Customer Reviews

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: Volume 1: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures

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These two volumes are a master class in Disney style animation thinking. Essentially, a goldmine of what we learned here at Disney as young animators trying to follow in the shoes of the masters of the craft of character animation. I was lucky enough to have been taught every one of these lessons from Walt himself over my thirty years and running as an animator/story man/director/designer at Walt Disney Studios. I only wish you all could have met the man who brings this wealth of knowledge to these pages. He made you feel good just being around him. He was never dour or sour or in any way unhappy. If he was, he hid it completely from us. He was the coolest "old guy" you could ever hope to be taught by. Athletic, youthful in every way, passionate, inquisitive, searching and digging for the answers all the time. He stayed hungry for improvement his entire life and we all try to emulate that to this day and make our teacher and friend proud of us for trying. You will not only most definitely be a better artist after reading these volumes I practically guarantee you will be a better person for having gotten to know Walt Stanchfield and his way of looking at life and art as one. We all feel this way at Disney, believe me.

I acquired Drawn to Life thinking it would be nice background material on typical Disney animation characters - sort of an insider's look at their production and development. Perhaps even a way to acquire some unusual character drawings. Wrong entirely!

What this book is, is a very specialized art instruction book aimed at animation artists and Disney animation artists specifically. Still, it does teach focus on, and simplification of gesture in a way that can be effectively used in any medium. Had I to reduce Drawn to Life to its barest topic, it would be just that - capturing and communicating gesture. Animation requires special techniques adapted to 2D line drawing. Those are the heart of the book, along with Walt Stanchfield's philosophy, optimism, and personification of Disney post-WWII history.

The book is a collection of Walt Stanchfield's weekly lectures to the Disney animators, consisting of drawing handouts and notes. The lecture topics were, and are, essentially random (his own term) as this wasn't intended as a course of study, but as professional development and continuing ed for an existing, highly-accomplished staff of artists. There are 149 lectures in the first volume alone, under such titles as "Using Cylinders", "Think First ...", "Get Out Of Your Way", "Action Analysis", "Silhouette", and so on.

Having dabbled in art classes and books over the years, I often find such material highly-technical ... and deadly dull. Drawn to Life is neither. Though the volume is large (nearly 400 pages), each lecture chapter is short and to the point. Stanchfield's teaching style is literate and personable, often humorous and riddled with stories. Drawings accompanying each lecture are quite loose and sketchy, invariably on-point, and amazingly convincing. Who knew that the subtlest shift in the slant of a line could be so compelling?

I walked away with a renewed appreciation for animation artists, an enhanced vocabulary that includes terms like stretch and squish, and tools I lacked to evaluate animation quality. Recommended, not just for artists, but for anyone intrigued by animation. Naturally, the Disney characters and commentary sprinkled throughout are fun, too.

The first volume of DRAWN TO LIFE covers mainly basic gesture drawing, while the second volume explores how to 'push' the action and create distinct personalities in gesture sketches. These two books are a wonderful addition to the library of animation.

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Drawn to Life is a collection of lectures from long-time Disney animator Walt Stanchfield. He has worked for Disney since the 1950s.

There are two volumes, each with over 400 pages. The reason for two volumes is probably to make the books easier to handle. Both are on gesture and life drawing, even though the cover art might suggest otherwise, especially the one with the lion. You can start reading from any book and any lecture. The order isn't important.

There are plenty of essays in the books. Each is a lesson relating to drawing and animation. It can be tangent drawings, creating believable characters, learning to observe, understanding gestures, etc. There are tips on almost anything relating to drawing. Loose and sketchy sketches serves as examples to the lessons.

These books are more thinking than drawing technique books. For example, the lessons are not about how to draw perspective, the lessons are about how to use perspective. You can view sample pages for volume one and volume two on amazon.com to get an idea.

The books represent a tremendous wealth of information and insight into drawing, animation and observation. After all, Walt Stanchfield has more than 50 years of experience in animation.

This book is recommended to those who are into animation and drawing.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

Walther Stanchfield's later career with Disney was as an instructor for a wave of new animators that came to work in the 70's. Even if you are not a fan of Disney style animation, this book is essential because of the quality of writing, clarity of discussion and illustration. The author does a fantastic job of breaking down drawing and animation concepts in a way that is useful for both those who are getting started and those that are looking for ways to gain additional insight on their work.

The format for this book is in the form of a series of lectures, focused on many different aspects of animation and drawing. Many of these are no more than a page and a half, with illustrations. Content ranges from the very specific "how to" type of instruction to more generalized concepts. In one example he illustrates an important principle of drawing for those just beginning, breaking down complex shapes into boxes, and then add back in the complexity little by little. "What Not to See" discusses what to begin with and what to leave out when sketching. From there the book launches into other essential subjects such as gesture, action, perspective. "Draw Verbs, not Nouns!" The way that the book is laid out is in general sections, but inside each section, the topics encourage browsing and skipping around.

The editor made little or no changes to the author's writing, and illustrations are the author's own examples that he chose, in some cases from xeroxed copies that he handed out in class (not to worry, the quality is fine throughout). For the cost of this book you are getting access to the same kind of instruction that Disney's own animators had access to. It is quite a bargain.

