Saturday, June 19, 2010

Darkwing Duck Model Sheets (1991)



I'm launching my blog with model sheets from Disney's Darkwing Duck series of which I was lead character designer at the time. The shows creator, Tad Stones gave me an inspirational sketch of a duck dressed in an outfit reminiscent of  the pulp character The Shadow, and I ran with it. I am amazed at how many of my colleagues here at Dreamworks were fans of the show back then. It makes me feel old. Other character designers on the show were, Kenny Thompkins, Dana Landsberg and Ritsuko Notani. I also cut my teeth as a director on the third and final season of the series.What you see here are my original pencil drawings cut out, pasted onto poster-sized foam-core board, and photographed. If you look closely at the hi-res images you'll notice faint under-drawing and some erasures.
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18 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 22, 2010 at 8:55 AM

    It's about time! Darkwing, Darkwing Duck!!

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  2. Meaghan EdwardsJune 22, 2010 at 11:12 AM

    Very nice! I've always loved Darkwing Duck.

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  3. Juan BautyJune 22, 2010 at 12:18 PM

    Amazing character design!

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  4. samacleodJune 23, 2010 at 9:57 AM

    Incredible. Perfect.

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  5. Jenny LerewJune 25, 2010 at 11:21 AM

    Nice post, Toby.
    Oh and-these are really beautiful drawings.

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  6. Sandro CleuzoJune 27, 2010 at 4:35 PM

    Great drawings, Toby. I wish there were more animated TV shows today with this quality of design and drawings .
    Keep posting!

    Sandro

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  7. Chris PalmerJune 28, 2010 at 2:51 AM

    You made an extremely appealing character that I loved growing up. Thanks for posting these!

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  8. rad sechristJune 28, 2010 at 10:45 AM

    This is soooo awesome!!!

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  9. EnjoyTheSauceJune 30, 2010 at 2:47 AM

    Dude these are slick! Frighteningly nice drawings. I really loved watching this show back in the day.

    Also, being a super-dork, I'll point out that you almost perfectly replicated a Chuck Jones key from Robin Hood Daffy. It's the middle drawing on the right side of the second sheet. We shall call it... an "homage."

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  10. Chris PalmerJune 30, 2010 at 9:04 PM

    Forgot to mention I saw these DW sheets online a few months back: http://aquantis.tripod.com/settei/DW-preview.html

    Maybe some of yours too?

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  11. David WolterJuly 1, 2010 at 3:43 PM

    I loved this show. Thanks for posting - fantastic stuff!

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  12. Bill RobinsonJuly 2, 2010 at 9:56 AM

    Love love loved Darkwing Duck. These poses are AWESOME! Such great flow and strong lines of action! Can't wait to see more...

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  13. Nicolette DavenportJuly 13, 2010 at 2:12 PM

    Oh man, I LOVED Darkwing Duck. I'm so glad to find your blog.

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  14. vitalik shuSeptember 27, 2010 at 9:33 PM

    OMG!!! So you were the chief superhero of my childhood! I was sure that mere mortals are not under the power to do a Darkwig Duck!! thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

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  15. KYLE RICHARD ANGUS MCQUEENOctober 18, 2010 at 9:55 AM

    Toby,

    Thank you so much for posting these. I realize now that I have you to thank for the endless hours spent in my room trying to replicate these amazing designs and wonderfully expressive poses. It's this kind of inspiration that served as my first lessons in animation and character design. The pose in the upper right corner, where D.D. is holding his cape out with his right hand and his gun in his left is one that must've stared at, studied and tried to replicate a thousand times. To this day it is still so strong and his expression clearly shows that cocky confidence that we all loved him for.

    Thanks again for posting these.

    -Kyle

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  16. Chris JimenezMarch 24, 2011 at 10:14 PM

    These drawing are gorgeous! Thank you for sharing.

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  17. FatumApril 15, 2011 at 12:05 PM

    Yeah, Darkwing Duck was wildly popular here in Russia; still one of my favorite Disney's shows.

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  18. SteveMay 19, 2016 at 4:12 PM

    I got to work on this show as a layout artist and animator back in the days of Disney TV Australia. Was a lot of fun!

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