R.I.P. Joe Barbera

Joseph Barbera
1911-2006
Joseph Barbera (sitting) and William Hanna

We lost one of the greats yesterday.

Bee Movie trailer rips off Aqua?

While I'm on the subject of crap CG films, has anyone seen the trailer to this Bee Movie yet? Aren't we done with these insect type movies already? Blech... in my last post I said Happy Feet reminded me of Coke commercials... they should rename this film to 'NASONEX: THE MOVIE.'

Can we also stop with the 'let's - get - a - big - name - actor - and - turn - the - character - into - a - caricature - version - of - himself' nonsense?? Jerry Seinfeld is voicing the lead character. I can only imagine Jerry and the writers will be throwing in plenty of bee-related observational humor in this movie.

Anyway, I figured since I haven't posted anything in a while, I'd share my own observation I made after watching the live-action Bee Movie trailer. Only God knows why I actually sat through it:



Many of you may not know that I have a strange fascination with Scandinavian pop. There, I said it. There's just something about it that's so pure and happy, and the perfection in melodies and musical production amazes me sometimes. Curious? Start with ABBA, and work your way forward to 2006.

Well, after watching the Bee Movie trailer above, it reminded me of a video I probably hadn't seen in a good 5 years, but I remember it like yesterday. Here's the video for 'Bumble Bees' by Aqua, which came out in 2000 (you really CAN find anything on YouTube!). If Aqua isn't your thing, mute the music at least. And don't be fooled by the beginning - MAKE SURE TO WATCH THROUGH IT. Did Bee Movie get some inspiration from this six-year-old music video? Decide for yourselves:

(Cr)happy Feet

I dislike most CGI movies - let's say a good 90% of them. If an animated film isn't visually pleasing to my eye, let alone 90 minutes of it, I'm not gonna pay $8.50 and sit in a theatre full of noisy 5-year-olds, wincing at screams AND poor 3-D animation.


Which brings me to this point - I have no intention on seeing Happy Feet. It looks like one long Coca-Cola commercial to me. Plus, penguins aren't built for tap dancing. But what I really find disturbing is that Happy Feet apparently includes underlying environmental propaganda aimed at children. I also watched a clip on TV the other night where one of the penguins (I think Robin Williams' character) had a plastic six-pack ring stuck around his neck. And I've heard about the 'aliens' in the movie, which are actually us, the humans!!! COME ON NOW. I'm all for recycling, going green, conservation, protecting our endangered animals (I clip six-pack rings before I throw them away, and you should too), blah blah blah, etc. I've tried to do my part over the years. Like many of you, I love animals and I don't love pollution. BUT DON'T THROW THAT ENVIRONMENTAL CRAP INTO A MOVIE! If you want your kids to learn about that kind of stuff, tune them in to Animal Planet or take them to the zoo. But PLEASE, don't make them watch reruns of Captain Planet. There are better ways to learn about the environment than to expose your children to DiC cartoons.

Obviously it would benefit your child to learn about the dangers of man's destruction and its effects on Earth. We should be responsible and proactive in preserving our planet. But a G-rated family movie just isn't the place to be shoving this kind of stuff down a kid's throat, that's all.

You know, it'd make even better sense to keep the propaganda OUT of the films, and license these characters to organizations such as the WWF or AZA. Use them in promotional materials and educational films that are AIMED at such awarenesses. Kids would recognize the characters from the popular movie and immediately take interest. It's been done before, right?

So in conclusion, don't see Happy Feet unless you have bad taste in animation AND loved the Al Gore movie.

Quisp cereal box comic

(click to enlarge!)

This is a scan of the back of a Quisp cereal box I had saved from several years ago. You can also view this same comic at the beginning of the concluding Flash cartoon that Spumco produced 5-6 years ago, by going to www.quisp.com. But I think it's just cool to see it on the back of an actual cereal box! Also, it's good to see that this cartoon is alive and well, still advertising Quisp all these years later!

