Collecting Animation Art: An Introduction

Animation Art is a term used to describe the art used in creating animated cartoons and features. "Animation art" most often refers to the cels (often misspelled "cells") 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 to understand animation art, you need to understand the classic methods of producing animated films. In it's 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, just as you might see in a child's flip-book. 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. They still create the original hand-drawn images, but instead of tracing them or transferring them to cels xerographically, the drawings are scanned into computers where they can be colored and otherwise edited. Some animated films, like those produced by Pixar, are produced entirely on computers.

People have been collecting animation art since the late 1930's, following the release of "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" in 1938 when the Courvoisier Gallery of San Francisco started to sell them in special presentation set-ups with reproduction matching backgrounds. The genre peaked in the 1980's and 1990's with the rebirth of interest in Disney movies and memoribelia, thanks to films like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in 1988 and "The Little Mermaid" in 1989. 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 slightly declined in the last 10 years, selecting a piece of quality animation art is still a significant investment for most people. So it's 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 it's 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. As the poet John Keats wisely wrote, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever". Amen to that. But it is the case that not all animation art holds its original value, any more than any other commodity. Their values rise and fall in the marketplace due to many factors. So buying the art that you really like is fundamental to successful collecting.

Further, 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 amomg collectors, 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 often fragile, and it is common to find them with fine cracks or drop-outs in the paint. Fortunately, they can often be repaired and restored to look like new again. Production art, particularly original production cels, are the most valuable because they were created by the original studio artists and actually used to make the film.

Animation Art Glossary

Animation Art: The artwork used to produce an animated cartoon or feature. This term is most commonly used to describe the animation cels used to produce the animated cartoon or feature, but also includes the different animation drawings which ultimately provide the image outlines that are later transferred to the cels (or scanned into a computer) to produce the final images on film or other media. Animation art also includes any artwork that depicts scenes or characters from animated cartoons or movies, such as reproduction cels (hand-painted cels, sericels, etc.), model sheets, lithographs, giclees, dye-transfer prints, Cibachrome® prints, and posters.

Animation Cel: Short for celluloid, the term refers to any piece of animation art on a clear sheet of plastic. Often misspelled "cell".

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 follows as the character 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. A few 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 - using a perfect image of the chacter(s) to maximize value.

Color Model Cel: A cel made solely 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 just as was originally done to make animated cartoons. 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 (ie. visible interruptions of the outlines), 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 Cel: 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 Cel: 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.

Animation 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 Background: Any background actually used in the production of the film.

Matching Production Background: Term signifying that the background corresponds to the cel as it appears in the film.

Reproduction Background: A copy of the production background.

Presentation Background: Denotes a studio-prepared background, hand-painted or otherwise, created specifically for enhancement of an individual cel for marketing purposes.

Custom Prepared Background: A background custom created by a private individual or company (not usually an artist from the original animation studio) to enhance a particular cel.

Supplied Background: A background custom created by a private individual or company (not usually an artist from the original animation studio) to enhance a particular cel.

Layout 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 actual 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 design model sheets 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. The photostats are characterized by their gray background and are difficult to authenticate, which limits their value.

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.

Disney Cel Labels, Seals, and 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." The 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".

Lithograph: Created using a print process called lithography where the images are transferred to the paper one color at a time. They are produced in limited quantities, often numbered and signed, or are mass produced. Lithographs are generally inexpensive, while still very attractive pieces of art, which makes them popular with collectors who cannot afford more expensive artwork.

Giclee: A French term, literally meaning "spray of ink,". Four precision nozzles spray up to a million microscopic droplets per second on to fine art paper. Then, each piece of paper is individually hand-mounted. Displaying a full colour spectrum, the prints are lush and velvety, capturing the subtle nuances of the original artwork.

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. Bright light can damage the pigments in the paint and cause the color to fade. 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 it's 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 skilled conservator who is experienced in 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 from the non-painted surface only. 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. Contact us for referrals to companies that repair cels.

Buying Animation Art

It's always best to buy animation cels and other artwork from knowledgable galleries dealers like Rainbo Animation Art. We stand behind the authenticity of all of the art we sell, and back it with our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. You can certainly shop online on sites like eBay and local estate and moving sales are often sources of great bargains. Just be careful to buy only quality pieces that have been properly framed, matted, and cared for.