No connection, no shit!

I have no internet connection, and due to the troubling construction of my new home, I may not have it for some time.

But don't worry! I haven't posted a thought-provoking and thorough article in seven months or more, so you should be used to this by now.

Keep checking in, we'll have more to say soon. Sweartagod.

- trevor.

Flintstones Forgery

Weirdo #9 by R. Crumb

From Some Remote Location...

FROM SOME REMOTE LOCATION...

Warning: This post has no pictures.

Hello. You're probably wondering where the Booo Tooons have been lately, huh?

No? Well, I've been away from the internet because of Verizon's incompetence since September 9th, and still am. If you've seen me posting on other people's blogs, rest assured that it was because I was posting from phantom computers ( much like I am now ).

I have several fun posts scheduled, but haven't been able to post them for the reasons I've just explained. In the future, look for:


The Scribner Face

Inking Tablet Practices

Booo Tooons Interview #1:
A Discussion with Garret
Gilchrist about his
'The Thief and The Cobbler: Recobbled Cut'
in five parts.

More Drawings From The
Secret Manx and Itchy Project

Puppet Making

Booo Tooons Interview #2:
Having a Drink with Vincent Waller

The Complete History of Screaming:
Drawing Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey

Captain Capitalism

Booo Tooons Interview #3:
My Pal Mike Peters



Also, I should add that the other two Booo Tooon Marooons, Janine and Matthew, have given birth to their first son, my God son, Hendrix, and he is doing very well, but only sleeps a few hours at a time.

Lastly, I should mention that I didn't do the picture of Bush two posts below this one that you all love so much. It appeared in The Onion several weeks ago, and I knew people would like it.

Keep coming back, I promise we'll be back soon with more!

PS: I promise to have the links done before Halloween!

Bill Melendez, RIP

BILL MELENDEZ, R.I.P.

We'll miss you, Bill!

Click here to read the full story.




One of the few still-living legends, Bill Melendez gives a rare candid interview where he talks about his begining at Disney, what he considers his 'step-up' to Warner Bros. and working in the Clampett unit in the 40's, to his experiences working at UPA and finally on the Peanuts specials he produced for television.



Bill was Rod Scribner's assistant in the Clampett unit, and is the only guy, other than Robert McKimson, who could be considered as being on Scribner's level.

He will be missed by the industry and by friends.

Thanks to whoever posted this interview initially.

Fantasmagorie!

FANTASMAGORIE



Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the first ever animated film. Enjoy it!

In typical Americana fashion, they're making a CGI version of that, but me, being the snob I am, refuse to even acknowledge it beyound mentioning it in this sentence, hence no link to that.

Hmph!

Anyway, enjoy!

More Inking Practice

Well, I'll be purchasing a tablet this Friday and getting my hands on a copy of Illustrator, but for now..... courage.



This is the pen I used, and it's that most basic of office supply pens, the Paper Mate black felt tip. I know a lot of artists who use this sucker instead of the three or four dollar sable brushes and ink pens you buy at the art supply store, but I'm not really sure why.

I guess you get what you pay for.

John K. is pitching the idea of wraparounds starring the old WB characters for a new show presenting the classic 40's cartoons, and asked some of us ( not me ) to ink the drawings he'd made. I need all the inking practice I can get, so I tried the drawing I liked best.

Here it is:



The first thing you're likely to notice that's wrong is the fact that the lines on Bugs' chest and feet are not drawn. This came from me noticing as a kid that these lines were never black but grey, and the fact that it was drawn in the coloring books I had really bothered me. I WANTED TO COLOR THE LINE MYSELF!!! Bastards.



Another thing that's wrong is that I don't have a very steady hand yet. At several points the line thickness varies in unnatural ways, like on the top of Bugs' ears or the wheels on Daffy's chair for instance.

I tried to straighten the lines on the desk and monitor with a ruler, but now I think it looks TOO straight and as a result, too unnatural.

Bugs' hand holding the carrot is wrong too, because I couldn't see what John was going for and tried to fix it, but now I think it's far too evenly spaced, making it look wonky.

I'm also not happy with the way Daffy's lower beak came out, but as near as I can tell, that's what John had in mind. As near as I can tell.

Please leave comments with critiques because I see a lot wrong, and I'd like to see what you see.

Thanks, gang!

- trevor.

Ralph Bakshi says, "Just do it!

Thanks to Stephen Worth at the Animation Archive for allowing us to post this and to second Ralph's frank encouragement.



Make sure to visit Ralph's website and tell him how much you want to see his new film The Last Days of Coney Island.

Thank you very much, Ralph!

Funny Batman!

Finished Manx layouts

These are finished layout poses from the cartoon "A Little Fairy Tail", and to make them extra special, I colored them in for you.

These are from the scene where Manx lays eyes on Twinklebelly for the first time.





