Stretchy-face

Click on image to see a larger version in all its stretchy glory!

Check this out. Recently, I was working on a spot with Jetsons characters in it, and so on my quest for reference, I came upon this scene from the show where Astro did his signature full-face lick on George -- he did this quite often, so when I was watching this initially it didn't seem like a big deal. But then I frame-by-framed it, and I was amazed by how much those guys stretched and pulled the main characters!

I love animating on scenes like this, where you can contort the characters like they're taffy. You'll be amazed to know how many times I've been told to tone down a pose because it was not "on-model." Phooey. I guarantee you that this scene would've been asked to be re-done if it was produced nowadays. "Yeah, I dunno. It just doesn't look like George..."

While I'm away

Well, I felt fine to go to work today although still a bit weak, but since Andrea was zonked out on the couch, sick like me yesterday, I realized that there's no way I could go in. So, in the meantime, check out some stuff that I've added to my Flickr. It's a grand thing.

Some new additions to my Fun Vinyl set (see above). And I have some new scans of some neato ephemera, like this nice pamphlet on visiting New York in the summer of 1966 (at left). I have to give major props to Andrea for finding this in a big junky box filled with maps and various ephemeral items. She knows what to look for, I must say. Nice illustrations credited to a Rudi Bass. Any relation to Saul? I dunno.

And don't forget to check out the latest in my Flickr group, The Retro Kid, as there have been some great new additions to the pool. Our most active member (with quite possibly the coolest images submitted) is Eric Sturdevant, who happens to be a very accomplished illustrator and caricaturist from Richmond, Virginia. Check out his site HERE. Keep it up, Eric! Some other great stuff from Hillary Lang and grickily, who's none other than Dan Goodsell, the dude behind The Imaginary World. I've mentioned his site before, way back in November of last year. Great site, great stuff. Worth visiting again.

Well, now I'm gonna take a nap as Andrea is up and I'm not feeling all that great. Must be the blogging. I knew I shouldn't have posted something today. What was I thinking?

Sick

I had an interesting weekend. I might go into more detail later, but just thought I'd tell you that I'm sick, down with a crappy cold. No fun. Stayed home Monday from work. And I think I've passed it on to my family. Yippee.

Ava Thursday: Ava adds her touch

Sorry this is very late in getting this up today. I do apologize for the wait.

Earlier this week I had Ava and Ezra hang out with me at my work after hours. I love it when I have them there at Primal, as they get to play with all the toys I have set out for them on one of my shelves. Ava will go into some of my co-workers' cubicles and grab some toys and figures and then come back to create one of her famous set-ups. Mostly, though, she likes to sit at my desk and draw. So I'll prop her up on my chair, grab some paper, some colored pencils and let her do her thang.

I didn't even see this until today, two days later. I laughed out loud. Made my day. This is one of the character poses on a model sheet for Grandma Thora from PBS's Arthur. I was animating her on this mad crazy job (the one that I had to pull several all-nighters), and so I had all these model sheets of her all taped up on my desk. Ava decided to add her special touch to this particular pose here, of Grandma Thora reading. Notice that Ava added nails to Thora, drew a nice cover for the book she's reading and, my favorite, drew a little girl sitting at her feet, politely listening to the story being read, with her hands in front of her, as if they were in her lap. I thought it was Ava herself, sitting there, but Ava said it was just "some girl."

Oh, and it looks like she gave Grandma Thora a nose-job, too. Nice touch.

Illustration Friday: Reflection

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday, with the theme being reflection. No backstory to this one, just some guy looking around a mirror. Trying something different with the color. I tend to use a lot of greens, and it's so hard for me to get out of that. I still happened to get some green in his hair, still. Oh well!

Abundant Linkage 4

Welcome to another fantastic edition of Abundant Linkage, where I -- your host, Ward -- will dispense to you all a multitude of glorious links and time-wasters. All thanks to the wonderous joy of the internet. Shall we begin? Yes, let's.

(First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Joe Ranft, Pixar's great story man, who died tragically in an automoblie accident last week. He was a very influential guy, not just within the walls of Pixar, but to many who had the great opportunity to know him, as well as be taught by him. His presence will be sorely missed.)



Leif Peng is an illustrator who's accumulated a rather large collection of images from magazines, books, and newspapers printed during the glory days of the 20th century illustrator. The collection is so impressive that he decided to share the wealth to a few of his colleagues via email one day and the response was overwhelming. Now titled, Today's Inspiration, Leif sends one image a day to a growing list of fellow illustrators, artists, art directors, or anyone who loves this sort of thing. Yes, I fall into that catagory. Ever since I subscribed to his list, I've learned so much about many of the greats of that time: Al Parker, Bob Peak, Bob Hilbert, Robert Fawcett, just to name a few. Mostly focusing on a particular artist for the week, he'll sometimes do a theme. Currently the theme this week is "Summer." Many thanks to Leif for his exhaustive work in scanning all these images, as well as being so generous in sharing his collection. The images are very good quality, by the way.


