Page 21 - Flathead Beacon // 8.12.15

A Lıfe Animated
Artist Skip Morgan recently moved to the Flathead Valley after a celebrated career protecting the essence of the world’s most beloved Disney characters
Skip Morgan pulls the legal pad toward him and begins to sketch. Below his careful hands, the familiar faces of Mickey Mouse and Goofy take shape. The pencil moves without hesitation. These are lines Skip has drawn thousands of times before.
a job. By 1985, Skip had worked his way up to the top of the art department.
“When [Skip] was hired at Disney, he put every ounce of motivation and talent into his work because he believed in the morals that Walt had instilled in the company,” Skip’s daughter, Amber Howell, who still lives in Kansas, said. “Primarily, that the art is what is most important, and
He knows, precisely, where to place Mickey’s ears and how to rest Goofy’s jaunty hat. How big to make their eyes, and how to focus them. The exact cur-
vature of the open-mouthed, toothy
smiles.
Minutes later, there they are: Mickey and Goofy.
He marks the paper with a practiced signature and the date: Aug. 3, 2015. This time, they won’t be seen by audi- ences across the planet. This time, he’s brought Mickey and Goofy to life in his quiet Kalispell home.
“I did these,” says the 64-year old, looking at the faces on yellow-lined paper, “to see if I can still draw.”
He can. Of course, he can.
In 2007, Skip ended a 23-year Disney career as an art- ist protecting the integrity of these characters. Though he draws less since moving to Montana, the characters hav- en’t left him. They never will.
In 1980, a 29-year old Skip moved from his native Kan- sas to Los Angeles. The Midwesterner had recently divorced and there was no local work for cartoonists. So he left, westward bound with $200, a fine arts degree from the University of Kansas, and his drawing portfolio. He made his new home in a toolshed, which cost him $50 per month in rent.
After spending a few years at various production com- panies, The Walt Disney Studios began to take notice of his work. As the company embarked on its first produc- tions of animated television shows in 1984, it offered him
there should be no shortcuts when putting out the very best of Disney art for the world to see.”
As Associate Art Director, Skip oversaw the artwork and visual imagery for five Disney TV cartoons, including DuckTails, which won Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Animated Programming. Every image that aired on those shows required Skip’s stamp of
approval.
After writers sent Skip the week’s script and stick figure
storyboard, he decided how to visually render each scene’s dialogue and drama. He also created the “incidental cast,” the episode’s background characters, and drew up refer- ence sheets that depicted each new character from mul- tiple angles so his staff could accurately reproduce them. Then, he and his artists would start drawing.
As Skip saw it, his characters were “like actors in a movie. Alive. They interact; they have emotions. They have limitations.”
For the right spirit – the indefinable Mickey-ness or Scrooge McDuck-ness – to translate on screen, Skip had to bring the characters alive within himself. He speaks of them like old friends. He’s proud of their strengths, con- cedes their weaknesses, and, ultimately, is certain of their essential goodness.
“The fact that [Skip] drew [the characters] so well shows his emotional attachment to them,” said Willy Ito, the now-retired Director of Character Art International
Skip Morgan, former associate art director at Disney, pictured Aug. 4. Morgan also drew for Warner Brothers and Hanna- Barbera.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
BY CLARE MENZEL
AUGUST 12, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
21