Remembering Influential Animation Designer Sue Nichols Maciorowski, Artist for Princess and the Frog, Hercules, and More #ArtTuesday

We were saddened to hear that the influential an influential visual development and story artist Sue Nichols Maciorowski passed away recently. Her amazing work was pivotal to the Disney Renaissance. Here’s more from SlashFilm:

[Sue Nichols Maciorowski’s accomplishments include] the Greek art-inspired style of Hercules, defining the “Greek design” and supervising “the look of the film across layout, animation, effects, color styling and more.” The title “Production Stylist” was created for her work on this film.

But perhaps most memorably, Maciorowski was the mind behind The Princess and the Frog‘s Harlem Renaissance-inspired style, helping storyboard and design the eye-popping sequence for Tiana’s song “Almost There.” It’s a sequence that took inspiration from Harlem Renaissance artists such as Aaron Douglas, whom Maciorowski suggested. The suggestion paid off: “Almost There” is one of the most exciting and vibrant sequences in the film, and a testament to the 2D nature of the film, a medium which Disney has sadly since abandoned.

See and learn more!

Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!