He was a young artist employed by the Disney studio, but tasked with the entry-level job of finishing off the work of the animators and crafting the “in-between” animations that completed the characters’ movements. Wong had learned that studio executives were creating a film from the new novel, Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. Tom says the young artist read the book and without consulting his supervisor, “took the script and painted some visual concepts to set the mood, color and the design.”
His sketches recalled the lush mountain and forest scenes of Sung dynasty landscape paintings. His initiative paid off. Walt Disney, who was looking for something new for the film, was captivated and personally directed that Wong be promoted. Today, top animators and illustrators revere Wong’s work. Children today are as enchanted by the misty, lyrical brushstrokes of Wong’s colorful nature scenes, inspired by his training at Otis College of Art and self-study of Sung Dynasty art
THIS GUY HELPED MAKE THE FILM THAT MADE ME WANT TO BE A FILMMAKER AND *HE IS STILL ALIVE*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH
I met him at a gallery event a number of years ago and, UGH HE IS SO TALENTED AND SO KIND AND ENCOURAGING THERE IS A REASON WE ALL LOVE HIM. Also, my alma.
GUYS WTF IS THIS CRAZY TALENTED GUY- HE MAKES KITES TO WOW JUST WOW
I haven’t been updating the blog a lot and only recently started working on it again. This post sat at the bottom of my drafts. It’s been there for almost a year.
I wanted to start a new feature on the blog that would celebrate an artist and their work and I wanted to feature Tyrus Wong first; one of my favorite artists.
Earlier today he passed away at 106 years old. Tyrus Wong was a Chinese immigrant who spent the majority of his career being marginalized; his work often going unrecognized because of his race.
It was for his work on Disney’s Bambi, that Wong is perhaps most recognized for today, although, that took some time.
Inspired by the landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty, Wong created exquisite watercolor and pastel landscape paintings that would inspire the entire look of the film (see images above). Walt Disney loved his work so much that he was unofficially promoted as the films “inspirational sketch artist.”
Wong spent two years creating the illustrations that ultimately inspired the look and feel of thefilm Bambi. When animators and special effects artists had questions about color or lighting, they went to Wong. His work inspired everything from the tone of the film, to the special effects and the music.
Even though his work influenced the look and feel of the film, Wong’s named appeared at almost the bottom of Bambi’s credits as a background artist. Shortly after his work on Bambi ended, Wang, who had taken no part in them, was let go because of the animator’s strikes at Disney. Wang held no resentment toward the studio, believing that they had treated him good.
In 1942 he joined Warner Bros. where he worked as a storyboard artist, designer, and background artist until his retirement in 1968.
Since his retirement he’s done work primarily as a
painter and also worked as a muralist, ceramicist, lithographer, designer and later in life; a kite maker. In the 90′s he had a sort of resurgence as he became widely recognized for his work in fine art and painting.
Wong spent the majority of his career breaking racial barriers, not
letting himself be constrained by the lines set down by others and in 2001 he finally got the recognition he deserved for his work on Bambi; andwas honored as a Disney Legend.
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