The Illustrator - Brian Kesinger
Introduction
Brian Kesinger is an American illustrator, specifically from California [1]. Throughout the course of his career he has put his hand to many different faculties within the world of concept art for animation, notably he has spent over 16 years of his career working for Walt Disney Animation Studios on 10 different films [2]. The first Disney film he worked on was Tarzan as an assistant layout artist where he was hired straight from high school [3]. From there he has gone from strength to strength in the world of animation, working as a layout artist and storyboard artist [4], with his most recent job title being story artist [5].
Investigating Practice
Brian Kesinger has worked hard to get to where he is now in his career, something we can easily see through his progression of job titles and number of films he has worked on if nothing else. Kesinger was born into a creative family, with both of his parents being musicians. Being unable to play an instrument himself, Kesinger turned his full attention to creating stories through his drawings, his own ‘creative outlet’ [6]. Through a teachers suggestion, Kesingers' parents encouraged him to take art classes where he was given the opportunity to try a variety of different types of art, even typography and ceramics, before settling down to animation [7]. From there, as Kesinger puts it, ‘It was a beeline for how can I work for Disney?’ [8]. Disney hired him in 1996 and from there it was a case of working upwards from one level of work to the next, as is the way it has always been with Disney [9]. Kesinger considered himself a fantasy style artist what with him having a huge interest in Dungeons and Dragons and subsequently that had a huge affect on the creatures he drew in his work [10]. Then through his work for Disney on the films ‘Atlantis’ and ‘Treasure Planet’ he discovered the one type of art that he’d always loved but never had a name to attach to it before: Steampunk [11]. As a layout artist for both films, Kesinger was heavily involved in the background and the necessary research needed to achieve the overall look of both films. For that research he looked at World War 1 tanks, submarines and other machinery as well as general pipework, cogs etc [12]. Kesinger was ‘naturally drawn’ to all of these things, finding himself adding these elements to his general sketches away from his work for disney and hence in his own way falling into the genre which has made his own personal work grow to be so widely known [13]. Kesingers' career is starting to go in two different directions simultaneously; whilst he remains to be a story artist for Disney he is also branching out and becoming increasingly well known for his own work, in particular for his steampunk designs,
‘My job has been [to] draw what other people want me to, and draw in the style that other people want me to. So the fact that i can now go home and draw stuff that I want is a reward in itself.’ [14]
Currently, Kesinger has two personal projects he especially champions amongst the huge amount of work he does overall; the tea girl series and the adventures of his two most famous characters, Otto and Victoria [15].
[Otto and Victoria, Brian Kesinger]
[Tea Girls Series, Brian Kesinger]
As you can see from both images of these projects, his personal work carries his own distinct style throughout, despite the different mediums both are completed in. The tea girls in particular draw attention to their medium because of the title of the series: each image is literally painted with tea, it being a strong symbol of steampunk in Kesingers' opinion [16]. Whilst both images are very easily recognisable as being drawn by Kesinger it is also easy to recognise Disney’s impact on his life by hints of its house style rubbing off on his personal work, such as in the faces of the ladies he draws. Kesinger also accounts a lot of his success and the state of recognition his practice is in now down to friends and peers throughout his animation and online communities of both art and steampunk seeing his work, sharing and commenting upon it [17]. Through websites such as DeviantArt, which Kesinger is a huge part of, his art is being shared and critiqued, widening it up to a larger audience and giving it the exposure through the various communities which has allowed it to become so much more popular and well known [18]. Currently, Kesinger’s personal work has grown in such popularity that he has published a book full of the artwork for his characters Otto and Victoria whose fanbase is continuously growing [19].
Changes that Affect Practice
There are a variety of historical, technical and cultural changes that can affect an illustrators practice, Kesinger being no exception. Kesingers entire career began in the animation field within the world of the pre-production and concept art. Ironically enough, the company that started his career was also the pioneer who created the first animated feature film and began the worlds fascination for them [20]. Disney is responsible in many ways for how animation films are constructed today, especially in the way that storyboards are made, with a storyboard as we now know it being ‘developed in its most sophisticated form by Disney in the thirties’ [21].
