Sep 05 2026
Born on September 5, 1924, Frank Armitage followed an artistic path that was anything but ordinary. Over the course of his long career, the Australian-born artist moved from studying the monumental murals of Mexico to painting backgrounds for some of Walt Disney’s most famous animated films, creating imagery for the science-fiction classic Fantastic Voyage, designing …
Aug 08 2026
Born on August 8, 1922, in Balatonszemes, Hungary, Károly Reich became one of the country’s most beloved illustrators and graphic artists. Over a career spanning roughly four decades, he created images for hundreds of books, bringing fairy tales, poems, novels, animals, children, mythological figures, and some of the best-known characters in Hungarian literature to life. …
Aug 07 2026
Born on this day, August 7, 1932, in Schiedam, Netherlands, Rien Poortvliet became one of the most recognizable Dutch illustrators of the twentieth century. His richly detailed paintings and drawings celebrated wildlife, rural traditions, history, family life, and an imaginary world populated by remarkably convincing gnomes. Whether he was painting a fox disappearing into the …
May 28 2026
On May 28, 1966, Disneyland opened one of the most recognizable attractions ever created: “it’s a small world.” Guests boarded small boats and sailed through an impossibly colorful world populated by singing children, spinning flowers, playful animals, geometric buildings, and hundreds of tiny details set to a melody almost guaranteed to remain in their heads …
Apr 26 2026
Towering trees stretch toward impossibly high skies. Hills roll across the horizon in carefully layered bands of color. Castles seem carved from illuminated manuscripts, while forests are filled with sharp vertical lines, intricate patterns, and a sense that something magical might be waiting just beyond the next tree. Even without seeing his name, an Eyvind …
Nov 01 2025
Born on November 1, Hello Kitty has one of the most unusual birthdays in pop culture because the character herself has remained essentially timeless. She began with a white face, two black eyes, a yellow nose, whiskers, and a red bow, yet that remarkably simple design grew into one of the most recognizable visual identities …
Jul 11 2025
Born on July 11, 1940, Toby Bluth built an unusually varied creative career that crossed animation, illustration, watercolor painting, theater, children’s books, production design, and Disney fine art. Although his older brother Don Bluth became more widely known as the director behind films such as The Secret of NIMH and An American Tail, Toby developed …
Apr 16 2025
Inspired after seeing this on Soviet Visuals and Folklore Film Fest‘s #SovietFilmWednesday, this was the first Soviet film I shared a little over four years ago, and it is still one of my favorites. What can I say, I love rain and cats, and the illustrations are beautiful, so this seemed like the perfect starting place for …
Mar 30 2025
Marc Davis could draw a deer convincingly enough to make audiences believe it was alive, give Tinker Bell an entire personality without a line of dialogue, turn Cruella de Vil into one of animation’s most unforgettable villains, and then leave feature animation behind to help design pirates, ghosts, jungle explorers, singing bears, and some of …
Mar 17 2025
Ken Anderson was difficult to fit into a single job description. He was trained as an architect, became an art director on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, helped shape the worlds of Pinocchio and Fantasia, experimented with new approaches to animated design, contributed to Disneyland, designed characters ranging from Shere Khan to Elliott the …
