The Paperwalker Journal - by Florian Satzinger

The PAPERWALKER Journal is the personal weblog of DUCKLAND creator and award-winning character designer Florian Satzinger – who worked on characters such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Silvester etc.), Pinky And The Brain, A.J.Hogg and Scooby-Doo, for studios such as Warner Bros., Disney, ReelFX and Zanuck Family Entertainment – in which he shares bits and pieces of his character design work, processes, visual development, inspirations and reference materials of current, past and future projects.
©2025 by Florian Satzinger. World rights reserved. | 104,7M VIEWS |

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PLEASE NOTE, the displayed parody artworks of classical cartoon characters are not copies but distinct satiric imitations/caricatures, by exaggerating and transforming the original characters and their related indica (see 'Coat of Smiles') in a way that creates new originals and new meanings, different from the intentions of the originals.

All reference/inspiration material here (i.e. all material not originated by the author of this blog) is solely the property of their respective owners, the use here does not imply that you may use the material for any purpose other than for a similar parodistic, informational or inspirational use. This blog journal is basically dedicated to inspire professional animation artists, animation students and everyone who is interested in the animation art form to use their talents. If you find any content here that belongs to you and you want it down or has not been properly attributed, please contact 'hello[at]paperwalker[dot]com', thank you.

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Thursday, July 26, 2018

The friendly undead

Today's PS brushes test track, 'The Friendly Undead'.

The friendly undead.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Jul 26, 2018 um 1:12 PDT

Sunday, July 22, 2018

The Wily Wizard, blue pencils on paper

The original sketch of the wily wiz is on its way to Australia.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Jul 18, 2018 um 12:40 PDT

Friday, July 13, 2018

The wily wizard must be caught

Drawing desk snapshots.

The wily wizard must be caught.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Jul 13, 2018 um 2:10 PDT

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Disney's Christopher Robin

Tuesday, July 03, 2018

Knife, pencil, paper, duck

Throwback Tuesday

Thursday, June 07, 2018

Today's morning beastwork

Thursday morning beastwork.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Jun 7, 2018 um 2:43 PDT

Friday, June 01, 2018

Pinocchio: Original character model statue

Pinocchio puppet model made by Bob Jones. (via Kevin Kidney)

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Alien army, captain

Alien army, captain.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Mai 18, 2018 um 11:17 PDT

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Process bits

Cartoon duck with pencil.

Duck from Florian Satzinger on Vimeo.

Process break down

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Mai 15, 2018 um 2:38 PDT

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

1970's Mouse House Restaurant Style

1975 Walt Disney Studio Commissary Restaurant Menu (Images via/by Random Neat Stuff/Matt Crandall)

Thursday, May 03, 2018

When I was a little duck ...

... I was used to having my art studio on the floor of my parents' living room, right under a giant glass bricks window. Best studio ever :-)

When I was a little duck I was used to have my art studio on the floor of my parents' living room, right under a giant glass bricks window. Best studio ever :-)

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Mai 3, 2018 um 8:01 PDT

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Piranha beak boy

Look who I met on my drawing desk, today.

Rough sketch before the rough colour test

piranha bird boy from Florian Satzinger on Vimeo.

Look who I met on my drawing desk, today.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Apr 26, 2018 um 8:22 PDT

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

The Jetsons: Why The Show Still Matters

'The Jetsons' were on air for only one season, but it is still a favoured reference for all things yesterday's future. Read the full article by Matt Novak HERE (Matt Novak, Smithsonian.com, SEP 2012)

Saturday, March 31, 2018

BG morphology pre-sketch, hijacking Spitzweg's 'The Butterfly Hunter'

'Eggscape', Florian Satzinger, 2017, hijacked painting.

Carl Spitzweg's original from 1890

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Throwback Duck

PK (Phantomias), ca. 2011, visdev colour piece, © Disney.

Original prelimimary sketch, blue col-erase pencils on paper:

PK, ca. 2011, visdev colour piece, © Disney.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Mär 9, 2018 um 10:12 PST

Thursday, March 08, 2018

Throwback Thursday

Three pieces I consider 'personal classics' of mine, of sorts.

Another one I consider a personal classic of mine, of sorts.

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Florian Satzinger Paperwalker (@floriansatzinger) am Mär 5, 2018 um 11:14 PST

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Hijacking references/inspirations: Adolf Fassbender

Rough preliminary sketch, 'Giant dragon running across Gapstow Bridge'; hijacked photograph: 'The White Night', by Adolf Fassbender, 1936.

This is the rough sketch I used for this, no clean-up, I just added lights and shading to the dragon a little to get a nice preview.

Friday, February 23, 2018

Magali Barbé's 'Strange Beasts'

Wow, food for thought.

