Monday, November 07, 2005

Tarzan 2 _ Porter










We wanted Porter to look like a little monkey himself. It was his first time in the jungle and he was to be completly overwhelmed by what he saw and found. Things and animals he so far had encountered only in the books he had studied and written. He would get lost in some small detail, a frog or a bug, and he would overlook the gorilla behind him. He needed Jane to take care of him. I tought a lot of Catweazle, a character fom an english TV-series from the seventies, which nobody in the states knew about. Another big influence was Jack McGowern in his role as Prof.Ambronsius in Roman Polanski's "Vampire Killers", a movie only Kevin Lima knew about.






Geoffrey Bayldon as Catweazle

Anyway, I didn't know where to go visually with this character, because I didn't want to use other cartoon-professors as reference.I wanted to get away from the cliche and was looking for some other kind of inspiration. Then it hit me. Some sketches I had done reminded me of Albert Schweitzer, a philosopher, doctor, musician and humanist, who founded a hospital in the jungle at the beginnig of the last century. Always very much a gentleman, always in a white shirt and a bowtie. Again, when I told that to the team, nobody had heard about him. There was no google at the time, so I was more than lucky to find a German book about Schweitzer in a second-hand bookstore in St.Monica. I made a board and sold the idea to the directors.




Albert Schweitzer







13 comments:

J said...

Harald these are brilliant!!! Really breathtaking. Please put out a collection book form.
J

Uli Meyer said...

Hi Harald, your sketches of Porter have always been one of my favorites. Great character. He always reminded me of the professor in Polanski's monster-master piece. Now I know why.
Brilliant stuff.

Shawn Escott said...

Wow!!! Harald, these are awesome! Great conceptuals!!

Unknown said...

THese are sooo cool!! Great stuffs!

Greg Manwaring said...

Man, beautiful! I think your designs are so appealing and really give an insight into who this character is.

Boris Hiestand said...

Always so nice to hear the stories behind the creations- amazing sketches.
I used to watch Catweazle all the time when I was a kid- to see a pic brings back memories!

Dik Pose said...

Excellent!!! Thank you for sharing your process!

Mark McDonnell said...

Beautiful work, and nice to see the thinking behind the development of a character.

MAC

P.S. - he was a wonderful character.

Elliot Cowan said...

I loved Catweazle as a kid.
I was always taken with his animated caricature over the opening credits.

Roberto Freire / Robolus said...

Wunderbare Arbeiten!

Roman Polanskis "Tanz der Vampire" ist einer meiner Lieblingsfilme, und die Figur des Porter im Tarzan fand ich einfach nur klasse.

PEPE said...

brilliant work!!! thanks for sharing!!!

Patrick Morgan said...

These are beautiful. I agree with J, you have to put out a book.

cheers,
Patrick

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