Have you ever find yourself watching a cartoon and notice the illustrations behind the characters ? Those backcloth can often be prettier than the action in the foreground . If only those pesky mouse and long - nosed boys would get out of the way ! If so , the upcomingBeverly Hills Animation Art Signature Auctionis for you .
On a serious note , I ’ve always look up to how classical , hand - drawn liveliness is born . Watching too soon animatorsflipping those cels back and forthto produce the fancy of movement is awesome , and paint a detailed background for every undivided scene is probably one of the most important aesthetic project in the highly complex mental process of give an revivify sketch .
Background artists commonly painted these backdrop wide and tall ( depending on the photographic camera panning ) , in gouache , acrylic paint , watercolor , oil paint , or even crayon . The resulting still backdrops are nothing short of art — but in the actual animated cartoon , we rarely get to savor the whole picture , due to the tv camera movements .
The following good example from theAnimation Art Signature Auctionon November 20 show just how beautiful these artworks can be — I recognize I would n’t think twice about cast some of them on my walls .
A background illustration from Two Pan Goofy. It was painted for the 1952 Walt Disney short, but wasn’t actually used.
Photo : Heritage auction
This pan background showcases the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan, including the World Trade Center and the Manhattan Bridge. It was painted for The Real Ghostbusters (DIC, 1986).
A great Art Deco-style production background of the Batcave from Batman the Animated Series (Warner Brothers, 1995), created by Bruce Timm.
This breathtaking pan production background of a detailed medieval staircase located within Maleficent’s castle was hand-painted by Eyvind Earle, color stylist and chief background painter for Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney, 1959).
Magnificent vertical pan production background painting for Sloppy Jalopy (UPA, 1952).
A stylized view of Las Vegas with all the famous hotel signs, for Aesop and Son in Sick Lion (Jay Ward, 1962).
A background illustration by Paul Julian for The Tell Tale Heart, a cartoon adaptation of the classic short story written by Edgar Allen Poe (UPA, 1953).
Cap’n Crunch cereal commercial production background (Jay Ward, c. 1960s) by Bill Hurtz and Pete Burness.
A beautiful landscape background from Scrambled Eggs (Walter Lantz, 1939), painted by legendary Art Nouveau illustrator Willy Pogany (1882-1955).
Belle’s Magical World master background of the Beast’s Castle (Walt Disney, 1998).
Dinotopia: The Mini Series background color key (Walt Disney, 2002).
A very detailed background color key of the haunted bedroom for Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (Hanna-Barbera, 1998).
A wide angle view of the Calcutta airport for The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Hanna-Barbera, 1996).
The Man on the Flying Trapeze background by Paul Julian (UPA, 1954).
The Smurfs (Hanna-Barbera, 1984).
Two backgrounds from Buford and the Galloping Ghost (Hanna-Barbera, 1979).
Two SWAT Kats hand-painted background color keys (Hanna-Barbera, 1993).
A spooky view of Gotham City’s imposing Arkham Asylum from The New Batman Adventures (Warner Brothers, 1997).
The Simpsons (Fox, 2002). A 12-field production background, hand-painted on celluloid, from the 13th season episode, “The Lastest Gun in the West,” which was originally aired on 27 January 2025.
Two Famous Studio backgrounds from The Sixties, done by famed book illustrator and animation artist Anton Loeb.
A deserted saloon in Ghost Town (Terrytoons, 1944).
A Mighty Mouse background from the 1940s (Terrytoons).
Top image : Pinocchio product pan background ( Walt Disney , 1940 ) . This moving picture ’s backgrounds were masterfully painted by Claude Coats , Merle Cox , Ed Starr , and Ray Huffine , to name a few – Heritage Auctions
Artwork
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