Each "lesson" of this major work will provide the reader/artist with what it takes to be successful in this field. The more than 400 pages in Volume 1 are jam packed with easy-to-read information that can only help the artist learn,and improve. It covers the basics of animation, anatomy, sticking to themes, action analysis, one picture is worth a thousand words, fine tuning, gestures, and much, much more. You don't have to be an "artist" to find this work interesting. There is an addtional work by Mr. Stanchfield. This first volume is "The Place" to start.

This book is a wonderful surprise. Walt Stanchfield's lessons have been transcribed so that you get his voice speaking to you form across the years - and what an inspiring voice it is!

I expected great lessons in Disney style drawing and animation and I got those - in abundance! How life would have been different if I'd had these lessons in squash and stretch and drawing the gesture ("Draw the verb in front of you, not the noun!"). But the real treasure is how he goes beyond the drawing lessons into lessons about how to be creative, how to live life!

Sometimes it's about inspiring you to draw: "...Whether your heart is set on the fine arts or on animation, quick sketching is the shortest route to training yourself for capturing those spontaneous gestures and poses that are so essential to good drawing. Break one of your bad habits today. Which one? The habit of not sketching."

Other times he goes beyond this: "You must create. The injunction of life is to create or perish. Good physical and mental conditioning are necessary to do this. Remember this: the creative energy that created the universe created you, and its creative power is now in you, motivating you, urging you on - always in the direction of creative expression. I have a formula: "Impression minus expression equals depression." This is especially applicable to artists. We have trained ourselves to be impressed (aware) of all the things around us, and in the natural course of our lives those impressions cry out to be expressed - on paper, on canvas, in music, in poetry, in animated film. So shape up!"

Allow yourself to be inspired again - buy yourself this and the companion volume!

This big, gorgeously laid-out book is a gem instruction for artists who like to draw. Stanchfield was a Disney animator for many years, and he really understands how to convey life and motion in a drawing, whether it's intended for an animation camera or not. His knowledge of anatomy, movement and expression shine through and are an inspiration on every page of this book. He gives little details about things that I never thought about when approaching a drawing. Some of it is obviously geared toward the animator, but all of the instruction is easily adaptable to regular drawing.

The book is organized into a series of themes ("Gesture", "Seeing," etc.), with short chapters for each theme. Each chapter is accompanied by the artist's wonderful sketches, and the tone of the instruction is straightforward,conversational and encouraging. It doesn't have to be read in order, you can skip around and read little bits and pieces of it. I find it helpful to read 2-3 chapters a day just to inspire me and to remember what he had to say. He really makes you want to grab a pencil and draw.

Highly recommended -- the only thing I wish is that they would have said what will be in volume two -- I can't wait for that!

One of my huge dreams when I was younger was to work at the Disney Animation Studios and work under (and hopefully alongside:) animation greats like Mark Henn, Glen Keane, and Andreas Deja. That never happened and I pursued other things, but I've always wondered what it would have been like if I had:) This book kind of makes you feel like you're there...sitting next to the greats and listening, learning and drawing alongside all the animation heroes who have also been taught by Walt Stanchfield. Many of those same animators' drawings adorn the text and give glimpses into the teachings and notes that fill every page. The text itself is quite amazing...informational and extremely inspiring. I've become a bit rusty in many areas of drawing, but this book helped me remember why I ever (as a boy) wanted to pick up a pencil in the first place. It might sound a bit dramatic (and perhaps it is) but cracking open this book made me remember drawing superheroes at 3 am in the morning on an old dusty table in a closet sized room... drawing mickey mouse in Biology class and trying (in vain) to draw a successful flip book with my typing paper. Drawing was often fun in those day... and was more about adventure and exploration and expression than the often goal-oriented and perfectionistic ruts that I've often walked in since. So maybe it sounds silly, but this book kind of helped make drawing fun for me again...and kind of helped breathe new life into an art form that I had placed on a dusty shelf. There's such a wealth of information that one could easily read the book several times and not get it all, but what's great about this book is it's kind of written as if Walt Stanchfield himself is coming alongside you and helping you along on this journey of art (and specifically drawing). Each lesson is rather quick and usually concentrates on one point (gesture, or variety, or not copying a pose but feeling it from the inside out). One can read it in gulps or in small increments and still gain a wealth of information and encouragement. I can see that an animator especially would enjoy this book, but I bought this book as mainly a drawing help aid and the lessons contained within would apply to any artist. So if you love to draw...or want to draw better, I would definitely recommend this book. I doubt you'll be disappointed. (Note: As a youngster I submitted a portfolio to Disney for review. Their training department sent me a packet of drawings for my help and inspiration drawn from the likes of Walt Stanchfield, Glen Keane and Andreas Deja. Many of those same drawings and hundreds more are contained within these pages. They are amazing to see).

Any library strong in animation or drawing history in general or Disney in particular needs DRAWN TO LIFE. It offers the Walt Stanchfield lectures for the first time in a two-volume gathering of legendary lectures from the long-time Disney animator. For over twenty years Walt Stanchfield lead Disney and influenced rising young illustrators: his writings for animation artists and film pros alike offer valuable insights for any students new to animation and is a 'must' for both film and art libraries. Volume 1 and V. 2 each pack in legendary lectures not to be missed by any serious art library.