Yesterday I mentioned that I wasn’t a big fan of the early Hanna-Barbera backgrounds and I wanted to be a bit more clear about why I think those paintings are weak. I recognize that they were created under strict production schedules which limited the artists’ ability to create quality work. Even though they were created in a rushed manner, they’re still stronger than a lot of the backgrounds being painted for today’s shows. But when I discuss them, I’m looking at them in context of the period that they were created—the 1950s—and compared to the rest of that era’s modern backgrounds, they are among the most generic and boring of the bunch.

Below is an example of a late-1950s H-B TV series background. I could have chosen any other one to illustrate this piece, but this one seems like an above-average example from the period. There is nothing inherently wrong with the painting. It has the typical sponge/roller/airbrush techniques common to background painters of the time, and there’s nice bold outlines on the objects. But after one glance, you’ve seen it all. There’s nothing to it; everything is spelled out bluntly in the painting: trees are green, rocks are brown, road is mud-colored. Color and design are used in a pedestrian literal manner that removes all visual interest from the scene. Jules Engel used to say, “Good paintings make you tingle.” There’s not a tingle to be found in this painting.

Now compare it to this painting of trees by Walt Peregoy from Disney’s PAUL BUNYAN. Here is a background that’s exciting! Peregoy is working with even less than the H-B layout. He doesn’t have rocks to create contrast, just a bunch of random trees in a forest. But Peregoy attacks the concept and make it his own. I doubt he was even working from a layout here. They probably just needed a generic tree background and Peregoy was enough of a designer to run with that. Who else would have thought that sharp cutting triangular shapes, colored blue, with a crazy paint-splatter technique would create a dense, woodsy forest effect?


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Or how about this painting by Peregoy. His sense of color is exciting as hell, and his smart use of values frames the scene and draws our eye to the center. Note how Peregoy doesn’t succumb to painting formulas. His approach to painting this tree scene is completely different from the prior painting. A background painter has to be as much of a designer as the layout artist that he’s following.


(click on image for larger version)

In PAUL BUNYAN, it’s easy to tell which backgrounds were painted by Peregoy and which were painted by Eyvind Earle. Despite the different approaches, their backgrounds work well together. Today’s filmmakers make a fetish out of consistency in production design but this film is a great example of how contrasting styles in a film can actually generate greater visual excitement.

Below is an example of an Eyvind Earle background (which I found on Michael Sporn’s blog). The composition of the village is amazing; Earle manages to create the impression of a bustling village scene with a minimalist, nearly abstract approach.