Imitation of Life, 2013, watercolors

Film director Mathias Poledna won the distinction of representing his country for the 2013 Venice Biennale. His animated short Imitation of Life was presented at the Austrian pavilion from June 1— November 24, 2013, and was also exhibited at the Whitney Museum’s Dreamlands exhibition from October 28, 2016— February 5, 2017.

Mathias worked with Duck Studios in Los Angeles to produce the film. The director's oeuvre mostly pays tribute to 1930s cinema and accordingly, he set out to make an animated short reminiscent of early Disney movies, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, and Pinocchio.

It was important to recreate the look and feel of the earlier films accurately. I set the tone and helped to create the film’s distinctive background style utilizing traditional watercolor techniques.

Links: | Domus | Mousse Magazine | Dreamlands | Imitation of Life clip

Lilo & Stitch, 2003, watercolors

At the film’s inception, Director Chris Sanders wanted the background art in Lilo & Stitch to be painted in watercolors, but no Disney film had been painted in the medium after the 1940s.

Chris faced resistance. Watercolors are difficult to control and correct, and there was an inherent risk for a team of painters utilizing a medium that so faithfully responds to the individual artist’s touch, to make the backgrounds of an entire film appear to be painted by the same hand.

The crew practiced for a year, experimenting with pigments, papers, and brushes. One primary goal was to attain a non-grainy color application that would hold up when projected many times larger onto the big screen.

Artist, Thomas Schaller gave the background painters a workshop in watercolor techniques.

Additionally, colleague Peter Moehrle and I had experience in watercolors and were able to bring a few techniques to the table.

John Henry, 2000, scratchboard and acrylics

In creating an overall design for the animated short film, John Henry, the department looked to a number of Harlem Renaissance artists for inspiration.

Two separate techniques were created for the backgrounds: one was inspired by Gee’s Bend quilts, and the other technique was modeled after scratchboard artist, Brian Pinkney, who generously demonstrated to the crew his approach to the medium.

Brother Bear, 2003, acrylics

The production design for Brother Bear was made to look like the painting hand of one of our very own background artists, Xiangyuan Jie.

Director Bob Walker, a former layout artist, opened up the movie’s aspect ratio to give the feeling of ‘big country’.

Brother Bear’s rugged environments were heavily influenced by the Alaskan wilderness. But the crew was also provided an outdoor excursion with landscape painter, Scott Christensen, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Scott gave an outlying, mountainous tour by way of horseback.

More training was provided by Len Chmiel who conducted a color-focused oil painting workshop on the grounds of the Coronado Springs Resort.

Mulan, 1998, acrylics

The look of Mulan was based on the Ming and Qing dynasties. Acclaimed production designer and author, Hans Bacher, employed the graceful simplicity of Chinese watercolor painting into the background design. Hans held tight control over the style and the results were both beautifully realized and well-suited to staging animated characters.

Tarzan, 1999, acrylics

The backgrounds in Tarzan were intricate and detailed. The Los Angeles-based directors enlisted the help of background crews from all three Disney studios (Los Angeles, Orlando, and Paris), for a total of 50 painters—the largest number ever cast in Disney’s history.

Certain complex sequences utilized Disney’s in-house 3-D program, Deep Canvas. The program was used in concert with Tarzan‘s animated ‘surfing’ scenes along limbs of jungle trees. (Shots from those sequences are not represented here.)