Mary Blair was born on October 21, 1911 in Oklahoma 1. She had gotten into art in a young age and had a bright future. So bright, in fact, that her art style influenced an entire generation of Disney films. Walt Disney was very enamored with Mary’s style. Mary remembers: “Walt said that I knew about colors he had never heard of before” 1. He hired her again and again even though her husband was jealous of her success and constantly tried to keep her and Walt away from each other. Even though she left the studio in the 50s, Disney brought her back to work on attractions, including the infamous It’s A Small World.
A gallery of Mary Blair’s art. I’m not going to focus on one individual piece for this blog, but instead have an overview of her oeuvre.
Mary is another artist who demonstrates the animation principle of appeal. I’ve discussed appeal before, but it makes a character or scenery interesting to look at. 2Mary’s style is so unique and bold that it’s difficult to not pay attention to it. She uses both bold shapes and strong colours in her simple compositions. But this simplicity is deceiving. Her art is stripped of excess fluff and contains solid concepts that are easy to transfer into the animation medium. This is the reason why Walt Disney fought to use her concept art in movies like Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland. These are all films with distinct looks that set them apart from other films at the time, and even current films. Her style not only influenced films from this age, but several generations of artists have been influenced by her style. Google even had a “Google Doodle” last month to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Sources:
1. Canemaker, John. “Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists”, “Hyperion”. (118, 126).
2. Lightfoot, Nataha. “12 Principles”. Animation Toolworks.
animationfoundation 
Posted on November 18, 2011
0