Saturday, February 10, 2007

Copy isn't a four letter word!

Every once in a twice I break away from school work to do some hardcore cartoon copying.
There's no shame in that, vice versa, if you learn from established greatness, you don't need to re-invent the wheel, We have yet to see it invented better than by the first generation of Hollywood cartoonists.

Following the lines of the ol’ masters helps me to look at my construction skills, see what needs work and what’s already working. Trying to emulate my heroes and choosing my favorite drawings also helps me keep my integrity, in case it has been sitting on the bench following instructions for too long.

It's hard to explain the appeal of Coal Black, simply because there's so much of it!
Leave alone it's politically incorrectnesses, it's one of the most explosive and lively short
subjects ever made, I love Snow White, but the immense range of emotion and expression Clampett cramps into a seven minute short was never topped by Disney storytelling, even with complete features.

Mitch Kennedy and I keep talking about the what-if of animation history, can you imagine what would happen if the Clampett unit was handed to Rod Scribner instead of Bob McKimson? and if Fleischer had outlasted Disney?

Over the break from school I would copy one cartoon and one anatomy image every day, here's an unfinished page.

11 comments:

G.A.D. said...

Woah, those are some real swell Coal Black copies. Where did you find a good print of the cartoon to draw from? Im into copying from cartoons as well!

brockorama said...

REAL nice! That kiss at the end of Coal Black is like an animator's wet dream. THATS acting!

Mitchel Kennedy said...

I don't know how you find time to do all of this stuff. I guess I need to stop eating and sleeping... and surfing blogs.

These are very well drawn and very close to the originals with only minor errors (Yea, I was a jerk and compared them to the originals). haha

Your character drawings are better than most people's in any of the years.

Scribner drew some really great hands!

Rod Scribner Project

Amir Avni said...

McNuggetinator- Thanks, I used the caps from classiccartoons.blogspot.com
BTW, Your stuff look good!

Brock- and how! that's another reason for choosing Tex Avery's Wolf for the head rotation assignment.

Mitch- Thanks, and your not a jerk, we're all learning. Schoolwork takes a lot of time, but it really isn't such a bad workload, I feel the need to do my own stuff, so I make time. only about 10% of my postings were assignments.

Enzo Avolio said...

Very nicely done!

Andre Barnwell said...

I made the mistake of not lookin over your blog vefore I commented and Im very much impressed and cant believe your first year with such knowledge and talent. Glad to see students knowing and applying knowledge from early. Cant wait to see what you develop years later. Keep it up.

Riè said...

Great stuff! I too agree that there's no shame in copying for learning process or to gain some inspiration.

The rest of your blog is fantastic.

Amir Avni said...

Andre, Enzo and Rie, very kind words, Thanks!

Randeep Katari said...

dude, as andre said, keep it up, you definitely got something going. it'll be killer to see where you go with this.

-R.

kelly erwin said...

Hey there,
I'm really digg'n yer love of old school animation, and you do it real well. Thumbs up!
Nice!

Stephen Worth said...

excellent.

see ya
Steve