Florian Satzinger
This Austrian artist has drawn some of the world’s most iconic animated characters. Gary evans finds out more about his ‘fusion cuisine’ art style…
“Great art becomes more than the artist” Metaphysical talk by Florian
Florian Satzinger worked hard on a background layout: two giant trees framing a little creek. It looked good, and Florian was proud of the piece. The Austrian took it to one of the special instructors at the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts where he was studying hand-drawn animation. His instructor, Ken Southworth, looked at the layout and shook his head.
Every component did look good. They had turned out well. But the composition was wrong because the trees were too similar. The background didn’t look like an animation layout. It was more like a greeting card. “Now,” Ken said. “What’s next? Do you want to go for the greeting card or the animation layout, son?”
Florian grew up on old Disney animated films: classics like The Rescuers (1977), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and 101 Dalmatians (1961). He loved TV cartoons – The Pink Panther Show, Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry. He drew the things he saw on the screen. Many kids do. But Florian was doing something a bit different. His dad was an architect. From a young age, Florian knew all about perspective and other advanced techniques. So he didn’t just sketch cartoon characters, but also backgrounds, vehicles and props. This wasn’t simple copying for the sake of copying. This was something else.
“Drawing, I guess, was a way to make my own ideas somehow ‘real’ or at least manifest on paper. And,
Drawing was a way to make my own ideas ‘real’ on paper
equality important, the ideas became shareable. What I’m trying to say is that, through drawing, I wasn’t limited to just dreaming of the ultimate treehouse with a space rocket launch feature. Drawing enabled me to render this very treehouse visible down to the last detail, then share it with others. I think this is what got me into art in the first place. And isn’t it exactly this what I’m still doing today?”
LEARNING FROM A VETERAN ARTIST
Florian attended various universities, studying everything from art history to German philology, but the school that made a deep and lasting impression was Vancouver Institute of Media Arts. That’s where Ken Southworth taught. Ken had worked for Disney Studios, Hanna-barbera and Warner Bros. – all the companies that made Florian’s favourite childhood animations. The English artist had been in the animation business since 1944. When Ken spoke, Florian listened.
Ken could teach without teaching, say something without actually saying it. He encouraged Florian to see himself as a kind of reporter, whose job it is to observe his own characters and analyse what they do and how they behave. Ken’s criticism of Florian’s layout was a good example of this. What Ken was really meant was this: are you happy to make good art, or do you want try and make great art?
“In retrospect, his influence on me wasn’t so much about drawing and animation skills, but about developing a good taste and a feel for balanced and original design. He helped me to understand the danger of complacency and the importance of accepting constructive critiques as a stimulus for becoming a better artist.”
Ken helped me to understand the danger of complacency and the importance of constructive critiques
“I remember him as somebody who wasn’t teaching but rather suggesting, or helping. He made you feel that you figured a problem out by yourself, or at least in collaboration with him. I dearly miss him.”
DRAGONS AND DUCKS
Florian’s first paid job was in advertising. He drew a spaceship, which was to be shaped like a milk bottle and have a face. Next, he worked on illustrations for a children’s book published by a travel agency. The story was about a family making plans for their next holiday – a family of dragons. The only thing he’d ever wanted to be was an animator. There was no back-up plan. So he stuck at it.
Then, one day, 14 years ago, seemingly out of the blue, Florian received an email from a Disney executive asking if he’d like to collaborate. He would go on to work for the makers of many of his favourite childhood cartoons. He contributed to Warner Bros. cult classic Pinky and the Brain and, like Ken, got to draw iconic Looney Tunes characters Tweety, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Florian also created his own IPS: Toby Skybuckle (whose adventures are inspired on his own childhood), John Starduck (the space-exploring duck), and Duck Awesome (Florian likes ducks).
For the most part, he’s commissioned to create art for the early stages of a project (“they are entrees”), so Florian’s mostly left alone to do his thing: “Directors want me to come up with new things, and to find interesting visual solutions or ideas,” he says. “Now, one can get the suspicion that I just get brought on board as a sort of a visual development jester. It sounds like complete freedom, but actually, the
Directors want me to come up with interesting visual solutions or ideas
respective project has its key attributes and limitations of course, and so it’s my responsibility to pay close attention to them.”
FROM BLURRY SHAPE TO SKETCH
Whether it’s a client brief or a personal project, a new piece always starts out as an indistinct picture in Florian’s head. “Say, you commission me to design a middle-aged blue dragon who suffers from acid reflux. Immediately, there’s this blurry image of this very dragon in my head. Or, more precisely, I see a blurry shape that already has a form or volume to it, but no colours.
“I would say that these images I ‘see’ are always a sort of grey. And now this grey dragon-form in my head is what I try to reproduce or translate on to a 2D canvas in Photoshop, in the form of an initial rough sketch.”
Florian believes in “thinking before you draw.” So this rough sketch is a kind of bare-bones plan for the finished piece. It’ll be small with lots of construction lines to show the character’s form and volume. Florian sees sketching as 3D modelling on a 2D canvas. Once it’s done, he gets going on the “regular” drawing. Layer by layer, he builds it up: line-work, shading, colour. Now he starts looking at references to get the little details right – everything from colour design to character accessories.
Florian’s studio is just five minutes from his home in the city of Graz, in
southern Austria. He shares a large, bright workspace with, appropriately enough, three architects. He likes being surrounded by creative people whose work is both familiar and completely different to his own.
A good day for Florian starts with a bit of free-drawing to loosen up. Then he gets on with whatever project he’s busy with, goes home for lunch, and rarely stays at the studio later than 6pm. Evenings, he likes to get away from work – a trip to the theatre, playing badminton with his wife Laura. Routine is important. Routine helps him get things finished.
ZANY AND ANGRY
One critic described Florian’s art as having ‘a snap and verve that harkens back to the best of classic Disney and mid-20th century Warner Bros. animation.’ His line has a ‘zing, bounce and swoop so delightful that they suggest lively motion even before they’re animated.’
Florian describes his own work as “fusion cuisine.” It combines two of the art styles he grew up with: first, the North American style of Disney’s Walt Kelly and Don Bluth, and Chuck Jones of Warner Bros. Second, the influence of European comic artists like André Franquin, Maurice De Bevere (aka Morris) and Giorgio Cavazzano. “I often get the feedback that my style has this Disney feel to it, but more zany, or angry.”
Another influence is, of course, Ken Southworth. Florian is a teacher himself now. He holds a lectureship at the University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg, where his aim is to teach without teaching, to say something without actually saying it, encouraging his students to see themselves as a reporter whose job it is to observe their own characters and analyse what they do and how they behave. He’s asking the same question Ken asked him: are you happy to make good art, or do you want try and make great art?
“I think good art shows that the artist was fully in control of it. However, great art goes one step further. It becomes more than the artist themselves. Great art inspires and surprises even its originator.”
I’m often told that my style has a Disney feel to it, but is more zany