Information
Full name: Samuel John Armstrong
Birth: November 7, 1893 in Denver, Colorado
Death: January 24, 1977 in Los Angeles, California
Worked at the Disney studio between:
June 6, 1934 – September 12, 1941
Job on Snow White:
Background artist
Production documents mentioning him:
Production notes on Snow White (11/25/1935)
Story Conference of 09/26/1936: Sequences 1B, 2A, 2B, 7A
Worked on all sequences
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In the foreground
A lifelong bachelor who lived with his mother in Glendale, Sam Armstrong was the lead background artist on the film.
As soon as November 25, 1935, Walt Disney appointed Samuel Armstrong as the main background artist on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in a memo. First, he is responsible for “experimenting with the various techniques and handling to be used in the various sequences, working in direct close contact with the layout men and Helvenston“. As per Walt’s desire, he was responsible for toning down the colors, compared to the previous shorts of the studio.
This assignment earned him the jealousy of Mique Nelson, then head of the background department, who was then let go after a feud grew between them.
Eventually, a third of the key background paintings of the film were made by him. According to Claude Coats, he was responsible for the opening shot, and describes his technique: “Sam had that way of painting all that with grey first, and then run another wash on top of it. His way of doing it was kind of slow, kind of a buildup of modeling and then tone. (…) He had this Payne’s grey, a tube of it, and for some reason he liked the grey more than a thin wash of black. He would get this modeling on, kind of the texture of … and then he’d put a yellow wash over it, after it was all dry, of course.”