Disneys way of working on films has also changed throughout its history. When it initially began working on animation feature films, the company wasn’t departmentalised the way it is now, meaning anyone with an idea for how the film could work in any aspect was encouraged to put their thoughts forward, something that isn’t really practised today presumably because of the companies sheer size [22]. This will have made it harder for people with ideas to get them noticed and will have put artists more into a label of sorts within their work at the company, perhaps putting a limit to them with what they can work with on any given company. Whilst this will probably have affected the way Kesinger worked for Disney at the beginning of his career, the irony here is that he has branched out into so many different roles within Disney with the more well known he becomes over time, such as the various art related jobs he has had but he was also employed by disney to be a voiceover actor in one of Disneys' latest films ‘Wreck it Ralph’ [23].
One big aspect of Kesingers' life that he considers to have been a huge affect on him is the time in which he grew up, describing himself as an ’80’s kid’ [24]. The 80’s were rich for kids cartoons with things like Transformers being brought to tv screens and becoming a firm favourite for Kesinger [25]. Long before working for Disney and discovering the word Steampunk, Kesinger was filling his head with transformer characters and ideas for his own stories. The only logical outlet for these ideas was to copy out the cartoons and draw out his stories to make them come to life [26]. The obvious shift in the 80’s for childrens tv had a resounding affect on Kesinger with the idea of transformers still not having left him in adulthood instead fuelling further designs in his personal work.
[Steampunk Transformers, Brian Kesinger]
[Steampunk Star Wars, Brian Kesinger]
As you can see, the idea of transformers with the designs of unusual machinery tie in nicely with the basic idea of steampunk, hence the shift it tv culture evidently planted the seed to allow for Kesingers love of steampunk in later life. It wasn’t just transformers that came about in the 80’s to influence Kesingers art. A variety of new films were released illustrating the decades change in film culture. Kesinger has mentioned he is a big film fan, if that isn’t not already obvious from his artwork [27]. Star Wars, TRON, Back to the Future and Ghost Busters were all big hits released around the 80’s, all with an element of sci-fi and fantasy which is easy to link to Kesinger as an influence to him and his work because of those qualities that they in some part share with the steampunk genre itself.This also explains why Kesinger was drawing Steampunk without actually knowing what the genre itself was called before hand: to him his style was merely an extension of childhood ideas and research into projects for Disney which happened to, when combined, be an extension of steampunk.
[‘Treasure Planet’ Captain Amelia concept art, Brian Kesinger]
Along with this fascination for technology within Kesingers artwork, another development in history more to do with Kesingers geography may have had more of a cultural affect on life in general. Kesinger being from California links in to the fact that area of America was given the nickname of ‘silicon valley’ because of the technological industry based significantly in that area focusing mainly on computing. Living within such an area cannot go unnoticed by its inhabitants so its logical to assume Kesinger will have had a knowledge of what his home was famously known as from a young age and the reasons behind it. This is significant to his practice not only because of the technological theme that runs through the core of steampunk (even though that tends to be much lower scale equipment ideas in comparison to the milestones of the technological industry) but because a lot of Kesingers' most popular personal work as well as a lot of the background work on Disney films he worked on such as ‘Treasure Planet’ were created digitally.
Along with the advancement of computers comes the advancement of software. Although a lot of his work is done digitally, a good proportion of Kesingers work is done in Photoshop. Photoshop began to be developed in the late 80’s, but it wasn’t until quite a while later it came close to the technology we know and love today [28]. This is one technological development that has changed the entire way many artists create their work, with everything before photoshop and softwares like it having to obviously be traditional. Kesinger has been using photoshop and other digital formats throughout his entire career, computers having become a part of creating animation and artwork that today most of us don’t even have to consider living without. Kesingers career and way of working would have been quite different without it.
One thing that has greatly affected Kesingers' practice above all else is the progression of the internet. Practically everyone has access to it and uses it every day. A huge part of Kesingers' practise is that he keeps blogs, facebook pages, websites and DeviantArt galleries up to date, exposing his work to a huge audience. As he says on Deviantart itself, ‘People are viewing art at a volume and speed like never before … think about how many images you are seeing in that hour compared to the old way of browsing in a book store or art gallery’ [29]. Without the progression of the internet, Kesinger would not have achieved the same huge exposure of his personal work in any other way quite like the viewing figures of the internet can, no doubt meaning his personal work would not have received the same amount of attention and never taken off to the degree it has done today in comparison to someone launching their work 20 years ago.
