Disney Studio Pt. 3 - Character and Story Development Art *

When I began collecting animation art in the late 1970s, most collectors were focused on animation cels, with fewer interested in production backgrounds. By about 1990, this started to change, and story art and what is now widely known as "concept art" increasingly garnering attention. Now, by far the most valuable and popular form of animation art is concept art. When pieces of interest turned up, I pursued them. But much of what is being sold these days presents issues of authenticity, since, in general, story and concept art is, by its nature, easier to forge than most pieces of production art that is actually seen on movie and television screens. If someone were inclined toward forgery, he would need to obtain certain art materials to be able to forge cels, animation drawings, and background paintings which could not be readily identified as fakes. Rarely have I encountered Disney cels that I was certain were inauthentic. [I'll discuss what tipped me off under my section for Cels and Backgrounds. I can only think of one two instances in 40+ years when I encountered forged animation drawings -- several drawings of Mickey Mouse from Fantasia which, by comparing the indications for shadows on other drawings from the same scene revealed that the forger had not understood how the special effects were drawn and a group of mediocre drawings in the '80s with elaborate stamps on them of a type never used by the studio. Moreover, the nature of authentic peg holes (registration holes) and the watermarks that are always present on Disney animation paper can be an easy indications of fakery. But there are no fail proof signs that a story/concept painting was not done in the Disney Studio. There are certain clues which should be considered before investing a lot of money in an example of such developmental art. Continued under the first jpg below.