Animation Art is a term used to describe the art used in creating animated
cartoons and features. Animation art is most often used to describe the cels used in creating
animated cartoons and animated features like Disney's classic "Snow White And The Seven
Dwarves." But strictly speaking, it can refer to any art that is based on animation - from
the original artists' drawings and production cels to limited edition reproductions.
To begin, you need to understand the classic methods of producing animated
films. In its simplest form, an artist called an "animator" draws a series of images on paper. Each image makes up a
"frame" of the final film. The frames are shown to audiences at a rate of 18 to 24 frames per
second to produce an illusion of motion. Once the animator has drawn the images on paper, the
outlines are traced onto sheets of clear celluloid - hence the term "cels". Then the
cels are painted to give them color. One by one, the cels are photographed in sequence to produce
the final product - an animated cartoon or feature film. The cels and backgrounds were designed to
be used once and then quite literally thrown away. Disney began to purposely preserve a selection
of production art starting with the 1937 animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."
The Courvoisier Galleries, an art gallery in San Franciso, teamed with Disney at that time to create a series of
artwork by carefully reproducing the original hand-painted backgrounds and matching them with original
production cels.
Over the past 20 years, animation studios have begun to produce their films
using computers instead of relying on people to trace drawings and paint cels. Some animated films
still start out with the animator's drawings, and others like those produced by Pixar are produced
entirely on computers.
As you see, people have been collecting animation art for more than 70 years now.
The genre peaked in the 1980's and 1990's with the rebirth of interest in Disney movies and memoribelia.
By its very nature, of course, original animation art is a scarce commodity. Each original production
cel is one-of-a-kind. While prices have declined in the last 10 years, selecting a piece of animation
art is still a significant investment for most people. So it is important to understand what makes one
cel more valuable than another, and how to select a piece of animation art that's right for you.
The first principle of collecting animation art is to only buy pieces that
please you. Whether its just the sheer beauty of the artwork, or the fact that the image brings
back happy memories, if you buy art that pleases you, you can never make a bad investment. It is
As poet John Keats wisely wrote, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever". Amen to that.
But from a cold, objective, purely monetary point of view, all animation cels
are not created equal. Many factors are involved, but the most important aspects include the
relative popularity of the character(s) depicted, the integrity or completeness of the image of
each character (full-figure, face forward, eyes open), whether or not the cel has been trimmed
to fit the mat, and the presence of a matching background. Naturally, the physical condition of
the cel is also a vital component. Cels are fragile and it is common to find them with cracks
or drop-outs in the paint. Fortunately, they can often be repaired and restored.
Animation Art Glossary
Cel: Short for celluloid, the term refers to any piece of animation art on a clear
sheet of plastic.
12-Field Cel: An industry standard cel and drawing paper size approximately
10 x 12 inches, but which varies by year and by studio.
16-Field Cel: Another industry standard cel and drawing paper size, approximately
12 x 16 inches - again depending on the year and the studio.
Cut-Out Cel: A cel which has been cut to the outline of the image, and then usually
attached to a full cel or background.
Pan Cel: Used in panning shots when the camera moves through a wide scene. Large
cels and backgrounds are created for such scenes. Wide-screen films such as "Lady and
The Tramp" and "Sleeping Beauty" often used cels measuring as much as 30 inches wide.
Some reproduction cels (sericels and limited editions) are also made in this size.
Production Cel: A cel that was actually used to produce an animated cartoon or
feature film. The outline of each image is created by either tracing the original animator's
drawing or by photocopying it onto a sheet of clear celluloid. The cels are then painted on
the reverse side to color the image.
Limited Edition Cel: These are non-production cels made as collectibles. These are cels
usually created from original production drawings, but in more recent years they have been based on
new non-production art. The quality of limited edition
cels varies insofar as the better ones are hand-painted, where the less expensive ones (like
sericels) are colored using a process similar to silk-screening.
Serigraph or Sericel: A kind of limited edition cel that is made with a silk-screening
process instead of hand inking or hand painting. Sericels are always made in large edition sizes,
and are inherently lower quality and lower value cels.
Publicity or Promotional Cel: A non-production cel created for a special purpose -
always using a perfect pose of the chacter(s) to maximize value.
Color Model Cel: A cel made by the Ink and Paint Department for testing purposes.
These cels may be exact duplicates of production cels because they were made from the original
production drawings, or they may be made from reference works. As such they can only be
identified by their markings using the production number, sequence and scene numbers, and
may be stamped "Color Model"
Hand-Inked Cel: These cels are made by hand tracing the original production drawings onto
the front of the cel. A labor-intensive method, these cels are characterized
by the deep black ink and the clean, clear, distinct outlines they produce.
Xerographic Cel: To speed production and reduce costs, staring with the production of
"101 Dalmatians" in the late 1950's, Disney switched to using a Xerographic process to
transfer images from the original drawings onto the cels. These cels are distinguishable by the
relative lightness of the outlines and the frequent drop-outs, but they are still hand-painted
on the back.
Trimmed Cel: Refers to any cel that has been cut from its original size for
any purpose. Cut-outs are one example, but cels are also often cut to crop tightly to
the character(s) shown for matting and framing purposes.
Courvoisier Cel: Refers to a cel set-up created by the Courvoisier Galleries
from 1938 through the mid-1940's. Always made using a distinctive cream-colored mat with
the name of the character and sometimes the name of the film inscribed in pencil, plus an
encircled "WDP" or "WDE" copyright stamped or embossed on the mat or
background. The characters were usually cut out and glued to the background with a
protective cel over the image. Certain cels, especially "Snow White" cels,
were enhanced with air brushing to add depth to the images. The presentation backgrounds
included simple air-brushed settings, elaborate watercolor paintings, paper with polka-dots
or stars, and wood veneer with shadow effects. The better backgrounds were handmade by
Disney artists at first, then later by Courvoisier Galleries themselves.