I asked John K. about the comic and who worked on it, and from what he could remember, Gabe Swarr was in charge of the comic. John storyboarded and did layouts on the cartoon, while Gabe probably worked on some layouts as well. Gabe, Matt Danner and others did the animation.

If you want to know more, the rest of the crew can be seen at the end of the cartoon by clicking on the 'credits' button.

It's definitely effective advertising, as it really made me want to buy Quisp (although it's harder to find these days)! It's a brilliant ad, and captures the fun-pun cartoony magic that is the character of Quisp.

First-ever gig photo (August 2005)

My mom just found this photo and gave it to me yesterday. I don't remember her even taking this picture, but I'm sure glad she did! This is a photo of me in action, drawing somebody at my first ever caricature gig last summer (2005) at the Wilkin County Fair in my hometown. I was only about a month into being a [lousy] professional caricaturist, yet I thought I had what it took to set up my own tent at the fair and charge customers for what I thought would be passable as a decent caricature.

Fellow caricaturists out there, I'm sure you've all been there and can relate to this story.

I felt the need to post this because, it's over a year later, and that guy in the photo above has grown so much as an artist since that county fair experience. I look at this photo and just laugh at my obvious inexperience at the time. First of all, I airbrush these things when I color them. Look at how flat my table is! And I wondered why my paint would occasionally spill all over me? Secondly, I bet it took me a half hour just to draw and color a single person. Nowadays it probably takes me 1/3 of that time. Finally, I think back to all the dozens of caricatures I drew throughout those 4 days of the fair - and having (but politely hiding) this HEAVY feeling of dissatisfaction with the finished product. I rarely got their likenesses down, and always felt like I was swindling these paying customers out of artwork worth keeping. But most people either a) didn't care and loved it, or b) thought it was crap but smiled anyway, paid, and went on their carnival-going ways.

What a nightmare. Loose/rough linework, poor composition, airbrushing splotches, you name it. I lived through it all at that fair. I remember drawing the crowned Wilkin County Princess, who was maybe 5 or 6 years old, just a cute little girl, and her caricature ended up looking like a Bratz-esque teenage troll prostitute with too much makeup. Argh! Sure, I was having fun drawing all these people, finally earning money doing what I love (DRAWING!), but it was just as STRESSFUL getting frustrated every time a drawing took a wrong turn.

That was the only live gig I did last summer.

Since then, I've worked retail in 3 different shopping malls, drawn crazy teenagers at post-prom parties, did more county fairs, car shows, rock festivals, and corporate picnics. I'm confident in saying that I'm a much better artist now, although I still have A LOT to learn. When I surf around and look at all these other amazingly talented caricaturists' blogs and websites, I get jealous, inspired, hopeless, and optimistic all at the same time. I'm still not satisfied with most of my caricatures, but I'm always trying to get better.

Caricature legend Tom Richmond recently told me, "People... ...who are a little insecure about their work but determined to make it better are the ones who put in the work necessary to become great artists." Such simple words of wisdom from one of the best in the biz. I hope I can look back at my work again in another 15 months and see some undeniable improvements.

Count Chocula

The final part of the Trilogy. Sorry, Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy fans! Maybe next year.

Boo Berry

I didn't go so crazy on this one. Turned out a little better than Frankenberry, I think! 2 down, 1 to go!

Frankenberry

Bleh, I think this kinda turned out too graffiti-like... I'm not very satisfied with the finished product. Oh well, it's Halloween, so I figured I'd post it, since it's new artwork'n all!

The Mickey Formula

The following is an excerpt taken from Design For Animation by Grim Natwick - which was posted today on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog. This is the best explanation I've ever read describing the effective design and appeal of Mickey Mouse. Perhaps if more modern-day animators took this kind of approach in designing their own characters, we wouldn't end up with the infinite piles of stiff, lifeless crap we see in TV and film today!

