Film Archive
From 1997 to 2003, I worked as a traditional background artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Those years deepened my understanding of color and atmosphere—foundations that continue to inform my own painting.
A small group of artists met after hours to discuss art and filmmaking. We painted portraits, exchanged ideas, and drew inspiration from Claude Lorrain, Andrew Wyeth, Chinese ink painting, and the quilts of Gee’s Bend.
Each film required ten to twelve background artists to create nearly a thousand hand-painted scenes within a collaborative pipeline of directors, layout artists, and animators. Background art defines the world the story inhabits and, at its best, is almost invisible.
Following are examples of my work on five Disney features, beginning with a later, independent film made to look like a 1930’s Disney classic.
Independent Short, Duck Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Presented at the Venice Biennale
Imitation of Life, color key, watercolor, digital assembly. G. Kovats
Imitation of Life
2013, Watercolor and Gouache
Created for the 55th Venice Biennale and directed by Austrian artist Mathias Poledna, this conceptual film involved a small crew of former Disney artists, led by animation director Tony Bancroft. These watercolors helped establish the film’s visual tone and atmosphere.
Exhibitions:
- Venice Biennale, Austrian Pavilion (2013)
- Dreamlands, Whitney Museum (2016)
- Estate, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2015)
Collections:
- LACMA
- The Art Institute of Chicago
Imitation of Life, background using watercolor, gouache in the style of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, G. Kovats
Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios, Orlando, FL
Lilo & Stitch, Mulan, John Henry, Brother Bear and Tarzan
From The Making of Lilo & Stitch (screenshot).
Lilo & Stitch
2002, Watercolor
When Chris Sanders decided to return to watercolor, our crew embraced the challenge—reviving a legacy not seen since Snow White.
I appreciate John Singer Sargent’s advice to "Make the best of an emergency."
Painted as one of Lilo’s “photographs”; a rare moment where the background artist painted characters into the scene.
2002 Walt Disney World Feature Animation Exhibition, Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (Layout by Andy Harkness).
Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Archive Series: Layout and Background, Edited by John Lasseter.
This work helped in stablishing the painted look of Hawaiian vegetation.
Another of Lilo’s “photographs”; ending sequence.
Color key, acrylics
John Henry
2000, Scratchboard and Acrylic
Drawing on the Harlem Renaissance, the film combined scratchboard and painted quilts. Illustrator Brian Pinkney visited the studio to demonstrate scratchboard techniques.
Color Key Concept for intro; acrylics.
Brother Bear
2003, Acrylic
Painter, production designer, and fellow crew member, Xiangyuan Jie, trained us to create painterly environments of the Pacific Northwest. Director Bob Walker expanded the film’s aspect ratio to convey a sense of "big country."
Mulan
1998, Acrylic
Under production designer Hans Bacher, backgrounds were infused with the simplicity and grace of traditional Chinese watercolor painting.
Establishing background for the Emperor’s Palace. Includes 26 multiplane layers revealing interior levels and staircase.
Tarzan
1999, Acrylic
The environments in Tarzan required unprecedented detail. Nearly 50 background artists across Disney’s Los Angeles, Orlando, and Paris studios worked to create the density and lushness of the jungle—more than on any film in Disney history.
The photograph below was taken for an in-house project—a Mulan-themed “high school yearbook.” Our department, informally known as the Art Club, is shown with Background Supervisor Bob Stanton dressed as a muse.
A few months earlier, I had asked Bob if I could paint his portrait; the painting rests beneath my hands in the photograph. Bob passed away in 2021 and was a widely respected painter and mentor in the industry.
