Discover the woman who inspired Walt Disney to build an artistic career and who motivated him to improve his drawing techniques.
Like other giants in the entertainment industry, Walt Disney also had a source of inspiration that made him perfect his drawing techniques. Through some old interviews (via The Walt Disney Family Museum), he and his brother, Roy O. Disneyshared that one of their aunts was a key figure in introducing them to this type of art, which would later become a central element in their animations:
I had a very dear aunt who would come to visit. Her name was Aunt Margaret. She would always bring something for my sister and she would bring me a big tablet with colored pencils and crayons. I was always drawing Aunt Margaret. And she just went crazy over the drawings and saved them.”
Dave Smithfounder and chief archivist of the “Walt Disney Archives” at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, revealed that it all started after a moment when Walt was caught drawing on the walls of his house:
Aunt Margaret was the one who gave Walt his first drawing instruments. She must have heard about that little episode of him drawing on the side of the house with tar because she thought, ‘Well, it would be better if he practiced art on paper with a pencil.'”
Dave also mentions that the first official sale of Walt in the field of animation occurred when he was not yet an established professional in the area:
So from there he started drawing. He drew a horse that belonged to the local doctor, Doc Sherwood. The horse’s name was Rupert. And Walt made a very good drawing of this horse and sold it to the doctor. He was willing to pay for this work of art. So that was really Walt Disney’s first sale in the field of art.”
In 1919, after returning from his service with the Red Cross in France, Walt got his first job as an apprentice at the Gray Advertising Company, where he would be paid to draw. As soon as he returned home, he couldn’t help but tell the news first to his aunt Margaret:
The first thing I did was run to see Aunt Margaret. I thought she would be happy to know, after all the encouragement she had given me, that someone was paying me $50 a month to draw pictures!”
Unfortunately, shortly after, Aunt Margaret died of pneumonia, but his simple generosity and encouragement towards his young nephew were able to change his destiny and that of the animation universe.
Source: Recreio