I've updated the right column again to include a new catagory: Retro Minded. I'm a big lover of anything vintage, especially from the mid-20th century, if you haven't already guessed. So, it just seemed right for me to have a catagory just for links that focus on that particular era, or might take a heart-warming and half-serious look back at that time. A few to check out:

Conelrad is a great informational as well as fun site about the creepy days of the Cold War. From atomic bombs to fallout shelters, from Red scares to National Security, you name it -- it's there. Also be sure to check out behind the scenes on creating the "Citizen Kane of Civil Defense," Bert the Turtle -- the host of the fun-for-kids educational short film, Duck and Cover. A very interesting read about how to delicately approach the subject of complete atomic destruction while simply cowering under tables, all in a fun way for kids to understand -- complete with an animated turtle as their guide. Fun! To download this bizarre nugget from our past, you can download it HERE.

Retro Future takes a look at how our past envisioned our future. So many dreams... Where's my Rocket Mail? Oh, yeah. Email. Whoop-de-do. That's no fun!

I just love the look and feel of Retro Lounge, a site with links aimed at the past. Just sit back and enjoy the retro goodness.


A couple of new blog links:

I swear that Matt, of Scrubbles, is my internet twin. He's even my age. He and I share so many similarites when it comes to collecting and retro interests, it's uncanny. Funny guy, too.

Poppy is headed up by Jan, a designer in Vancouver, BC. She never fails to disappoint when it comes to finding great links. And she posts frequently, too, so she's got that going for her.

One of the more interesting blogs I've encountered, The Known Universe has such compelling content -- thanks to poignant photography and great writing -- that I find myself yearning for New York City in a completely new way. Thanks for that, Jamie.

Another NYC-based blog I'm digging focuses on graffiti, street art, design, etc: Global Graphica.

Cartoons and Caricatures and Funny Cute are two great sketchblogs from former Spümcø employees. Great insight into working on caricatures and trying to figure out subjects' quirks and features.

Denis Goulet has changed the url to his blog, "Mes vendredis..." You can check out the new link HERE. If you recall, I mentioned Denis' work and blog in an earlier edition of Abundant Linkage.


Various oddities:

Savannah College of Art & Design has now opened a satellite campus in Midtown, Atlanta, called SCAD-Atlanta. And almost immediately announced that it will merge with the nearby competing (and long-standing) art school, Atlanta College of Art (ACA), creating this blob-like art school that could either be a great benefit to Atlanta's art and animation community, or become this faceless monster that could deeply affect a long-running art establishment that included the Woodruff Arts Center and High Museum of Art. We'll have to wait and see, I guess. Nothing like art drama.



One of my dreams has always been to animate a movie title sequence. I'm a big fan of this sort of mini-movie within a movie, as it incorporates several of my loves: movies, animation and typography. Not necessarily in that order. Anyway, there's a site that complied all the movie titles that the great designer legend Saul Bass created. Very cool. My only problem is that there are no Quicktime movies to view. Just stills. Oh well. Better than nothing.

A cool article on retro-styled movie titles can be found HERE. Another interesting read on the retro movie title thing is found over at One Plus One Equals Three, a design blog. Good readin'.

Oh, and I still rock the cassette tapes. Can't help it.

There ya go. Have a great hump day!

Third shift

Clicky image for biggie version.

Because of tight deadlines and a towering stack of scenes that desperately need animating, I've been pulling allnighters recently. And I just have to say this: I'm getting too old for this ish. I used to be able to pull allnighters with nary a thought, going far into the early hours, and not have it affect me too much the following day. But nowadays, it's not the same. I have to work out a sleeping schedule to offset the fatigue that will surely knock me over while flipping animation paper during the dead zone of the afternoon. That's when it hits me: an hour or two after lunch when my body wants to rest after a good meal. So, I'm doing my best, but it's not like it used to be, that's for sure.

A couple of things: I'm currently working on a new Abundant Linkage, so expect that to be up sometime tomorrow. I've been putting off some movie reviews, and I have no idea why. But I do want to talk about some movies while they are still in the theaters, before they head to DVD. Sheesh. Once I get through these deadlines, I'll be able to focus on more thought-provoking articles that you're so accustomed to when you visit The Ward-O-Matic. (Whatever, right?)