Strange Beasts from Magali Barbé on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Al Hirschfeld and Art Spiegelman

Theater Talk: Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman, visits legendary Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld in his studio 2001.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Category: The colours of the seventies

A lovely bit of Americana for the Brits of the 1970s. Thames Television's 'Wish you were here' presenter Jim Lloyd gives a little insight into the day to day workings of one of the world's most famous fast food chains 'McDonalds'. (via)

"This nine layer gastronomic indulgence is called a Big Mac."

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About Me / Story

FLORIAN SATZINGER,
ERICH SOKOL Prize winner 2023 (along with Gerald Scarfe), was a student of well-regarded Disney, MGM and Hanna-Barbera animator and animation director Ken Southworth («Alice In Wonderland», «Woody Woodpecker», «Tom & Jerry», «The Flintstones», «Peanuts», «The Smurfs») who influenced him greatly. Having worked for clients that include Warner Bros., Disney, Zanuck Family Entertainment, ReelFX, Space Age Films, Psyop, Ravensburger North America, Facebook, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Bahlsen and Snapchat, Satzinger is now developing under the umbrella label DUCKLAND projects such as «DUCK AWESOME» and «JOHN STARDUCK» with Paperwalker Studios SHF.

Besides his industrial career, he holds a lectureship for character design, analog animation and animation history at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg (Urstein, Austria) and worked/works as a visiting dozent at art schools such as VIA University College's Animation Workshop (Viborg, Denmark), Film University Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany), Film Academy Baden-Württemberg (Ludwigsburg, Germany), Beaux-Arts & Entertainment (Paris, France) and Accademia Nemo (Florence, Italy).

Florian Satzinger is a member of Los Angeles based Creative Talent Network, a community for the world's leading creators of both traditional and digital animated films.

Endorsements And Reviews

«Just put Disney, Franquin and Satzinger in a shaker... and here comes the magic liqueur.»

Jean Mulatier,
Caricaturist
(Esquire, Le Figaro, Time, Playboy, Elle)

«True genius pops it’s head out of the trenches about once every hundred years. Your brand of genius happens every time you create a new piece.»

Deane Taylor,
Art director of Tim Burton's NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

«[...] beautiful character work from Austria's Florian Satzinger, who blogs over at the Paperwalker Journal.»

Michael Canva,
THE WASHINGTON POST

«[...] you brilliant bastard»

Jeff Merghart,
Lead Character Designer, Concept Artist and Senior Animator, WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS.

«You do Warner Bros better than Warner Bros did Warner Bros.»

Mark Whiting,
Production Designer of THE IRON GIANT. 3-time Annie nominated Art Director and Production Designer.

«This Austrian artist (Florian Satzinger) has drawn some of the world's most iconic animated characters.»

Gary Evans,
ImagineFX Magazine

«I hate you and love you at the same time.»

Deborah Guedj,
Journal de Mickey, France.

«[...] the school that made a deep and lasting impression was Vancouver Institute of Media Arts. That’s where Ken Southworth taught. [...] 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.»

Gary Evans,
ImagineFX Magazine

«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.”»

Gary Evans,
ImagineFX Magazine

«[...] You have THE MOST creative and clever ways to design ducks. I want to visit a whole gallery full of your amazing and charming work.»

Genevieve Tsai,
Supervising Character Designer on Animaniacs, WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

«I modeled these [penguins] from Florian Satzinger's designs. These became a focal point of my portfolio back in 2010 and ultimately landed me a Job at Disney. Huge respect to Florian's genius!»

Ryan Tottle,
Modeling Supervisor, WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS

«Great work... so much character!»

David Komorowski,
Head of Characters and Technical Animation at WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS

«The quality of Florian’s sketches reminds me of the Golden Age mid-century Disney and Warner Bros animation where every line had a lively motion and projected a three-dimensional sense of volume of the character.»

Johanna Schwaiger,
Program Director, NEW MASTERS ACADEMY,
Los Angeles, CA

«You own the duck world. No one should ever attempt to draw another duck. End of story.»

Thomas Fluharty,
Illustrator and Caricature Artist, THE NEW YORK TIMES, TIME, MAD MAGAZINE, THE VILLAGE VOICE

«You're crazy!!!»

Achdé (Hervé Darmenton),
Lucky Luke

«Great take on Daffy [Duck]. Hilarious. You’ve completely maintained his prick-ness. Real talent, Florian. This is the only real reboot potential Daffy I’ve ever seen. [...]»
«More animated than most recent films, with just a simple still drawing. Amazing [...]»

Steve Williams,
Film Director (Disney's 'The Wild'), Academy Award nominated Visual Effects Artist ('THE MASK'), Chief Animator 'TERMINATOR 2', 'JURASSIC PARK', 'THE ABYSS', 'JUMANJI' etc.

