A native of Redlands, California, Blair began his animation career in the early 1930s at the Romer Gray Studio, but due to the studio not keeping up with his salary, he moved to Walter Lantz Productions. He later moved over to Charles Mintz's Screen Gems studio, and in the late 1930s moved over to the Disney studio following numerous failed application attempts. At Disney, Blair animated cartoon short subjects, Mickey Mouse scenes in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" section of Fantasia (1940), and the hippo-alligator dance in Fantasia's "Dance of the Hours" sequence. He also did some work on Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi (1942).[1]
Blair continued his career in animation into the 1960s, working on The Flintstones at Hanna-Barbera. He is better known, however, as an author of animation instructional books for Walter Foster Publishing. His first book, Animation, was published in 1948 and originally included images of the MGM & Disney cartoon characters he had animated, who were redrawn to obscure their origins in the second edition of the book. Blair would write many more animation how-to texts over the next forty years, culminating with Cartoon Animation (1994), a 224-page book which compiles most of the content from his previous books. A new edition of "Cartoon Animation" was published in November 2020 by Walter Foster Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group.
Preston Blair was the brother of artist Lee Everett Blair[3] and the brother-in-law of artist and designer Mary Blair. He died on April 19, 1995.
preston, blair, other, uses, disambiguation, preston, erwin, blair, october, 1908, april, 1995, american, character, animator, best, remembered, work, walt, disney, productions, metro, goldwyn, mayer, cartoon, studio, bornpreston, erwin, blair, 1908, october, . For other uses see Preston Blair disambiguation Preston Erwin Blair October 24 1908 April 19 1995 was an American character animator best remembered for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro Goldwyn Mayer cartoon studio Preston BlairBornPreston Erwin Blair 1908 10 24 October 24 1908Redlands CaliforniaDiedApril 19 1995 1995 04 19 aged 86 Santa Cruz CaliforniaOccupationAnimatorYears active1930 1995Employer s Romey Grey Studios 1930 1931 Walter Lantz Productions 1931 Screen Gems 1931 1937 Walt Disney Productions 1937 1941 MGM 1941 1950 RelativesLee Everett Blair brother Mary Blair sister in law A native of Redlands California Blair began his animation career in the early 1930s at the Romer Gray Studio but due to the studio not keeping up with his salary he moved to Walter Lantz Productions He later moved over to Charles Mintz s Screen Gems studio and in the late 1930s moved over to the Disney studio following numerous failed application attempts At Disney Blair animated cartoon short subjects Mickey Mouse scenes in The Sorcerer s Apprentice section of Fantasia 1940 and the hippo alligator dance in Fantasia s Dance of the Hours sequence He also did some work on Walt Disney s Pinocchio 1940 and Bambi 1942 1 Blair left Disney after the 1941 Disney animator s strike and was hired to work for Tex Avery s unit at MGM There he became particularly known for animating the titular female character in Red Hot Riding Hood Red later re appeared in more Avery cartoons including Swing Shift Cinderella Little Rural Riding Hood Uncle Tom s Cabana and the Droopy cartoons The Shooting of Dan McGoo and Wild and Woolfy with animation by Blair In the late 1940s Blair teamed with Avery animator Michael Lah to direct several Barney Bear cartoons 2 although their unit was dissolved after the completion of only three shorts Blair continued his career in animation into the 1960s working on The Flintstones at Hanna Barbera He is better known however as an author of animation instructional books for Walter Foster Publishing His first book Animation was published in 1948 and originally included images of the MGM amp Disney cartoon characters he had animated who were redrawn to obscure their origins in the second edition of the book Blair would write many more animation how to texts over the next forty years culminating with Cartoon Animation 1994 a 224 page book which compiles most of the content from his previous books A new edition of Cartoon Animation was published in November 2020 by Walter Foster Publishing an imprint of The Quarto Group Preston Blair was the brother of artist Lee Everett Blair 3 and the brother in law of artist and designer Mary Blair He died on April 19 1995 References edit Biography Preston Blair Nov 4 2010 Of Mice and Magic 1980 287 289 Lee Everett Blair 1911 1993 Southern California Watercolorist and Animation Developer Aug 21 2008 Archived from the original on 2008 08 21 External links editPreston Blair at IMDb nbsp This article relating to an American animator is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Preston Blair amp oldid 1216742160, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
