Thursday, March 5, 2009

Holy Crap! That's Walt Holding My Cel!

Tonight as I was going through binders of photographs looking for something interesting to post in a 'behind the scenes' vein, I made an astounding discovery. Well, astounding to me at least.

This is my only really good cel setup, it is a studio-prepared setup with a studio background (art props most likely) with the cool little WD emblem in the lower right corner and the funky pencil script. I got this at a Howard Lowery auction waaaay back, 1992 or 1993 I think, and I shelled out big time for it, having just sold my entire runs of X-Men and Daredevil comics to finance this particular purchase. 'Cause, you know, there's no future in comic book resale value compared to animation art...

Tonight, as I was looking for photos (Walt with ink and paint girls, Walt with Ward and Mad Hatter art, Walt with multiplane camera, ho hum) I found this one. Looks intriguing, lots of Mary Blair art on the walls, movieola in the background, Evan K Shaw figures on the desk, oh, and Walt is holding two cel setups. The eye is immediately drawn to the one he is looking at, a large close up of Alice. But wait, the cel in his right hand looks so familiar.
With my limited photoshop skills I was able to isolate that part of the photo and do a little perspective rotating and skewing, and voilà! It is indeed my cel setup. And Walt held it...thumbprint right on the mat and everything...pretty damn cool if you ask me.

5 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Wow, that is incredible! What are the odds that you would find this photo? But you are obviously the person who was meant to own it, since you found the "Walt connection"!

Bob Cowan said...

- What a hoot!
- It is a rare and special surprise when you are reading/researching/thumbing through material and do a double-take when you see an image of something in your collection! First, a "Wait a minute.." moment; Second, the rush to blow up the image; Third, a run to the wall to look again at your artwork; and, Fourth, the ear-to-ear smile... !

-Congrats! Bob

jedblau said...

Fantastic story!

Matterhorn1959 said...

Great story Matt and nice image of Walt looking at the Studio set ups.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Beautiful Cel and great Walt photo to match!