity not only survived, but flourished!
The artists that are honored in this book were outstanding talents when it comes to inspirational art. You will learn a lot about their lifes, but mostly about their work, so it shouldn’t be surprising that this book is packed with beautiful art work. We get a lot of black and white sketches but mostly very colorful creations, it’s a real visual treat to flip through those pages.
This book is a homage to Walt Scott, Kay Nielsen, Sylvia Holland, Retta Scott and David Hall – Disney legends that worked on Fantasia (a very important part of this book since music is also present in its title), Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid (Yes, Disney actually was thinking about doing a movie on the fairy tale back then. Knowing and loving our Ariel, I am quite happy they dicided to wait with the production, although the concept art I found in this book is sublime), Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and Peter Pan… but also a lot of other productions not that well known.
The 1940s – Part II
Let’s move on to discover more gorgeous Disney art of the 1940s, this time from Eduardo Solá Franco, Johnny Walbridge, Jack Miller, Campbell Grant, James Bodrero and Martin Provensen. They Drew As They Pleased – The Hidden Art of Disney’s Late Golden Age, The 1940s Part Two is nearly 250 pages of delight.
What I think is special about this volume is that it features a decent amount of art about the creation of Dumbo, which is actually very rare. As you might know, I really do have a lot of books about Disney art but normally we only get about two pages on that movie.
This time it’s different: There are even some very beautiful pages about side characters like the ringmaster or the stork, so if you are collecting those kind of books and love Dumbo, you know what to do.
Besides, there is also a lot of art about Fantasia (really a looot), Pinocchio and Bambi…
As the huge fan of Peter Pan that I am, I particularly like all the concept art on this movie. Sadly, we rarely find Peter Pan art in Disney art books (Why is there nothing like a The Art of Peter Pan Book out there actually?!), so again… it’s very cool and refreshing to find those beautiful creations in this volume.
Résumé
As you might have noticed, I love this series of books. Volume 2 and 3 are as good as the first one and I consider them a must-have for any Disney collector. Their unique nature alone make them a worthy addition to your collection. I have to confess that I generally love the concept of a series, since those matching books next to each other just look so beautiful on the bookshelf, so I can’t wait to discover the color scheme of the upcoming volume.
Like always, the printing and paper quality is great, so it’s just fun to have a look at all those amazing artistic creations.
With Christmas just around the corner, this series of books might just be what you were looking for, if you have any other Disney art enthusiasts among your friends and/or family. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and the interview. Do you like concept art?
Happy reading!
Where to get it?
Title: They Drew As They Pleased: The Hidden Art of Disney’s Musical Years – The 1940s – Part One
Author: Didier Ghez
Year: 2016
Title: They Drew As They Pleased: The Hidden Art of Disney’s Late Golden Age – The 1940s – Part Two
Author: Didier Ghez
Year: 2017
You can get both books online (via Amazon for example) or order it at your local bookshop. Since these are recent titles, that shouldn’t be a problem. The original price is 40 € ( the same in $). I bought volume 2 at my local bookstore (I had to order it first). Chroniclebooks provided me with a copy of volume 3 to facilitate this review.