Biography: The Training of a Golden Age Animator

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.


If you have been reading our blog for a while, you're familiar with Carlo Vinci. He was a brilliant animator whose work you've seen many times in Mighty Mouse cartoons...

...and on The Flintstones.

You might remember that John K and I visited his family a few months ago...

This weekend I returned with Archive volunteers Joseph "JoJo" Baptista, Chris Allison and Mike Nassar to photograph some of the incredible artwork that lines the walls of Mrs. Vinci's beautiful home. Carlo Vinci left behind an important legacy, and the family is now sharing it with you.

It's interesting how different aspects of one's life can come together to point in the same direction. Recently, I was participating in an internet discussion forum where we were discussing the best way to educate aspiring animators. Some people in the discussion felt that basic drawing skills are necessary. Others believed that drawing is unnecessary for students aiming at a career in computer animation. There was disagreement over just what sort of education is best for a student animator. This led me to ask a question... What sort of education did golden age animators have?

Carlo Vinci provides the answer...


Carlo Vinci attended The National Academy of Design in New York. This isn't just any art college. This is one of the most prestigious art schools in the world. It's the school that Winslow Homer, Thomas Nast, William Steig, Norman Rockwell and James McNeill Whistler attended. Students are accepted by invitation, free of tuition or cost. The instructors are major artists who serve without pay as a public service. At the end of his studies, Vinci didn't just receive a diploma. He was awarded a medal and was given the honor of being able to put N.A. after his name. (Much like the Royal Academy in the UK awards R.A. status.)

Vinci's work at the National Academy included studying the work of classical painters. Here are two paintings he made after Boucher...



Yes. That's the work of the guy who animated The Flintstones!

Vinci had a life-long passion for learning. He studied sketching from life, painting in oils and watercolor, as well as sculpture and etching. He studied from early in the morning until late at night. Here is one of his student drawings- a self portrait.



His family told me that he was always working and studying. On weekends, he would paint in oils and watercolors. He painted portraits...



...and landscapes...


...and still lifes...


He was an accomplished illustrator...



...and he worked in a dozen totally different styles.

He even designed and painted murals and stained glass windows...


Carlo Vinci wasn't just an animator. He painted, sculpted, designed, illustrated... He worked in the fields of fine art, illustration and cartooning. He was a LOT more than just an animator.

Vinci's job was to animate, but his occupation was ARTIST. The same was true of most of the other great talents in animation- Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Grim Natwick... The reason they were great animators was because they were great artists.

If you're an animation student, go back and read that last sentence again.

I'm not an animator. I studied graphic design at UCLA. I spent many months learning to spec type, do pasteup, calculate reductions on a Lucigraph and use a Rapidograph pen. A few years after I graduated, the Macintosh came out and all of those skills became obsolete. What I was left with when the dust cleared was my knowledge of composition, color and design.

If you're an animation student, focus on your core art skills, regardless if you plan to do hand drawn, CGI, cut out or puppet animation. Computer programs will come and go. You can always teach yourself Maya or Flash or whatever on your own time. Demand that your school provide you the same quality of education that Carlo Vinci had. Work hard. Study to become an ARTIST.

Read Illustrator Lainey Schallock's comments on this post in her blog, Miscellainy.

If you enjoyed this article, you'll also want to check out... How To Pick An Animation School, Profile of Carlo Vinci, Carlo Vinci Notes, The Temperamental Lion, John K on Flintstones Animators

Also see... An Interview With Playboy's Eldon Dedini, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla, Tytla At Terry: Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll &' Hyde Cat 1940, The Pencil Test of Art Babbitt's Best Scene, and Remembering Berny Wolf

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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