Formula Caricatures

At some point during college I had decided I wanted to get a job being a Caricaturist drawing at Knott's Berry Farm.  I met with the main guy who trained people at the time.  He showed me the technic they used with a bullet tip pen.  He was really good but I could not get the hang of it.

I felt my own drawing was fine and that I didn't want to risk loosing what I already had.  Looking back I can see now this guy really knew what he was doing and I should have taken his advice and learned how to draw formula caricatures.

Mighty Mouse (1987)

Somehow I found xeroxed layout drawings from one of my most favorite Brian Mitchell scenes of the Cow and Might Mouse.  You can see how the cropping, clean up and color can make all the difference.  The non distracting color card allows zero conflict for the characters interaction.

This bottom was also drawn by Brain Mitchell, clarity and funny drawings, eye contact and all the other elements of are here...

Note: Three quarters rear on the mouse body with side view head. This cheat is a great way of make the character expression read.

I remember how extreme some of these cartoons would go on Mighty Mouse. I am sure they had zero time to think to get these layouts completed in time to ship.

ERIC STEFANI: Time Travel

1984

1984

1984

1986

1977

1979

1979

I like my artwork that I did as a kid much better than when I got older and had instructions.

Nelson Muntz

My Uncle Pink's had invited me to visit his class. 

These drawing behind me look decent, I learned a lot more after finishing my first full animated film "A Very Fishy Event" in color.  This cel she is holding is from David Silverman's clip show.  The first computer color animation so there were actually no animation cels made.  Here I had made a fake one it demonstrated how it works/worked.

I actually haven't draw Nelson since 1990 and I think he looks much better here.

This was the first sequence with Nelson Muntz.  I felt really lucky to had help work on this sequence,   v.  I remember listening to the voice track and hearing his voice.  I thought it was a perfect bully character. I don't think I knew it was Nancy C.

Star Wars "Empire Strikes Back"

Working on song "Rebel Fleet" for 'French Music' book

Found these great images to use a reference

These letterbox images would make a great head.

This one describes the feeling I get from the music.

I thought this was a great pictures of all them smiling.

I print in black and white so something simple just like this would work and I would be done!

The song "Bella Notte" was written by Bill Thompson & George Givot

Disney T-Shirts

Every now and then Disney hits the ball out of the park with a new design.  Too often I see many designs that try and appeal to a 'Gang' or 'Rap' crowd and have made some really ugly merchandise. But these two New Designs blew-me-away had me smiling EAR to EAR!

The quality of this Donald Shirt had got the same simple appeal.  Out-of-sight!

I love the lettering and image here too.  Really eye catching without too much happening.

Nude swimming at the pool near the center of the dorms

I can not believe it's been 20 years since I went to Cal Arts! It doesn't seem that long ago.

Drawing Layout to TV Color Comp.

Somehow I found the exact two layout drawings from my one of my most favorite

Brian Mitchell scenes of the Cow and Might Mouse.  You can see how the cropping, clean up and color can make all the difference.  The non distracting color card allows zero conflict for the characters interaction.

I remember how extreme some of these cartoons would go on Might Mouse (1987). Above they are layout out by Brian Mitchell Directed by John Kricfalusi.  This is actually a John K. drawing below Mitchell above.

Mickey Mouse poses are the most cartoony I'd ever seen. Probably

making fun of the character for being to innocent.

Here are some

Van Eaton galleries got a bunch new artwork in. I just happen to be seeing this fish that keep calling my name for $200. I love this stuff but it's so expensive and really should be in a cartoon museum for EVERYONE to see.

Above I found the frame and double checked to make sure it was authentic. I had bought other cels and did not check and found them not even to be in the movie!

VAN EATON

Van Eaton galleries has some new artwork, here is a piece from Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Some old artwork, reworking with courage to resurrect some life into the cartoon. The most popular shoe I remember beside the Monkey Boot were the Larger Red "High-Top" Dock Martins. These air-wear boots allowed for great bounce when driving up to Hollywood to dance to you favorite 80's band.

I suppose 22 year old drawings would be considered to join the History page of my animation blog. These drawings are pretty good, not sure if I could even draw like this anymore! I made a this clay fishbone animation in 1989 and this is a drawing of it.

The drawings I liked the more in these old sketch books were where I had 'real life' reference. Stuff that I was inventing was pretty ruff and didn't have much direction, just "in the moment" sketches. . . not well planned. But I was just learning back then.

Originally I wanted multiple hands on each rib. I imagined the style was in a 1940's with still some early "rubber-hose" technique . You can see the influence that Chuck Jones and Marv Newland had on my work. Balloon-like flexibility.

This Chris Dowd caricature was suppose to go along with the Angelo character but never did any animation to accompany the Angelo and Fishbone cartoons . His head could be enlarged 20%. I was trying a brush-pen technique here. While crude I think my passion for drawing shines through my lack of skill at the time.