Famous for their dark yet hilarious brand of comedy, they also tend to display the penciled look that Bill has managed to make a trademark of sorts over the years. The proof is in the pudding of practically all of independent animator Bill Plympton’s films. That is not all, however, because the animation itself can contain the product of many penciled lines. Plenty of artists also proclaim their admiration for their pencils Jenny LeRew, for example, whose Blackwing Sketchbook blog is clearly influenced by a certain brand of pencil. Former Disney animator Andreas Deja regularly posts many examples of sketches from both his time at the studio as well as that from before. There is plenty of evidence to support this. Rather, they were sketched using a pencil on paper many, many times before they were inked and painted in actual production.

Those graceful lines of each and every character were not created on a computer. Think of any modern Disney animated film (that wasn’t CGI). For instance the very look of a film can be directly impacted by the use of pencils in the design. Surprisingly enough, the influence is found on multiple levels. So just how does a pencil define the look of animation. Perhaps fittingly, people have been imitating it ever since. This exquisite film set the bar for what high quality, hand-drawn animation should be. Perhaps the first great illustration of how fruitful this relationship can be is in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1937. From the very first animation in the early 20 th century to the very latest Disney films, pencils have influenced and been influenced by animators. I am of course talking about animation in the traditional sense that is hand-drawn animation. It’s also worth noting that even though animation is present in many styles throughout the world, the pencil is omnipresent in all of them from the very best American animation to the cheapest Japanese anime. Without a shadow of a doubt, animation has been defined by the pencil and even with modern CGI, continues to be subject to its abilities. Pencils are the handy tool of many artisan crafts, and animation is no exception. Check out his blog, follow him on Twitter and share the love in the comments section below! The Pencil’s Place in Animation Today, we have a very special guest post from civil engineer, animation enthusiast and author of The Animation Anomaly Charles Kenny.

Pencil animation paper