That doesn't mean that I don't try though. The Disney Animation building in California Adventure is one of my favorite places to stop. They claim that it's simple to draw the Disney characters, and that in only a few short minutes they can teach you how to sketch out one of the classic cartoon characters from Disney's vault. They lie of course, as it would take years of practice for me to even be able to draw a stick figure properly, but we still enjoy visiting the studio every chance we get.
No matter how good an artist you are though, you need something extra for it to be Disney animation. Simply being a master of the canvas doesn't mean that you're going to be able to spread joy to the people looking at your work. Allow my son to demonstrate this theory with his chance to observe a Monet painting.
See? Pure joy. Monet was a great artist, but the art that he made was very different from Disney animation. It takes something a little different to animate. A little playfulness, some child-like spirit, maybe even a touch of never-grow-up-itis.
And, of course, some pixie dust....
This post is a part of Wordless Wednesday over at Focused on the Magic. If you didn't get here from there, you should really head on over and check out some of the fantastic people that hang out there on Wednesdays. Some of them probably even know how to draw, but I guarantee you every one of them knows all about the pixie dust.