The Retro Kid

Well, the secret's out. I was going to post about my new Flickr group, The Retro Kid some time next week, but John, my cohort in crime over at Drawn! went ahead and posted something about it today. No biggie, though! As I'm more than happy to let everyone know what this group is all about.

The Retro Kid is a Flickr group that I started up that focuses on children's book illustrations from the mid-40's through the the mid-60's, as that is one of my favorite eras for that sort of thing. But I don't want to limit it to just books, as I'm open to seeing anything that was illustrated for kids, such as textbooks, booklets, pamphlets, albums, 45's, ads, games, toys, etc. As long as it has that mid-century modern stylized look with the characters and colors, I'm down with it. Oh, and if it looks cool. Yeah. Cool.

In the description for the group, I mention some illustrators as examples that I dig -- Aurelius Battaglia, JP Miller, Art Seiden, The Provensens, Mary Blair, M. Sasek, and many more with similar styles. They were a prolific bunch, and I feel that there is not enough out there on the web about these incredibly talented artists to really get a sense of how influential they were. Thus, The Retro Kid was born. Hopefully this group will give exposure to these fantastic artists, and give credit where credit is due.

And now, I'm excited (and fascinated) to see what others have in their collection! So, dust off that stack of old books way back in the corner of your closet -- you remember the ones, right? With the ultra-cool drawings? -- and get 'em scanned and uploaded. We'd love to see what you got!

UPDATE: Yikes! I've been mentioned on Boing Boing! I've created a monster....

It was 40 years ago today...

(The following was written by my mother, who sent this to me earlier today. I thought it was a very interesting read and asked her if I could share it with my readers here. She said sure, no problem. So I present to you all, my mom....)


It was 40 years ago today...

... and I was among thousands of teenagers sitting in the brand new Atlanta Fulton County Stadium awaiting the arrival of the Fab Four.  Once they entered the field, the whole stadium errupted in ear splitting screams.  But not me.  I was different. Didn't they know - didn't Paul know - that I was the one for him?  I could remain cool because it was just him and me.  He couldn't see me (in fact, I couldn't see him! - he was the size of an ant), but I was going to marry him and run away to England to live happily ever after.  I was 16 years old and eager for an adventure. 

I obsessed about the Beatles - listening to their records ad nauseum (I'm sure for my parents and my sisters).  But I couldn't get enough of them.  They were different - they had cute accents and they wore the most unusual clothes.  They reflected our generation - we were stepping out from the boundaries of the 50s and the "old things."  This was new.  I was ready for that.  It was exciting.  And the possibilities were endless - like the possibility of my marrying a Beatle! 

As I look back on that time, I realize that I was just the normal teenager going through the same things that ALL teenagers go through.  That wish to be different - to stand out - yet, we still wanted to be a part of our peers.  Different but the same.  THAT's why teenagers are confused.  But it was a sweet memory to reflect on today.

Ava Thursday: Ava's 5th Birthday Invitation

We thought it was appropriate for Ava herself to do the invitation to her own 5th birthday. Needless to say we didn't have to beg or plead her to do it. She drew this up in record time. "I'm done!"

Notice here that Ava is decked out in her party outfit, complete with high heels. She ain't kiddin' around when it comes to her birthday. I love how she drew the lit candle on the huge cake with all her presents around her.

Originally, Andrea was going to include this in her Flickr photoset of the party, but since I usually post Ava's drawings on The Ward-O-Matic, she didn't want to "steal my thunder." Plus, she forgot.

So here it is, finally posted for all of you to enjoy.

Check out Ava's drawing of the party, after it happened, HERE.

Ava in line

UPDATE: I've decided to submit this piece to Illustration Friday, as the theme for the week is wisdom. And considering that this is my daughter Ava waiting in line, ready to enter her school for the first time (I go into more detail in an earlier post), it's sorta appropriate. Here is my 5 year-old girl on her first day of kindergarten, ready to embark on a whole new adventure, all set to gather heaps of wisdom, to one day best her dear ol' dad (her secret agenda, no doubt).

Garden of children

Well, Ava's first day of kindergarten was today. It was a moving morning for Andrea and I as we stood there in the front of Ava's new school, watching and waving at our big girl as she stood in her class line, getting ready to walk into the building. The event was well documented -- be assured of that. Oh, and I'm sure one of us will post photos of Ava-girl with her pink high-top Chuck Taylor's, pink and orange dress (with a neato flower that has petals that you can actually touch and feel), and Hello Kitty backpack and lunchbox, standing there in front of the school, with her usual stoic gaze. It's funny how this girl of ours could be so giddy and vibrant just 10 minutes earlier while at home, but quietly becomes this tender statue in front of other potential classmates. At times it seems she has this persona of a 20 year-old muse caught in the body of a 5 year-old kindergartener.

