Owl by Oreb
During the course of writing this book, I discovered many new designers and saw enough Fifties animation art to last me a lifetime, but I did not run across another artist who I felt surpassed Tom Oreb’s range and skills as a character designer. (I’m sure most readers of this site are already familiar with Oreb, but if not, he was the designer of shorts like Tex Avery’s SYMPHONY IN SLANG and Ward Kimball’s TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM, as well as the character stylist of SLEEPING BEAUTY.) It wasn’t simply that Oreb was a terrific draftsman — many artists from that period were — but he had a one-of-a-kind ability in applying those draftsmanship skills towards creating some of the most consistently inventive, daring and visually satisfying designs of the period.

For starters, here’s an example of Oreb’s work that I’ve always enjoyed. These owls are taken from a sheet of “ruff model suggestions” that Oreb created for Disney’s SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959). The full model sheet has something like forty-plus owls on it, and each one is a design gem comprised of elegant shapes and packed with personality and a sly sense of humor.

Owls by Tom Oreb