BTW, you may have noticed the rectangular nature of these pictures. That's because the cartoon's gonna be shot in the 16:9 aspect ratio. Cinematic, baby!

UPDATE:

This next layout drawing is the one I'm most proud of. Mainly because it is a collaborative effort between me and Booo Tooon Marooon Matthew Nunnery. This is a gag from a scene where Itchy decides to ask Twink out, but he's nervous so gets the farts.

Manx, being the encouraging big brother that he is, decides to help Itchy by pulling his colon out and playing it like a bagpipe to get the farts out.

This is a gag Matthew and I dreamed up while on the phone. He was doodling the whole time, and then emailed me what he drew. This is it:



He didn't like the head he drew of Manx, and asked me to draw a better one where his mouth was open. I took it and drew what I thought it should look like, including a number of other changes.

Shortly after the drawing was done, we realized we hadn't decided definitively what the characters' colors were gonna be, so Matthew and I sat down and picked the schemes on the mice. Then Matthew painted my interpretation, and here's the result:



Matthew is a great artist who doesn't post enough. You can see his art, tattoo designs, and animations in motion and for sale, at his website. He's also an amazingly talented musician. You can hear his music at the site too.

MGNUNNERY.COM

Check it out, be amazed, then come back here and tell him you want to see more of his awesome art here on the Blooog.

- trevor.

I done a bad drawing!

Actual size....

Behind the scenes...

Storyboard

Okay, the following is the begining of a storyboard I created for George. I would put up the rest, but my scanner's acting funky.
I also stole old Spumco storyboard sheets to do it.







Also, here's a few tries at getting George right. Some drawings I made up, others I copied. For example, Rex Hackleberg's awesome storyboard sketches at the bottom.








- trevor.

Get A Job!

So, being that the economy's in the shitter and business owners are now less concerned with honoring loyal, hard working people than they are with inflating the next quarterly dividend, all three of the Booo Tooon Marooons ( Trevor, Matthew and Janine ) are now officially out of work.

Chances are you probably are too, and if not, may soon be.

So in an effort to boost morale and inspire the masses, here is Brad Caslor's 1985 industrial film "Get A Job!"

It is a how-to film lovingly reminiscent of Clampett and Scribner's cartoony 40's execution.

Enjoy!

George Carlin RIP

Thanks to: PETE EMSLIE

Vincent Waller

Holy shit! Look at these awesome Spongebob drawings!




I was at Vincent Waller's awesome blog Incoherent Thought when I saw these two and I had to steal them. Visit his blog and tell him how much you appreciate his awesome drawings!




These two Spongebobs were drawn by animator/designer Robertryan Cory and I hope we see more like this. I'll certainly be looking for his name on things in the future.


Thanks to Rogelio T., here's an animation Cory did for the Atlantis SquarePantis Special.



Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW


VINCENT'S AWESOME DOODLES



It's because I've been going to Vincent's blog that I'm even watching Spongebob now, let alone a fan of it.




Notice how there aren't any pencil lines underneath or forms roughly sketched underneath theses drawings. Vincent's like Robert McKimson, in that he does what we all wish we could do: just put pen to paper and draw without any pre-thought or planning. Incredible!





You want proof that executives know nothing of real talent and art? It's in these drawings. If I were the producer of Spongebob, these drawings would be put up as an example as to the level of quality to maintain. And these are the drawings that are just drawn for fun. No one executive in television has seemed to make the connection: fun drawings equal fun show.





Vincent posts all sorts of fun and exciting drawings he does during his Spongebob story meetings, and lets us know to watch the show's inbetweens... which is where some of the most amazing drawings being done for television animation exist.

- trevor.

Inking!

So, I'm still trying desperately to get hired by John Kricfalusi for his new project starring George Liquor.


But, he's said that the only position he can hire for that doesn't require you have some experience ( which I don't ) is inking.


So below are my inking attempts, done with PMOP ink pens.


The left side is John's original sketch, and the right is my ink.


I'm clearly not very good at this, so any and all advice is welcomed.

Thanks!

BY THE WAY, IF ANYONE KNOWS WHERE I CAN FIND A FREE COPY OF ILLUSTRATOR FOR MY MAC G-5, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS, AND I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!!

- trevor.

MUTO!

Take a look at this, everyone!


MUTO is an animation by blu, on location in Buenos Aires and Baden. It takes you across walls and on the street and through abandoned buildings.





MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.





This is the type of animation that requires talent, skill, timing, patience and I think, as you'll see, an understanding of visual poetry.



If more people worked this hard on animation, Pixar might actually worry about making money, whatwith such stiff competition.

Unfortunately, the video can't be embedded, so you'll have to click on this to view it. But at least it's free!



Thanks are due to Shawn McBee for bringing this to my attention. Kudos, Shawn!


Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did!

- trevor.