|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The beautiful new book Local Fauna: The Art of Peter de Sève (Abrams Books’ Cernunos imprint, $40) offers a rich collection of some of the brilliant artist’s illustrations and character sketches for favorites such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ratatouille and Ice Age, famous New Yorker covers, as well as some rarely seen personal work. The book also includes essays by fellow character designer Carter Goodrich, animator and director Glen Keane, and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, as well as an in-depth interview by Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Waterson.
We can’t think of a better holiday gift for all the animation lovers in your life and are thrilled to share Keane’s essay, along with a few of the iconic images from the book:
In all of Peter de Sève’s work there is the unmistakable mark of a man who keenly observes life. You see it in the subtle way a character stands, a gesture, a tilt of the head, or the way a wry smile married with a knitted brow speaks volumes without words. You see it in his gentle but wicked wit. To me, there seems to be a certain “Mark Twainess” in Peter’s drawings, a homespun warmth and wisdom coupled with laser-accurate perceptivity. I feel like I know the character of each person or animal he illustrates. I’ve either met them, or I am them.
This doesn’t come about by desire alone. There are many learned skills Peter has acquired over the years that he brings to every drawing he makes. In my early days at Disney, I would hear Ward Kimball brag that he could draw anything he could take apart and put back together. That meant one needed a solid understanding of a thing before one could describe it in line. I realized it’s not just setting yourself free to explore your creative muse … you also have to have your bags packed with the skills you need for that journey. Peter’s bags are packed. He knows his stuff. From the discipline of figure drawing to sketching everyday life around him, he has filled his creative satchels with a keen sense of anatomy, expression, and character.
His images have wonderful dimension and volume; I think of them as sculptural drawings. One feels you could reach out and put your hands around the form of his characters in the same way you could place your hands on a Rodin bronze.
And these characters want to move! They are not frozen lines but stored kinetic energy. I love the texture of his line; you can almost feel how it felt to draw it. The skin is soft and fleshy. Bony corners jab out in hard angles. Cotton fabric has weight and saggy skin wants to droop down. The expressive lines he makes serve as a seismograph of his soul. His characters scream out to be animated. It’s no wonder he is one of the most sought-after character designers in animation today.
Perhaps the most singular trademark of Peter’s work is the surprising shape combinations he employs. Again and again I am in awe as he uses a rectangle, a circle, or a square to describe a person’s face or an animal’s head in such a way that feels more like that creature than any exact photo could ever hope to reproduce.
Freshness and originality are the goal of every artist. Peter de Sève reminds us that this goal is possible, that we can draw anything our minds can imagine. This is a tremendous gift. Enjoy the creative journey Peter is taking us on and allow yourself to believe that all you dreamed of becoming as an artist is possible.
— Glen Keane
