Gallery Lainzberg Daffy Duck Animation Cel Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court COA

This animation cel is an original one-of-a-kind painting, not a print or reproduction. It has actually been filmed in a studio and has appeared in a cartoon. The artist or animator first makes an outline drawing of the character on paper.

This pencil outline is then transferred to the front of a sheet of acetate known as a cel. After the transfer, highly skilled cel painters known as opaquers paint the outlined characters on the back of the cel so that the colors will appear brilliant, uniform and free of texture. Colors are applied in layers. Each layer must dry before the next color can be applied. All paints are precisely formulated in order to maintain color consistency from sequence to sequence.

Cel paintings have long been sought after by collectors who take pride in owning and preserving this important part of American popular culture. Cel collections may be seen in many fine museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Art.