Sunday, March 24, 2013

Countdown to Marc Davis' 100th Birthday



This March 30 marks the 100th birthday of Marc Davis.
I thought it might be a nice idea to post material relating to Marc's career until then.
The photo shows a very young Marc Davis. It was most likely taken sometime in 1939.
Some of the rough model sheets on the wall date back to 1938 and early 1939.
This means that the location isn't an office at the then new Burbank Studios, but a much smaller temporary studio for the Bambi unit on 861 Seward Street in Hollywood.

It's always fun to have a look around and see what you can find and identify in photos like this one.
It looks like Marc is holding a fly swatter, and he is pointing at a print of the Michelangelo painting The Holy Family (perhaps a fly had just landed on it). I don't recognize the artist of the print next to it.
Love the vintage radio, and what looks like a lunchbox on the left.
The illustration with a flock of birds Marc is working on is probably a story sketch. For inspiration he has a stuffed woodpecker in front of him. 
There is a sheet of paper just for sharpening pencils, but I also detect a Mickey Mouse doodle from The Sorcerer's Apprentice on it. That's unusual since Marc didn't work on that film.

Below are scans of a few of Marc's model sheets you see in the photo.






Some of Marc's bird studies for Bambi. All of these look so solid, because of his thorough understanding of birds' bone structure.