Saturday, June 17, 2006

Preston Blair's Sorcerer's Apprentice








This comes from an issue of Cartoonist PROfiles, though I don't know which one. Space has always been at a premium here, and I've torn articles out of magazines for years in order to keep my files under control. I've been good lately at noting the titles and issue numbers of articles, but I neglected to do it for this piece. If anybody knows the issue number, please comment.

Blair claimed in the accompanying text that this was the first scene animated for The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He also mentions that the assistant for this scene was Ken Muse and that live action of a UCLA athlete was filmed for reference. Blair states that the athlete had long hair and he used it as a guide for the follow through on Mickey's robe.

I wonder if these images are tracings Blair did of his originals, as some of the figures overlap. However they were assembled, they're lovely to look at.

7 comments:

Kevin Langley said...

Wow, thanks for sharing this. I love Preston Blair's work and this is a real treat. The article sounds like an interesting read too. I never knew that Ken Muse was his assistant at one time. Just another reason why your's is one of my favorite blogs.

Thad said...

If anyone here collects 16mm film, I think it's Mark Kausler who is selling dandy

- Thad

Mark Mayerson said...

Jerry Beck and I used to know a guy named Mark (Heller?) who worked at The Image Factory in the '70's. Jerry may still know him. Mark might know something about that piece of film.

The Image Factory was a N.Y. studio that did broadcast graphics. At the time, those were shot on an animation stand using backlit artwork, glows, streaks, etc. It's possible that this film was shot there rather than being a dupe of a vintage test shot at Disney. Blair was located on the east coast in the '70's, so it's possible.

Hans Perk said...

The fact that one of the images is signed in the bottom makes that very plausible...

Anonymous said...

I just acquired an original drawing very similar to the left image on the 7th row. Can I get a better copy of the drawings you posted?

Mark Mayerson said...

Glen, click on the image and you'll get a larger version of it. These were printed in a magazine, so the large version is the best I can do.

Any chance you can scan the drawing you have and email it to me? I'm markmayerson(at)rogers(dot)com.

MIELLOUX said...

Wow, thanks very thanks ! It is à beautiful drawing !
a real find!