Tips from Ward Kimball

I was re-reading the Ward Kimball section in John Canemaker’s masterful WALT DISNEY’S NINE OLD MEN AND THE ART OF ANIMATION and ran across these tips from Ward. They were taken from his notes for an Action Analysis class that he taught at Art Center during the 1960s. Man, it would have been something to live in LA back when master animators like Kimball and Benny Washam were teaching around town. Nothing revelatory in these notes, but I’d wager it’s still more insightful than anything they’re teaching in animation schools nowadays.

> Elimination makes your drawing better.

> A cartoon character who is funny to look at before he is animated is going to be made funnier by the movement.

> The young filmmaker should draw what he or she pleases, not what any adult tells him or her to do.