It's funny that the very first so-called "realistic" cartoons were drawn better than everything that came after.
I mean, they're still stiff as hell, but at least they had some solidity and a bit of design.

Probably because they used actual comic artists to draw them and didn't try to animate them.



In the production process that came later, they would just design the realistic characters on model sheets, then get artists who couldn't draw well to lay them out. Then animators who couldn't draw in this style either had a hell of a time trying to not only move them, but even pose them naturally. Then assistants would trace the already awkward poses and stiff animation and they'd lose another generation.

I did like Jonny Quest when it came out - for the same reason: Doug Wildey was a realistic comic artist and he did most of the layouts, and they inked them in comic book style. I think they found out that this wasn't a very efficient or cost effective way to make cartoons, so all the HB realistic cartoons that followed weren't even as good as Quest.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/tv-guide-on-clutch-cargo.html

Here's some excellent "illustrative art" to contrast with all the great cartoony art I admire.
I don't know who this is exactly. I just stumbled on his work through links at commenters' blogs.
I love his compositions, his poses, his design sense - and especially his trees. He has a nice combination of style and observation.
I'd say this is draftsmanship on a much higher level than what most cartoonists aim for. It makes me embarrassed to show my feeble attempts at "realistic drawings" when I see real drawings like these.
I wonder if MacDougall went to an art school that actually teaches fundamentals, or whether he is just a supernatural talent who taught himself. If there was a real art school that could turn out artists with this much skill, I would recommend it to everyone.
Cartoonists as a whole see things very differently than illustrators. We tend to see things in simpler terms - as very general and almost abstract shapes and forms - not based on the details in reality. That's why I think it looks so sloppy when animators are forced to strive for artificially "realistic" styles - like the humans in Disney features. Animators just don't draw as well as illustrators. Everyone loves Milt Kahl, because for an animator he draws better than most - but I think if he had been an illustrator he would have had a tougher job standing out.

Animators try to force complex forms of nature (like human anatomy) into easier to grasp simple shapes, but even our simplified human mannequins are too much for us to control convincingly in motion. In the last 30 years or so we have evolved a handful of animation tricks that allows us to move awkward designs from pose to pose without actually drawing the subtle steps inbetween. The way fully animated characters move now is completely stylized, repetitive and artificial. It's neither real nor cartoony. It's how we get away with moving the clumsy designs that aren't practical for animators. I don't think it's the animators' and cartoonists' fault though. It's a survival gimmick.
For some baffling reason, most animation producers are ashamed to be in the cartoon business. They want so badly to be doing the more respectable business of live action, and so they use our medium as a stepping stone toward their real goal. That's why they force animators to make movies about stiff humans doing what they think are "normal" and "realistic" things - which no one has ever pulled off. I wonder what would happen if they just went out and hired a big crew of actual illustrators and trained them to animate. I mean illustrators like MacDougall, artists who actually can control anatomy and perspective. Could they finally make animated humans move convincingly? I don't know what the point of it would be, but it would be an interesting experiment.

Yes, I know they sometimes hire real illustrators for development and inspiration - like Rowland Wilson and comic book genius Mike Mignola. But then they take what these superior draftsman design and dumb them down into the same old wobbly wimpy animation stock characters.I found the doodles on the side of this storyboard page illuminating. I was struggling to figure out a way to make a frontal face have structure in the spaces between the eyes and nose. Larry made it look easy. He defined the orbitals around the eyes with shadows that helped anchor and link the sensory features together. I'm sure if he read this he would be amused at how something that is probably second nature to him is a mystery to me.

Faeries and elves aren't exactly my sort of subject matter but that's beside the point. I completely admire and envy the talent and skill of someone who can draw and paint like this.

http://www.art.zaprasza.eu/Author.php?user_id=78

IN A SIMILAR TRADITION

Like I said in the last post, no time for hookups in a 5 second spot. Just enough time for an elaborate plot.
George offers the inhabitant of the ear some of its own root beer.The obvious punch line for pouring Barq's Root Beer into an idiot's ear is to have a hot dog come out.

I added the twist of having the hotdog have mustard on it so the joke wouldn't be so routine.

Another live action "realistic" expression in the midst of the stupidest gags I could come up with.


George marvels at the magic ear dirt puffs. I wonder what they are constituted of?
more to come...the resolution of the plot...

Like I said before, I sure envy "realistic" artists that actually draw really well, like Gene Colan.His poses are solid yet wacky at the same time.

The few times I've had the opportunity to use artists like this, they had an easier time adapting to more cartoony styles that I needed for animation. Plus they could draw things from any angle and had good senses of composition.

Here's a little known Marvel artist: Marie Severin.

She was the one who I think designED Marvel's color style, which was quite different than the other comic brands at the time.
She used a lot of subtle colors and greys. She created a real mood for the Marvel artists and stories.

She also drew really well! She was probably their best "cartoony artist":
She did a lot of stories for Not Brand Ecchh. She drew very solid anatomy, funny poses and could even caricature the other Marvel artists' style!

I especially loved the way she caricatured Ditko.
Ditko created the rubbery bent legs and distorted poses that so many other Spiderman artists followed after.

My idea of a really great creative studio is to mix animation artists and cartoonists with some of these solid draftsmen from related fields of cartooning.

The different approaches-if encouraged - allow all the artists to grow and create things they would not have thought of in their own inbred environments.

Jim Smith, Vincent Waller and Bob Camp helped us more cartoony-animation artists aim higher with our skills and allowed us to break out of many animation cliches.