Cel Set-Up: Refers to a combination of two or more cel levels or cel with
background or other elements, whether matching or non-matching.
Cel Levels: Refers to the number of individual cels in a set-up, including
characters and any effects overlays, but excluding the background.
Acetate: Refers to cels made using cellulose acetate, a much more stable material
than nitrate and in use through the balance of the 20th century.
Nitrate: Refers to cels made using cellulose nitrate. Used by Disney until the
1940 production of "Fantasia", and by other studios as late as the 1950's. Cels
made using this material tend to be very fragile and they suffer from yellowing and
shrinkage as they age.
Animation Drawing: These are the original drawings created by animators from
which the production cels are traced or Xeroxed. While cels may be beautiful, some people
say that the orignal drawings are the true animation
art. The terms "clean-up" and "rough" refer to the line quality of the
drawing. Animators usually work in roughs and leave the clean-ups to assistants. Clean-ups
may be done directly over animators' roughs, either erasing or leaving the original lines,
or they may be fresh drawings traced from roughs.
Background: A painting or other artwork over which a series of animated cels is
photographed to make up a scene in an animated film.
Production: Any background actually used in the production of the film.
Matching Production: Applicable only to a cel set-up, signifying that the
background corresponds to the cel as it appears in the film.
Reproduction: A copy of the production background.
Presentation: Denotes a studio-prepared background, hand-painted or otherwise,
created specifically for enhancement of an individual cel for marketing purposes.
Custom Prepared: A background custom created by a private individual to enhance a
particular cel.
Lay-Out Drawing: Refers either to a detailed pencil drawing used as a reference
for the background painter or a rough pencil drawing showing camera moves and positions
of characters.
Line Test: A packaging term used by Disney to denote a Xerox reproduction on
acetate of a layout drawing or "line overlay"
Concept Art: Includes all pre-production artwork created before animation begins.
Storyboard Drawing: These drawings are used to describe the story and action of an
animated film. Storyboarding was a concept introduced by Walt Disney himself and was soon
adopted by the entire film industry. These can range from elaborate images to simple sketches.
Inspirational Sketch: Created by different artists in a wide variety of media to suggest
the mood, look, or color styling of a film.
Character Design: Pre-production sketches, drawings, and cels depicting preliminary
character studies.
Model Sheets: A grouping of characters or a single character in a variety of poses
and expressions used as a refernce guide by animators to ensure consistency of drawing during
a production. Both preliminary and final production designs can be found. Model sheets
exist in two forms:
Original Mock-up: Consists of a large posterboard with the original model drawings
cut and pasted on with production notes and numbers.
Photostats: Prints of the original mock-ups on 11x14 inch photographic paper, made
for distribution to the animators. While not original art, these copies are considered collectible
production art if produced by the original Studio.
Title Card: The held image at the beginning of a cartoon depicting the title of the
production, other with the character(s) in full color or silouhette. Formats include full-color
painting or painted board (background scene or solid colo) with cel overlay. "Main Title"
refers to the single card shown at the opening of every cartoon before the Production Title Card,
used to indentify the series or star character throughout the season or year.
Book Illustration: Refers to original art created for reproduction in a book, in any media.
Labels/Packaging: In addition to the Courvoisier set-ups, the following types of Disney
Studios packaging also occurs:
Disney Gold Art Corner Label: Refers to cels sold in Disneyland at The Art Corner and
other locations from 1955 through the early 1970s which included a gold foil sticker on the
back of the mat. At least four variations of the sticker were used, but all of them state
"This is an original (hand-painted) celluloid drawing actually used in a Walt Disney
Production." Cels were trimmed and mounted in a simple cardboard mat, often with a
matching or non-matching lithographic background.
WDP Label and Seal: Refers to cels marketed by Disney beginning in 1973 in a new
format, now under the "Walt Disney Company" name. The full cels are laminated for
preservation purposes, and the top cel is embossed with a 1-1/2 inch seal stating "Original
Hand-Painted Movie Film Cel - Walt Disney Productions".
Caring For Animation Art
Like any piece of valuable art, you need to use some care to preserve
your animation art so that it will continue to give you pleasure for many years. Animation
cels were never meant to last, so they require even more care than traditional artwork.
Never hang animation art in direct sunlight or close to a direct source
of strong light. Make sure that the temperature and humidity of the room where the art is
kept or displayed stays close to 70°F and 50% relative humidity. If the room is too
dry, the paint on the cels and the paper backgrounds can become brittle and crack. If its
too humid, the art can be damaged by mold and mildew.
If you decide to store your animation art instead of displaying it,
store it flat and not rolled up. Store the artwork in acetate or mylar envelopes and
make sure that you do not store anything on top of the art. If you want to store more
than one cel together, just be sure to place a sheet of clear acetate or acid-free
paper between each cel.
When handling the animation cels themselves, be sure to only handle them
by their edges because the paint and outlines are fragile and easily damaged, and because
it is difficult to remove fingerprints from cels.
If a cel needs cleaning, your best choice is to take it to a conservator
who is familiar with working on animation art. If you want to try to clean a cel yourself,
use a dry, soft cotton cloth and use very light pressure to remove dust and smudges. Avoid
touching or rubbing the paint and outlines. Do not use any kind of liquid cleaner on a cel,
and do not use compressed air to remove dust and dirt. The oldest animation cels - those created
before World War II - used cellulose nitrate cels which were fragile and flammable. Those nitrate cels
require expert handling, and you should not try to clean them yourself.
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