Harold Whitaker 1920-2013.
Portrait pencil drawing of a seated man signed H Whitaker lower right and probably dates to the 1950’s.
The provenance for this sketch was from a folio of the artist’s work purchased in the 1960’s by my father who himself lived in Cottingham the artists home town.
Harold Jackson Whitaker (5 June 1920 – 26 December 2013) was a British animator, whose credits included Animal Farm in 1954 and Heavy Metal in 1981.[1] He first worked for Anson Dyer, before spending thirty years as an animator for Halas and Batchelor.[1] He made a comic strip adaptation of Animal Farm in 1954.[2]
Whitaker was born on 5 June 1920 in Cottingham, East Yorkshire. He was raised in Manchester[1] and studied drawing at Macclesfield art school.[1]
In 1981, Whitaker published a book, Timing for Animation.[1] Timing for Animation was republished in 2002 to include an introduction written by John Lasseter, the President of Pixar Studios.[1]
Whitaker later worked as an animator and storyboard artist on several films such as The Magic Voyage, Stowaways on the Ark, The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, Doctor in the Sky, When the Wind Blows, Wilhelm Busch – Die Trickfilm-Parade: Max und Moritz und andere Streiche [de] and the television series The Dreamstone and Poddington Peas.
Whitaker died on 26 December 2013 at the age of 93.[1]
The drawing is 14.5” x 10” and the mount is 18” x 14”
The drawing and mount are in good condition
Postage is free within the UK with Royal Mail 48 tracked.
Overseas postage is with the Global Shipping Program.