Mickey Mouse was a good example of a character designed to eliminate the early problems of animation. His head was a ball with a rounded lump for a nose, a few circles for eyes, and two frisbees for ears. His body was shaped like a pear or gourd. Four pieces of garden hose were used for arms and legs. His hands were just two bunches of peeled bananas. Four old-fashioned donuts served as cuffs and anklets. He had a hair snake for a tail, and his shoes were two boxing gloves with the thumbs cut off. He animated perfectly. Mickey has changed through the years, but the formula is still the same.

Happy Hallowee... huh?

Right in time for Halloween, I present a new post. Check these out!

Whilst visiting the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth a few weeks ago, I came across these festive window decals in the zoo's Safari Cafe. I didn't get a chance to photograph ALL of the decals, but what I captured should be adequate. My apologies for the blurriness - I took 'em with no flash and on an empty stomach. I suggest clicking on each image to enlarge for better detail:

As you may or may not have noticed, these costumed critters seem familiar. But I can't quite put my finger on it... hmmmmmmm.

Hey, wait a minute! I know now! Whad'ya know...

If you haven't figured it out by now, witness the BLATANT rip-off of cartoon animals taken from the famous Preston Blair Animation instructional book. The 'artist' behind these cute little Halloween characters isn't alone, unfortunately. Check out some of these old posts - here (Ohio lottery ticket), Here (an Ohio school mascot), and HERE (Australian restaurant ad) - over at Cartoon Brew, and you'll totally see what I mean! Of course, what I'm about to show you triumphs over all of these aforementioned one-offs. Not only do these Halloween drawings steal from Preston Blair in mass quantity, most of them might as well have been traced directly from the book itself, they're that obvious. And even THEN the artist managed to lose whatever perfect form the original drawings possess in the first place.

I have included scans from the Preston Blair book for comparison/double vision.

Look at that. EXACT pose, EXACT head shape, EXACT everything. Except for the lengthened tail on the mouse, the costume, and the pitchfork. Oh, and just to be on the safe side, a halo is added to ensure us that this cute little guy isn't promoting satanism in any shape or form (artist pun intended!). I should also point out that you will notice all of these Halloween drawings have altered scary giant green-colored iris eyes.

Hey, at least this one looks like the artist didn't do a direct carbon copy... although that's not really helping the situation. It now looks like a slightly melted version of Blair's, colorized! Badly!

Wow, huh? This one, on the other hand, IS a direct carbon copy. OH, but hold the phone!!! That darn cat is looking UP in the Halloween version! And that major alteration alone gives it character (pun!) all on its own. I noticed his eyes don't follow the line of action either (not saying it HAS to), but if you're designing crude non-animation holiday decals, who needs line of action anyway?

This one is rather interesting. It's some kind of super hybrid Franken-dog! He gets the special treatment - not ONE Preston Blair reference, but TWO! I included both references. The curve of the front leg, the expression of the dog's face. If you're gonna do direct copying, you might as well go nuts and mix it up a little. And look at that - instead of attaching the earring to the dog's actual ear, it's just part of the pirate hat! And that's safety. Kids, don't be piercing Rex's ear now! Do what the decal says!

And, is that an oak leaf sticking out of his hat? Well, it IS changing colors just in time for Halloween I guess! This artist realizes that the little details matter.

Here is the other dog. And he's just as amazing as the previous pup! Another mashup of dogs! If only dog breeding were this easy in real life. Wouldn't it be cool to have a German Shepherd body, with say, a Chihuahua's head? Anyway, the artist took a big gamble by drawing the standing ear a SECOND time, and creating an ALL-NEW tail! And how about that nose? Seems fitting for a clown-dog. By the way, I hate clowns.

This one wasn't as obvious, and is the least noticeable... but I THINK I found the proper references in the Preston Blair book. First, if you look at the jester cat on the left, the mouth kind of gives it away for me. There are plenty of other drawings of this 'faux-Tom' cat in the book, but the Blair cat I included seemed to be the closest match. Now take a look at the bodies. The jester cat has the same legs as the Springer Spaniel on the right... likewise, the Elton John kitty seems to rip off the foundation of the Boston Terrier (or whatever it is). At least we have S-shaped cat tails, though. If those hadn't been drawn I don't know what kind of animals I'd be looking at!

