One More Reason to Like The Lion King (as if you needed more)

pretty sure these are by jean gillmore

I wanted to share these beautiful Lion King drawings I’ve recently been inspired by. A couple weekends ago I got the chance to visit the Art of Animation resort while at Disney and the lobby is full of huge printouts with drawings like these. Sketchy, pencil-y, wonderful drawings. Why did nobody tell me to go here sooner?!?

These drawings are from what feels like a now forgotten age of animation art when everything had to be done on paper, so you get these fascinating results - especially in the line quality. Look closely at the lines here - imagine them without the interior coloring. They're short, kinda jagged, making little attempt to connect up with each other or look "pretty." But that's exactly the point - they're unpretentious, fearless even. Once the drawing's colored in, you barely even notice the lines anymore (power of silhouette I guess). And ultimately, concept trumps all - these drawings work not because of the lines but because they convey interesting, appealing characters. You get the sense that the character, not the drawing, is what matters. And what the audience really cares about.

these two by chris sanders

That’s something I have to tell myself again and again while creating. Digital tools make it so easy to tailor the drawing to exactly how you’d like it, which maybe is missing the point. Perhaps the inflexibility of physical mediums forces you to focus on the message, not the lines on the page. I’ve been testing this out on my current short film project, working so far just with pencil and paper to develop the character. This process is actually quite foreign to me, and it’s disappointing when I inevitably make shoddy marks that can't be easily undo-ed. On one hand, I think my drawings are worse than if I had made them digitally, but it’s freed me to think more of the character that these drawings are a window into. The forest, not the trees. It’s also been fun to hold my drawings in my hand again, flipping to the ones I like - I really do miss that when working digitally!

Anyway, The Lion King is great and I’m a fan - what else is new!

Thanks for your readership :)

-dh

ps for lion king fans only: more drawings here and here