[Fox and Hare, Brian Kesinger]
This piece of work in particular embodies the majority of the huge technological advances that have affected Kesingers' work. The piece was drawn and painted completely digitally, as can be seen from the video Kesinger made of himself creating it to put on youtube to show his vast amount of followers on the internet how he goes about creating his artwork. This entire piece and the reaction it receives from its audience would be none existence without the advancements that have been made technologically that we as artists can take advantage of.
Historical Parallel
Whilst Kesinger has his own personal style away from the drawing stye of Disney, it is not difficult to see the obvious influences working with the company for so long has had on him. Therefore it isn’t hard to draw an obvious parallel between Kesinger and the work of the artists for the very first Disney feature film, ‘Snow White’. One of the more prominent concept artists to work on ‘Snow White’ was Grim Natwick. Natwick was the artist behind ‘Betty Boop’ and was brought onto the ‘Snow White’ team of artists to create the image of snow white herself [30].
[‘Snow White’ concept art]
Although the above image is featured in a Disney concept art book without an artist it wouldn’t be a difficult leap to presume it was one of Natwicks’ original concepts of Snow White. You can easily pick out the elements of his own preferred personal style what with the large eyes and shape of the lips, so much like his Betty Boop cartoon and a far cry from the finished version of snow white. The finished design Natwick created of Snow White for the film is now considered a classic and a house style of that is still prominent in modern day Disney princesses as well as the companies other films, such as the ones Kesinger himself was working on. The original team to work on ‘Snow White’ ascertained their heroine would stand five heads tall rather than the realistic proportion of a human figure being eight heads tall, something that carries through to the way Disney characters is drawn today [31]. The general idea of those unrealistic proportions carries over into Kesingers' personal work. With Kesingers obvious knowledge of Disney from a young age, what with his art classes leading him to think only of wanting to work for Disney, it suggests that Disney was a huge part of Kesingers’ childhood and interpretation of drawing cartoons. An important but less obvious parrallel between Kesinger and the original concept art team for ‘Snow White’ are their influences for their work. The idea for the ‘Snow White’ animators was to keep a european theme to the animation due to the original fairytales origins of the Grimm brothers being European. They were encouraged to look to european illustrators work as sources and inspiration, one artist in particular being Arthur Rackham [32].
[Finished ‘Snow White’ Animation frame]
[Illustration of Shakespeares Ophelia, Arthur Rackham]
Ironically, Kesinger lists Rackham as being one of his inspirations and goes on to talk about Rackham inspiring his artwork with the ‘line work and watercolour palette having always appealed’ [33]. So as well as all three sharing the parallel of how important the linework of a piece is, another is the idea that the female figure is the predominant image. Disney has a focus on its female characters, Snow White being one of the most well known of Disneys' creations, predominantly because she was the first in a long line. Both Kesinger and Rackham share the fact that their work is dominated by female characters: one look at Kesingers' gallery is all it takes to see that male characters are scarce. There is an obvious mutual agreement between their works that a female form is one of the their key and preferred features to include in their work.
Direct Contemporaries and Peers
To Kesinger, immediate contemporaries and peers are incredibly important in animation and in both online art and steampunk communities. Working with other people around him seems to be the way of working that Kesinger champions the most in ever aspect of his art. Kesinger is a big part of online communities such as Deviantart. As a part of these online art communities he thinks the best thing about them is the ability to both receive feedback on your own work and to give it to others so that everyone can further improve their work, hence he is not just taking the benefits this kind of exposure offers but also giving back to the art community, no doubt making him as an artist and his work all the more popular [34]. It is not just Kesingers' personal work that benefits from working with others. The whole of Kesingers' animation career revolved around working with other animators,
‘Its so collaborative I love working with people, I love creating art with people. I use the analogy that working in animation is like being in an orchestra … you only sound better the more people you have, and the more talented people you surround yourself with … It’s inspiration, it’s education, just being able to be alongside all these great artists, all these people i studied in school … i now work alongside as a peer.’ [35]
It’s obvious Kesinger highly values his work colleagues and is highly appreciative of them. It also shows the sense of community he feels is present within the animation team as a whole and the amount of progression he has made in his field as the artists he admired from afar become his peers to work alongside with. Though there is no surprise that animators collaborate so closely as they work on the bigger project together all within the same style.