«You really do embody the old essence of Disney ... even more than Disney. More than Disney today any way.»

Bob Jones,
Character Designer, 'THE WISHMAS TREE', UNIVERSAL PICTURES/ODIN'S EYE

«A classic vintage Mickey, with a Chaplinesque grin, follows the timeline of his past adventures... In the meanwhile, a new unseen Mickey is sipping a tea cup, waiting for new landscapes... Visions suspended between the past and the future, conceived by Florian Satzinger, the award-winning concept artist and character designer.»

Federico Fiecconi,
Curator of DISNEY'S MICKEY: The True Original Exhibition, Castello di Desenzano, Italy

«[...] this man is a duck fiend. Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, “duck-tape”—never have I encountered an artist more dedicated to the proliferation of duck-related media [...]»

JJ,
Character Design Blog

«Achdé [...] already calls him the "master of the ducks".»

Ars Electronica Center

«Unique in the world with these extraordinary characters.»

Bruno Bozzetto,
Academy Award nominated Film Director

«"Inspiring … yet depressing … maybe I can still get that job at Wal-Mart.»

Eddie Pittman,
Disney's 'Phineas and Ferb'

«sick sick sick talent ...»

Alex Orrelle,
'SPACE JAM 2', Head of Story, WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

«One of my favorite artists [...]»

Jake Parker,
Founder of InkTober

«An excellent draughtsman.»

Douglas Goldsmith,
School of Visual Communication Design, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

«Florian Satzinger is an animation expert, trust us, we know.»

KLEAR,
Leading Data Influencer Marketing Software Platform

«Florian Satzinger has a drawing style with a snap and verve that harken back to the best of classic Disney and mid 20th Century Warner Brothers animation. The lines with which he delineates his characters zing, bounce and swoop so delightfully that they suggest lively motion even before they’re animated. Satzinger credits Southworth as his major influence, and his work in the style of great classic hand-drawn animation shows his continuation of that tradition.»

Charley Parker,
LINESANDCOLORS.COM

«Florian Satzinger: a Carl Barks on steroids.»
(Florian Satzinger: um Carl Barks com esteróides)

via MARCAMARIA.COM

«Florian, you've been an amazing influence on my art for almost ten years now, and will be for years to come!»

Jay Fosgitt,
Comic Artist, MARVEL COMICS

«Florian Satzinger set the style for CTNX with the red "X" in the eyes in 2009. Florian designed the “X” in the eyes with his Ducks in such a appealing way that they have become a signature to CTN.»

CTN,
THE CREATIVE TALENT NETWORK®, Burbank, CA

DUCK - The Mag For The Birds Presents: Florian Satzinger's BIRDS AND PENCILS

"A superb book filled with some of the best character and vehicle design around the wit involved is fabulous. This book is especially for those of you who loved the Ducktales and Darkwing Duck cartoons of the late Eighties and early Nineties."
Amazon UK

"End of the year must have cartooning products [...] DUCK: Birds And Pencils"
The Daily Cartoonist

"In a world that is dominated by ultra realistic cg, stuff like this is like a breathe of fresh air. Such great poses, lines of action and true composition[...]"
via FlightPattern

"[...]a wild and awesome collection of duck sketches in crazy flying machines and other fantastic adventures[...]"
Arjan Wilschut

Sample pages:

'Birds And Pencils And Sundry Other Things And Hobs' by Florian Satzinger (Brandstudio Press)

Hard cover, 8.5x12 inches, 48 pages, full-color, full bleed, sewn pages.

"[...]inspired by old school animation but at the same time is so much fun[...]makes me want to pick up a pencil and start creating"
Labyrinth Books

Nemoland

Behind the scenes of science fiction and fantasy

NEMOLAND (NEMO NT)

In May 2009, Florian Satzinger gave workshops within the scope of The Genio Fiorentino 2009, on the occation of the Nemoland event/conferment of the Nemoland Special Award in the Aula Magna at the Instituto Statale d' Arte of Florence, Italy. Former Nemoland workshop hosts/award recipients were animation directors and animators such as Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, Alex Orrelle (Pixar) and J.P. Vine (Aardman Studios). Besides that, there was an exhibition of Florian Satzinger's original artwork at the Gipsoteca of the Instituto Statale d' Arte.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Friday, July 13, 2018

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Tuesday, July 03, 2018

Thursday, June 07, 2018

Friday, June 01, 2018

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Thursday, May 03, 2018

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Thursday, March 08, 2018

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Friday, February 23, 2018

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Saturday, February 17, 2018

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DUCK - The Mag For The Birds Presents: Florian Satzinger's BIRDS AND PENCILS

CTN Animation Expo 2011

StarDucks Quake Protective Suit

The Art Center

Samples: The inspiration behind my cars and rides

CG Penguins

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