26 Stunning Cartoon Backdrops That Deserve To Be Hung On A Wall

10 years ago

November 12, 2013 at 11:00 am

26 Stunning Cartoon Backdrops That Deserve To Be Hung On A Wall

Have you ever found yourself watching a cartoon and noticing the illustrations behind the characters? Those backgrounds can often be prettier than the action in the foreground. If only those pesky mice and long-nosed boys would get out of the way! If so, the upcoming Beverly Hills Animation Art Signature Auction is for you.

On a serious note, I’ve always admired how classic, hand-drawn animation is born. Watching early animators flipping those cels back and forth to create the illusion of movement is amazing, and painting a detailed background for every single scene is probably one of the most important artistic tasks in the highly complex process of making an animated cartoon.

Background artists usually painted these backdrops wide and tall (depending on the camera panning), in gouache, acrylic paint, watercolor, oil paint, or even crayon. The resulting still backdrops are nothing short of art — but in the actual cartoons, we seldom get to enjoy the whole image, due to the camera movements.

The following examples from the Animation Art Signature Auction on November 20 show just how beautiful these artworks can be — I know I wouldn’t think twice about putting some of them on my walls.

A background illustration from Two Pan Goofy. It was painted for the 1952 Walt Disney short, but wasn’t actually used.

This pan background showcases the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan, including the World Trade Center and the Manhattan Bridge. It was painted for The Real Ghostbusters (DIC, 1986).

A great Art Deco-style production background of the Batcave from Batman the Animated Series (Warner Brothers, 1995), created by Bruce Timm.

This breathtaking pan production background of a detailed medieval staircase located within Maleficent’s castle was hand-painted by Eyvind Earle, colour stylist and chief background painter for Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney, 1959).

Magnificent vertical pan production background painting for Sloppy Jalopy (UPA, 1952).

A stylised view of Las Vegas with all the famous hotel signs, for Aesop and Son in Sick Lion (Jay Ward, 1962).

A background illustration by Paul Julian for The Tell Tale Heart, a cartoon adaptation of the classic short story written by Edgar Allen Poe (UPA, 1953).

Cap’n Crunch cereal commercial production background (Jay Ward, c. 1960s) by Bill Hurtz and Pete Burness.

A beautiful landscape background from Scrambled Eggs (Walter Lantz, 1939), painted by legendary Art Nouveau illustrator Willy Pogany (1882-1955).

Belle’s Magical World master background of the Beast’s Castle (Walt Disney, 1998).

Dinotopia: The Mini Series background colour key (Walt Disney, 2002).

A very detailed background colour key of the haunted bedroom for Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (Hanna-Barbera, 1998).

A wide angle view of the Calcutta airport for The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Hanna-Barbera, 1996).

The Man on the Flying Trapeze background by Paul Julian (UPA, 1954).

The Smurfs (Hanna-Barbera, 1984).

Two backgrounds from Buford and the Galloping Ghost (Hanna-Barbera, 1979).

Two SWAT Kats hand-painted background colour keys (Hanna-Barbera, 1993).

A spooky view of Gotham City’s imposing Arkham Asylum from The New Batman Adventures (Warner Brothers, 1997).

The Simpsons (Fox, 2002). A 12-field production background, hand-painted on celluloid, from the 13th season episode, “The Lastest Gun in the West,” which was originally aired on February 24, 2002.

Two Famous Studio backgrounds from The Sixties, done by famed book illustrator and animation artist Anton Loeb.

A deserted saloon in Ghost Town (Terrytoons, 1944).

A Mighty Mouse background from the 1940s (Terrytoons).