I don't even have to explain this one. Sheesh.

And this one's just as bad! But what's going on with its hands? If you look at the Blair version, you can see that they're a cat's HANDS/PAWS. In the Halloween version, they look like grotesque webbed claws. I'm sure it's because he keeps getting his dirty little paws too close to that boiling cauldron of bubbling brew. See, even the pumpkin is trying to warn him not to make that mistake again.


So there you have it. I'm sure some of you out there are speechless.

Now, while I let you finish shaking your head in disbelief, I have one last Halloween SCARE for you all! But be careful! It's not for the faint of heart. Here's the link. Just remember, I warned you...

Caricature Stand Scribbles #2

This is actually from last spring - I just discovered it in a stack of papers inside a box, along with other random doodles. I thought this was the funniest out of the bunch. Maybe I'll post some more later. Slooooow day at the caricature stand, I'm sure.

R.I.P. Ed Benedict

Ed Benedict
1912-2006

I'll be honest when I say that as recent as a few years ago, I had no idea who Ed Benedict was. But, I have known his work all my life, as a guy addicted to cartoons since early childhood.
It wasn't until I started getting serious about animation that I began to discover the names of artists connected with their artwork, characters, and designs - there ARE geniuses responsible for every single element of a cartoon, believe it or not!
A lot of the other [more prominent] blogs out there have already covered the important and amazing aspects of Mr. Benedict's contributions to animation history, so I won't bore you with redundant information. But I would like to express my pure awe and admiration for a guy who was an absolute genius in his medium. From the '50s era Droopy shorts ('Deputy Droopy' makes me laugh every time!!), to his indisputable layouts and character designs that define the Hanna-Barbera 'style' (see these pictures?), you can see why Ed Benedict was a legend.
Ed Benedict lived to be 94. You can't complain about that! He sure will be missed, but Ed's work will live on forever, and continue to entertain countless fans and inspire artists worldwide.

Sesame Treet!

How To Feel Miserable As An Artist

This excellent list is taken from illustrator Keri Smith's blog, Wish Jar Journal. Keri's got some gooood stuff over there if you've never visited. She actually posted this months ago on her site - but I was just reading it again tonight, and I thought, hey! Wouldn't it be good to share with all of the fellow artists out there in Artopia? Sure.

And yes I've been away, but I made a pact with myself to post some NEW ARTWORK before August is history. And that means I have one more day. And I'm working on stuff as I type this. Well, not quite, I can't type and draw at the same time.

I'm still away

I've been away at some festivals, but now I'm on vacation in Ohio until next week. I brought pads and pencils along in hopes of drawing on the road, so we'll see how that goes.

Until next time, auf wiedersehen.

Gone for the rest of the week...

...as I'll be off drawing caricatures (AND ROCKIN' IT OUT, CLASSIC STYLE) at Moondance Jam up in Walker, MN. I'll be away through Sunday. Here's hoping for some good crowds and some great music to draw to.

Really lookin' forward to Alice Cooper and The Nuge!

Sorry for lack of updates - it's been quiet here for a while because I've been sick! Summer flu, cold, West Nile... SOMETHING got me good. Today is the first time in nearly 9 days that I actually feel OK.

Until then... check out the new 'temporary' logo I made for my new venture (along with Jim Hungaski and Joe Williams) - WeDrawFaces.com:

Later!

Collegiate sports art

Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm not a huge sports guy. I don't even know if I'd call myself a casual sports guy. I do watch baseball regularly, but other than that, I really don't care about sports at all.

But if sports involves getting paid commissions, oh, you know I'm there!!! So here are two Homecoming themes that I've done for the North Dakota State College of Science football team. The first one is last year's (2005) and the second is for this autumn's '06 Homecoming. They're the Wildcats.

