My Mickey Mouse 2D Animation Project Part 1

I started a small project that I've been wanting to do for awhile now. I've been wanting to animate more in 2D lately. I haven't animated 2D animations for a long time now. So this project will help me get back into the 2D world (Which I personally feel that is better than 3D animation). I'm very excited about this and I hope the results come out great!

So I decided to animate something that would not only be appropriate but more educational for me. I decided to animate Walt Disney's icon... Mickey Mouse.

I chose Mickey because he is truly the world's greatest character. His design is the best of any cartoon character because of his simplicity and mobility. Since Mickey is made up of mainly circles. And that's the reason why his design is so perfect. Circles are easier to draw for animators. Animators could quickly block out the animation with circles and simple shapes. Even though his design was much the same of his contemporary counter parts... Mickey stood out and is still going strong.

So I began with studying Mickey's design and which version of his design do I want to animate. While I like all his designs and I could easily draw any one of those designs, I wanted to do something a little different. So I chose to create my own design based of the 1938 classic cartoon The Brave Little Tailor. That wasn't really a hard choice for me. Necause when I think of Mickey I immediately think of two cartoons, The Brave Little Tailor and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The 1938 version is my favorite design of Mickey. I love how more mouse-like he looks. Here is the cartoon -

So after choosing the look... I want to create my own version of this design. So I need to practice drawing Mickey. I never really drew Mickey or any of the other Disney characters. I wanted to practice so I could do my version without having to refer to real design. Here are some of those studies and practice drawing....

I began with the basics for drawing Mickey.....

Here, I'm focusing on his hands and feet. I learned one thing when I was drawing this... I LOVE drawing Mickey's hand. They are so much fun to draw!

This next images are when I basically came up with my version of Mickey.

Now, that I was settled with his design and I feel confidant in drawing Mickey, I moved on with thumbnails of animation....

I'm not sure just what the final animation will be, but I know that I'll start off with a walk cycle. Like I said before, I'm very excited for this project. Keep a look out for more updates!!!