Hey there, I'm Michael Woodside and I'm an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Every year in early April, the animation studios host something called the annual caricature show, where all the artists get to draw each other.
That was started by John Musker in the late 1970's I thought maybe today, it would be fun to draw Walt Disney himself to celebrate the caricature show so, let's get started.
The first thing I like to do is just do the first big shape on the head so we want to decide how, what's the head shape we're going to use so Walt has this great he's kind of got a he's known for his pronounced strong nose, so I want to make sure I leave a lot of room in the middle of the face for that.
and so, just going to start here.
This gives me an outline of the face, a little centerline.
Now work really loose here so that I could find the drawing as I go.
Sort of that indication for the hair.
and then some real quick shapes for the ears.
So this just lets me know what direction he's looking and, how I should build it from there.
So, when doing a caricature, it's, there's a couple of ways to go about it.
The way that I like to try it, what I'm trying for is not just getting a drawing that looks like the person but also at best can feel like the person, so I want to try to capture what is the soul of the subject.
So you have to make some decisions beforehand to start just working out someone's hair detail.
Let's talk about that.
For me, Walt is kind of an internal optimist, and he has a lot of pep, he's a, he's just someone who represents happiness to a lot of people, you know, myself included.
So, I want to really capture that spirit of hope and optimism in this drawing, because I want it to feel like, feel like the Walt that I think of so, I'm going to start just working out some of the details here, sometimes I work out details while I'm thinking of other things I need to work on.
So this is kind of a necessary polish work that I put in really early.
But, that's just for me to think about what I might want to do with the expression.
So this just gives him that really nice, he always had his hair pulled back.
and really clean, so even some some white in there for some shine.
And I want to, I want to keep it really sketchy because, you know, Walt was an animator and so I think he would appreciate this, this style so, it doesn't need to be a final finished, pristine line.
Okay, so.
Let's go ahead, let's do that nose.
We're going to put the nose right here in the center.
He had this great, long nose.
So I'm just going to indicate that.
this line here from the nose starts all the way up at the top.
It's funny, for all of my life, Walt has reminded me of my grandpa.
We call him opa, on my mom's side, and he had the same kind of charm, the same sense of humor I felt like and really the same attitude as Walt also had a similar mustache.
So I had to make sure to get that.
Give him a big smile.
I know it's not just me, but I feel, it feels like I have a personal connection, it feels like Walt was part of the family, We grew up, I grew up in Florida, central Florida, near Disney World.
And so, we would always visit Disney all the time.
and, so we were constantly around this this world, and so I was just enamored by the magic he created.
It was alive then, it's alive now.
And I think all of that is because of his sense of optimism and his sense of hope and promise and just always looking forward.
So definitely wanted to capture that spirit in here.
So yeah, without his mustache it doesn't look, it doesn't look like Walt, so we have to make sure to have that in, make sure that it's lining up.
He had a little space between his lip and the mustache that I want to make sure I keep in there.
So I like using this China marker because I think it has a lot of texture in it and I can get some loose lines, and I don't have to get really precious.
I might come in later with more detail.
So, but for the time being, I want to make sure that I get a gestural loose drawing, then I can work on that side of the marker and get a little more detail here.
See, I think some people think of caricatures as mean drawings or angry, offensive drawings, but I don't, I think caricatures are kind of like a visual love letter to somebody, that just says, this is.
.
.
Hey I was thinking about you, and I think when I think of you I think of this.
and, you're thinking positively, you can really do some really nice drawings for people.
I know they appreciate it.
Great, so that feels more like Walt, now that we have the nose, And then we're gonna, I'm just gonna go ahead and work on the clothes real quick I feel like because of the television program, everyone saw him in a suit all the time so I want to give him a suit.
tie, it wasn't, it wasn't like a business suit, he didn't have really hard shoulders, so he was I think keeping the shoulders soft, helps him feel more casual more, more like, Walt, just a pleasant, dreamer.
Caricatures are really fun to do around the house too.
So if you have a brother or sister, you guys can draw each other.
Be nice, and just take a look at each other and, try to figure out what are the shapes that are specific and unique like is your brother tall, does your sister have really long hair.
Those sort of things are great.
So, just going to give him a little detail on the tie.
Yeah you want to try to find some some nice characteristics of somebody that you want to accentuate So that, we have here, let's go ahead and work on the eyes.
Again, he's an optimist right? So I want to have him really brighten up it's that famous Sherman Brothers song in the Carousel of Progress.
I always think of that song when I think of Walt.
So I'm going to have them looking up towards the future, towards the sky I got some of these details over here, What's fun about caricatures too, is that there really isn't a way to do it, it's not like you have to follow the way that they're drawn before.
Everyone sort of makes it up as they go, so you could decide the way and really make a lot of artistic choices that are yours.
he had a little dimple, make sure to get that.
So you can use photo reference, to really get a sense of who a person is, or if you know them well, if it's someone in your family, then you can go from memory, sometimes those are the funnest drawings, so, going to, have a little bit of shading.
There's something special I want to do in the eyes I'm going to save that for the end.
Darken here.
Cool, so I think when we do the eyes.
I'm gonna Switch over to a different pencil.
Get a little more detail.
So I always try to find something special to put in the drawing that feels like it's a characteristic only of that person.
because you want the drawing to really make someone feel like wow they really captured the soul of that person and I think to really help accentuate the idealism of Walt, I'm going to give him a little little Mickey shines in his eyes.
I'll tidy up the drawing, give him some more shading Yeah Walt had a lot of a lot of influence on people from all over the world.
And I don't think you can get there without being an optimist, and without seeing the best in people, and so that is what I'm trying to capture from Walt today, is that he saw the best in the world and saw how it could be better so, I think if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have the job that I have and I wouldn't be inspired to do the thing that I do, and I think that's true for a lot of people, so hopefully this, captures a little bit of that.
Let's go ahead and give him a little cheeks.
I think all that's left is for us to sign it.
I'm gonna sign mine right here.
There we go.
Well thank you for joining me, I hope you had a good time.
We'll see you around later.
Keep drawing.
Bye now!.
