Gallery Description : In 1994 I received a call from Disney, asking if I would be interested in working on their new animated feature, Hercules. This seemed perfect, as I?d always been a Disney fan, and, from the age of sixteen, very interested in Greek art. They flew me to Los Angeles and there I met the directors, Ron Clements and John Musker. John had been aware of my work, since seeing an exhibition of mine in Chicago in 1969, when he was a student. I was the first outside designer to work with Disney since Walt asked Salvador Dali in the 30's, but that film was never made. The following months were spent in my studio, drawing all the characters in the script, sometimes in a variety of versions. Then the team from Disney arrived to look at my work.

Thomas Schumacher, the Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Animation, later talked about this visit in a book on the project. "I had the great fortune on a trip to London to climb the four or five flights of stairs in Gerald's home to his top floor studio. I walked in and I thought I was going to fall over. From floor to very high ceiling, a wall of enormous-scaled drawings looked down on you that had such motion, such beauty, such color and line. It was like an ocean wave just smacking you. We pulled all the artwork off the wall, I loaded it into a portfolio, and flew right back to LA".

After a year's work the designs were finished and I met the main animators in Santa Barbara, California. I was nervous about what they would make of my designs - I knew there weren't used to working with an outside designer. I spread my drawings out on a very large table. They crowded around and we began to discuss what would and wouldn't work. I was cheered by everybody?s positive attitude and returned to London full of excitement about the project.

Thereafter, my job with the animators was to look at their drawings and try to keep my style on track. Some of them warmed to this and adapted very quickly, others never quite managed it during the whole period. There was no bad feeling at all, but I was surprised when Disney published a book about the project to find the animators saying how difficult they had found it to adapt to my style of animation.

I flew back and forth between London and Los Angeles. In the Disney building in downtown Burbank, the animators work in an open-plan studio, partitioned into tiny cubicles, in which they weld themselves like bees in a honeycomb. Some almost seal up their doorways with drawings and 'stuff'. I prised my way into their domains and looked over their shoulders rather like a schoolteacher, pointing out that "this nose is too long", "these feet are too big".

Back in London, I received a weekly FedEx package full of samples of the latest animation work, which it was my job to alter into my flowing line and style, by tracing over their drwings. I would then send back dozens of my versions.