2005:

2006:

As you can see there is a 'theme' they have each year - which was also part of our job to come up with. Willie Wildcat is the mascot, so we had to include him in the graphic. Their team colors are also red & black. They stay white in the background because they go on shirts, cups, publications, and whatever else.

For last year, the 'Devour' theme gave us the idea of Willie eating the eagles like chicken, hence the big juicy leg he's holding. If you look closely, some of the crippled eagles only have one leg left. Oh, violence in the name of football!

One axed idea for '05 included, 'Pluck The Golden Eagles,' where it would show Willie ripping feathers off an eagle... but the NDSCS staff said "pluck" sounded too much like the word that rhymes with it. At least we still included an eagle with all his feathers GONE! For this year, we thought 'Neuter The Wolves' would be good too, but OH WELL!!!

Speaking of this year's upcoming game, 'Whip' was the first word that came to mind, and stuck with us throughout brainstorming other ideas. 'Neuter' woulda still been funny, right? And the graphic to go with it? Kidding, kidding...

...or am I?

ANYWAY, when we found out the Wildcats were facing a team called the Wolves this year, there was no doubt that the wolf would be done Tex Avery style! YES! So if you're seeing blatant Frederick Avery ripoff in the graphic above, why yes, it is! More like a tribute. Besides, how many zillions of teams named the Bulldogs stole their logos/mascots from Preston Blair? I thought so!

I wish I had these logos to compare with previous years' themes. But they aren't anywhere online, and I can't find printouts. But whoever did them before wasn't very creative. All you need to know is that the guy was photoshop filter crazy, loved to use his gradients, and pasted the 'official' Willie logo on top of clipart football player bodies. Oh, and here are the official Willie logos below, past and present:

The cool OLD one that I knew as a kid:

The modern one that bores me:

What is it about all those modern collegiate/professional team logos that stick to that same style? Iconic? Yes. Lifeless? Also yes. When designing MY version of Willie (refer back above), I wanted to make sure his look was little more cartoonish. Last year's was still pretty stiff, but this year's was a natural evolution. When I look at Willie's head alone (in the '06 graphic), I picture that as its own great logo. Jef and I were discussing possibly putting that face on shirts for school events. We'll see how that goes.

When we were watching the Homecoming 2005 parade last year, we saw various floats that utilized our theme. Several floats included students with KFC buckets. But the FUNNIEST float was one featuring a bastardized version of our graphic! It was a piece of tagboard with the logo traced on from a projector, but the lines were thin and the coloring was minimal (with what looked like Crayola markers)... it was a riot.

And the football team won last year... I like to believe that our theme attributed towards that victory. Hope the same applies this year! But if they lose, eh, just remember that I'm not a huge sports fan in the first place.

Yogi and Cindy: 'Costume Capers' comic! (1962)

(this afternoon's doodle - airbrush black, white Prismacolor)

IT'S JELLYSTONE JOLLIES TIME!

I've been looking at this comic below for more Hanna-Barbera inspiration lately (you'll FINALLY see more drawings in upcoming posts). It's one I had to buy when I came across it a few years ago in a fine shop in Vandalia, OH - isn't that cover incredible? The back cover is the same image, noted as 'Yogi Bear pin-up No. 1.' The comic reeks of smelly old newsprint (Issue #10 from October 1962), but inside is a goldmine of classic H-B fun. Yogi, Auggie, Snaggle, Quick Draw, even some Hokey. It's 80 pages long, but I'm only posting one story.

The early Cindy Bear reminds me of Yogi in drag. That is one homely she-bear! Then again, the modern Cindy isn't much better - cute, thinner, NOT BLUE! She's SUPPOSED to be blue! Although in '99, Spumco made her juuust right in Boo Boo Runs Wild (and yes, she was BLUE!).

Click to enlarge. Enjoy!