Disney/Pixar’s Peter Docter was featured in the New York Times on Sunday during which he revealed that he was inspired by Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson. Here’s the snippet:
DRAWING I just bought a pile of crow-quill pen nibs. You know, the kind you dip in ink before you draw. Richard Thompson, the author of one of my all-time favorite comic strips called ?Cul de Sac,? is a big pen-nib fan, and I bought them under the belief that once I owned these nibs I would be able to draw as well as Thompson. I?m thinking it might also help if I slept with them under my pillow.
Peter was the director to Pixar’s latest release Inside Out and the blockbuster favorite Up.
Sleeping with the nibs! THAT’s why I’m nowhere as good as Richard Thompson!!
Well… it can’t hurt… 🙂
Richard Thompson is an original and his work will be sorely missed. Of course, the quote is tongue-in-check. It’s not the tool, but the brain that guides the tool that makes the work outstanding.
Agree with Richard Orlin on art tools trumped by the brain, and here’s another take on it (the eyes being the brain) from Maurice Grosser: “The painter draws with his eyes, not with his hands. Whatever he sees, if he sees it, he can put it down.”