More on Line...

Below are two pages from my current sketchbook, separated by about half a year or so. I blogged some time ago about how I enjoy two completely different kinds of linework: single-width and varied-width (corresponding utensils: pen and brush). Lately I've been doing a lot more with a varying width (especially in Flash), and I typically ink with pen nibs that allow for subtle variation. But there is still something I can't deny about doodling with a Uniball where every line on the page carries equal weight. There's something mesmerizing about it...and it feels more innate to what a line really is—for dividing up space into forms and shapes.

A Solitary Cephalopod

*Mental note to lay off squidlike creatures for awhile. And I'm becoming self-conscious of my "one-eye" tendencies. When I'm doodling, I normally start with the eyes. I find that it's fun to see how much expression you can get out of a cyclops. But I fear that I'm doing them a disservice by denying them any depth perception.

Illustrator, Animator, or Comic Artist?

I've been out of school for 5 years now (a modest milestone), so I've been doing some thinking about how I'm developing as an artist. New interests have gripped me even though I'm basically on the same track as I was when I left school. My formal training is in Illustration, but my influences are predominantly derived from the worlds of Animation and Comics, and maybe Graphic Design to a lesser degree. I've dabbled in all these artforms, but I don't consider myself truly competent in any of them. A lot of the blogs I read are geared towards animators and comic artists, which leads me to question how interested I really am in Illustration. I don't do a ton of formal illustration these days (whatever that means) unless it's for freelance work. So what am I?

I'm most comfortable making pictures—that I can be certain of. But when I want to tell a story or a narrative, I'm increasingly more enamored with the frameworks of animation and comics—in essence, not wanting to rely on a single image to deliver an idea. Is this a failing of me as an Illustrator?

While filling up sketchbooks and exploring a variety ways of making lines and constructing images, I'm comfortable with what I guess is my developing style. And while I recognize my influences, I can't help but wonder why it is that I am so profoundly drawn towards comics and cartoons. The visual languages are definitely similar, and they both arrived in popular culture at around the same time (turn of the 20th century, give or take...animation a decade or so later). I work in flat color and line, but do I value them for their intrinsic characteristics or because I love cartoons and comics?

Without trailing on too long here, I've decided that maybe the word to best describe my trade is "cartooning," making me a Cartoonist. This is what a lot of the earlier pioneers described themselves as (artists like Winsor McCay, T.S. Sullivant, Otto Mesmer, and Milt Gross come to mind). And most of them dabbled in the realms that I'm interested in (Illustration, Animation, and Comics). Not that I need to label myself anything. Perhaps it's more of a exercise in knowing where I fit it in with my predecessors and contemporaries.


Winsor McCay



T.S. Sullivant



Otto Mesmer



Milt Gross

Funny, though, because I wouldn't consider any of these guys direct influences—who with the exception of Max Fleischer and George Herriman, are predominantly contemporary. So for now, I guess I'm a Cartoonist. That may change tomorrow.

UPDATE: D.B. Dowd furthers this discussion over at Graphic Tales. A new blog all of you should get acquainted with.

Flash

It's getting fancy over here at Drip! First a YouTube embedding, and now it's close cousin, a true Flash embed. Roll-over the comic panel for a surprise. This is a colored panel from a comic I'm making for a project at work which I posted about earlier this year.

Swing You Sinners (1930)

I just learned how to embed a YouTube video, so I figured why not take a moment to showcase some classic animation? This is a Fleischer short from before the more famed days of Bettie Boop and Popeye. It features a bopping jazz soundtrack, great visual gags, and lots of surreal animation—all the elements Fleischer Studios is best known for. Be sure to watch it to the very end, as there is a really bizarre finale. The Animation Archive offers a Quicktime version with less compression: view it here. They also have this to say about it:

One of the films preserved with the assistance of ASIFA-Hollywood was the classic Fleischer Talkartoon, Swing, You Sinners. Animated by Ted Sears and Willard Bowsky, with an eye-popping surreal ending by Grim Natwick and Bowsky, this film was the first of many Fleischer cartoons that mixed surrealism, cartoony ghosts & goblins, and hot jazz. While other studios built their cartoons around fairy tale stories or topical gags, the Fleischers constructed cartoons in the same way jazz music was constructed... statement of the theme, a series of variations and a big finish.

Stabber

ARGH! Teaser

I just completed my latest 2-page comic for ARGH!, a Spanish comic magazine. Issue #3 will be all in black and yellow with no words this time around, because they want to distribute it all around Europe. Lucky me, because I love doing wordless comics. Félix tells me that he got a ton of submissions this time, and the quality continues to improve. This time I drew up a comic more in the spirit of the magazine, which leans towards the grotesque. The above panel is a teaser to hold you over until the magazine comes out in a couple of months. (Will the wait pain you nearly this much?...I can only hope!) You can see my comic for ARGH! #2 at this earlier post.

A Robbery! (continued)

I'm wrapping up a pretty fun little animation this weekend, the same one I posted an early keyframe from in mid June. Just putting the finishing touches on it now. It's all animated in Flash, and I created the backgrounds in Painter—a program I rarely use, but which is working perfectly to create the kind of background texture I had in mind. It's been a blast adapting my style to fit into the 1950s period of animation. And of course, who wouldn't love making a cartoon with robbers in it? The little woman makes it out okay, so don't worry.





UPDATE: You can now view the full animation a this post:
A Robbery! (animated)

Popeye Restored

I've blogged about Fleischer cartoons before—easily one of my favorite styles of animation from the 20s and 30s. The guys over at Classic Cartoons have posted a bunch of screenshots from the upcoming fully restored Popeye DVD set, and they are just breathtaking to see. The detail and crispness matches what you might expect if you were looking at cel on background, minus a bit of film grainyness. I've seen a handful of these, either on VHS when I was a kid, or all compressed on the internet. But never with this crispness and clarity. I've included a couple below. Amid Amidi over at Cartoon Brew is also tracking this as well. Definitely a DVD to get—due out end of July.





UPDATE: John K has some great insight about Popeye, and the soon to be released DVD on his blog as well. Check out these posts:
(Popeye Rules) (What makes a character?)

Doctor Velcro

This is a one-pager that I just inked up in honor of my friend, John Lechner (if you don't know by now, he's the amazing comic artist and creator of Sticky Burr). I thought it would be fun to do a little Sticky Burr comic of my own, featuring the nefarious evil-doer Doctor Velcro. Nothing like the real deal, though. This was all in good fun. I have to hand it to John, it ain't easy drawing all those little burrs!
(click to view larger image)

Renée Kurilla, artist cohort and FableVisionary extrordinaire, also fashioned a plush Sticky Burr, which you can see at her blog.