Advanced Reading and Purdy Pictures

I was milling around the internet the other day and fell into an all-too-familar time-sapping trance, specific to internet surfing - what I like to call 'The Wikipedia Effect'*. Bouncing from one hyperlink to the next I came across a few artists/works that warranted a sly right-click/'save as' proceedure and thus, I present to you some artwork that has helped me to further develop the aesthetic of my character designs [most notably Dr. Wright's] and also given me food for thought regarding inspiration for the overall, final aesthetic.

Firstly, Dr. Seuss' book Gerald Mc Boing Boing (1950) with illustrations by Mel Crawford [he's also illustrated alot of Hanna-Barbera-based books incidentally]. I've been toying with the notion of creating a 2D animation without any outlines, promoting simple, yet strong chracter design, partially for the challenge, though I don't know how workable it'll be. I don't know whether Genndy Tartakovsky [Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory] was at all inspired by work such as Crawford's, but it does remind me of him somewhat.


Next, a shot from UPA's Academy Award winning short (1951) of the book which carries a similar aesthetic [though the characters do have outlines.] What I'm more concerned with here however, is the stark simplicity of the layouts. Superb three-dimensionality and the sad mood of the scene is achieved through bold, basic tonal blocks and minimal line.


Finally, the front cover of the second [and final] issue of Dell Comic's Kookie (1962), created by John Stanley. Similar stuff going on here, albeit with more tonal detal and a rougher overall texture to the piece.


And there we have it, the so-called food for thought, some of which I have been putting into practice along with what else has been picked up along the way so far. Next up, more Dr. Wright designs.

*Not specific to using only Wikipedia, but the whole interweb. This and many other unique and useful phrases can be found in The Oxford English Dictionary of Fryisms.
Available in 2009 from all good book retailers.