In big family moments like this, I don't get that emotional. I do when I look back on it, in retrospect (like now), but as it's happening, I'm more excited for Ava than anything else. This is a new chapter in her life -- a new stage! Oh! just thinking about all the new things she'll get to experience and learn, racing home to tell us all about it, showing us all the new creations she made during her eventful day makes my heart floopy. I loved learning when I was in school, and now I can't wait to see Ava get just as excited as I once did. I was talking to my mom about this, and she said that she was the exact same way about my sister and I going to school for the first time. She was more excited for us learning new things than being sad about us being gone during the day. (Of course she was excited -- she was getting rid of us finally!)

Funny how cyclical life is, isn't it?

The Airplane Book: a horror of color

I present to you all one of the most visually arresting books I've come across since I've been collecting. I found The Airplane Book at a thrift store awhile back and when I went up to Andrea to show her what I was buying, she looked at the book and then at me. Obviously puzzled, she asked "Why?" I proceeded to show her the wonderous glory that lay within the book. It wasn't pretty, I tell ya. I had to convince her that this book was worth getting for the bizarre symphony of color alone, but she wasn't buying it. Good thing it was only 40 cents. At least I had THAT going for me.



Illustrated by the well-known and very prolific (he illustrated about 500 books in his lifetime) Art Seiden, the story is a simple follow-us-as-we-show-you-all-the-goings-on-behind-the-scenes-of-an-airline type of book. The character designs are nice, and simple, typical of Seiden's work. His style was similar to Mary Blair, JP Miller, and The Provensens during the 50's, but then by the mid-60's things began to change. The look and style of most children's books took a strange route, far removed from the stylish characters and no-line shapes that were very popular during the 50's. Pen and linework began to be the norm, and thus the effect of the earlier colorful shapes were not as strong. But here, in 1972, Art Seiden looked like he was trying to get back to the stylings of the 50's and implemented color as a stronghold, using linework sparingly.



It works. Up to a point. Unfortunately for Art, the culture and style of the late-60's and early-70's were very strong, and so we have here in this book a gushing of vibrant colors and patterns -- garish and loud, so typical of the time. It's almost hard to imagine puke-browns could live in brilliant harmony with nuclear greens, but somehow Art kinda pulls it off. And thus, you see why this book has become one of my favorite finds of recent. It's not often you'll see a grey-toned child wearing a cobalt blue dress and poo-poo brown leggings. You gotta love the use of ochres and avacodo greens for the interiors of the plane, as well as the pink striped seats for the pilots in the cockpits. Seems like Art was given free reign on everything in this book. I can't imagine him going to any real airplane and checking out the decor for reference, although I do have to say, I've seen some incredibly ugly plane interiors in books and on the internet, so maybe he wasn't too far off.

Anyway, I've got a good majority of the book scanned for your pleasure and on display at my Flickr. You can check out the photoset HERE. Enjoy! That is, if you can stomach it.

Ava Thursday: Fish book

Ava drew this not long after the famous Reading books drawing that I went ga-ga over on a previous Ava Thursday. I try and get these dry-erase drawings scanned as soon as I can because of their ephemeral nature. That's the only negative thing I would have to say about these boards: the drawings are not permanent. If your brilliant child created some fantastic drawing on one of these things, you better find some way of preserving the drawing, or else it'll end up as black smudges under your child's fingertips.

This is a book on -- what else? Fishing! I'm not sure what the exact title of the book is, but I'm sure it says something about fishing being a good thing. I asked Ava what it said at the top there, and she said she didn't remember. I love the way she drew bubbles coming up and out of the fish. The "x" is a bubble pop.

ASIFA-Atlanta Meeting Tonight

This is a reminder for all you artists, animators, and lovers of animation who live in the Atlanta area that ASIFA-Atlanta will be having a meeting tonight, August 10th, 7PM at Primal Screen. After the passing of our president and dear friend, Lou Hertz, several of us got together and decided that part of Lou's legacy was to keep the Atlanta chapter a thriving part of the animation scene here in town.

Topics to be discussed will include upcoming screenings, memberships, volunteering, and general brainstorming. If you have good ideas, bring them. The continuation of this fine organization was of the utmost importance to Louie, and we are hoping that this meeting will be the impetus for creating a strong, healthy chapter devoted to the love of animation.

Primal Screen is located at 550 Ralph McGill Blvd, Atlanta, GA. For directions, please visit Primal's website at www.primalscreen.com, or call 404.874.7200.

For any other questions and suggestions, feel free to email me.

Hope to see you there!