[Molly McGuinness, Brian Kesinger]
However in recent years the story artists of Disney have collaborated away from their work to create a book full of their own comic books with a running theme in the stories but each one done in an artists individual style [36]. This shows the supportive and friendly nature that must be present within the community of animators that they take the time to band together and show their own individual interests through their own publication. Kesinger took part in this collaboration in its third volume, adding one of his steampunk characters, Molly Mcguinness, to the story [37].
Evaluation
To conclude, Kesingers practice on its own and as a contribution to other projects has had a massive impact to our culture. Disney is a huge brand with the majority of its films well known and Kesingers’ work helped to bring those stories to the screen. although most people haven’t heard of him, they will have seen his work without realising. its not just his contribution to Disney, but him as an individual artist. He is a big part of the online art community with his artwork becoming increasingly well known as well as inspiring to others. As the interviews and comments to others on Deviantart show, he is a big team player in the world of art and willing to help out a whole manor of artists and people from the steampunk communities and is increasingly well liked and looked to for it. He may not yet have the most well known name but more often than not his art speaks for him.
References
Campos, Nicole, ‘Meet Brian Kesinger’
Deviantart, ‘Otto and Victoria’
Deviantart, ‘Otto and Victoria’
IMDB, ‘Brian Kesinger’
Kesinger, Brian http://www.bkartonline.com/about/
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), pg. 19
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Kesinger, Brian, http://www.bkartonline.com/gallery/
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Kesinger, Brian, http://briankesinger.deviantart.com
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), pg. 7
Hart, John (1999), pg. 6
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), pg. 21
IMDB, ‘Brian Kesinger’
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Deviantart, ‘Otto and Victoria’
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), pg. 34
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), pg. 37
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), pg. 41
Campos, Nicole, ‘Meet Brian Kesinger’
Youtube, ‘Community of Artists with Brian Kesinger’
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger
Bibliography
Books
Hart, John (1999),The Art of the Storyboard, Focal Press
Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: An Art in Its Making, New York, Hyperion
Walt Disney Animation Studios (2010), The Archive Series Design, New York, Disney Additions
Websites
Adobe, http://www.creativebloq.com/adobe/history-photoshop-12052724 Accessed 24th November 2013
Campos, Nicole, ‘Meet Brian Kesinger’ http://www.welovefine.com/lmfa.php?m=artist-summary&id_artist=7398 Accessed 24th November 2013
Deviantart, ‘Otto and Victoria’ http://techgnotic.deviantart.com/journal/Otto-and-Victoria-Octovictorian-Etiquette-374751867 Accessed 24th November 2013
IMDB, ‘Brian Kesinger’ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1293044/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Accessed 24th November 2013
Kesinger, Brian http://www.bkartonline.com/about/ Accessed 24th November 2013 Kesinger, Brian, http://www.bkartonline.com/gallery/ Accessed 24th November 2013 Kesinger, Brian, http://briankesinger.deviantart.com Accessed 24th November 2013
Kesinger, Brian https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Kesingers-Tea-Girls/212094505475204 Accessed 24th November 2013
Knight, John M, Interview With a Geek episode 7 Brian Kesinger http://interviewwithageek.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/episode-7-brian-kesinger/ Accessed 24th November 2013
Youtube, ‘Community of Artists with Brian Kesinger’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMfdhHCziM Accessed 24th November 2013
Image Sources
Walt Disney Animation Studios (2010), The Archive Series Design, New York, Disney Additions Krause, Martin and Witkowski, Linda (1995), New York, Hyperion
Lamb, Charles and Mary (1906),Tales from Shakespeare with Illustrations by Arthur Rackham, London, J. M. Dent & Co
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