Children's Book Illustrations Part 3

Man, things are getting a bit tight but I will keep you up to date. Monday of this week I was invited to a Boy Scouts (Troop 80) meeting to talk about animation. Being the unfortunate procrastinator that I am I basically put a quick power point presentation on a brief history of animation. I put in a lot of Disney names out there but was unable to put the less "famous" studios as well. I showed them my "professional" cartoon colour light box and did a brief explanation on how to animate in 2D. I was going to post some things on Tuesday but the internet LAN is in my sister's room and she was sleeping so now I am posting today. On a different note I think I will discontinue the mystery pic but instead will try to post my own work with explanation. Since nobody likes to post comments apparently or they are too lazy or busy. The first mystery pic is actually suppose to be Tom Baker of the Doctor Who TV series for some reason I become quite fascinated with that show since I never really heard of it before and I am a Science Fiction Geek. On another note what this post is about one is a Disney Golden Book while the other is learn pictures with words book. The Disney Golden book was made in the studio and I am curious if Burny Mattinson made it since I was recently listening to the podcast (there is a link to the side of my profile, go check it out!) In the picture book I found that I learned what a Newel Post is...See if you can figure out what it is. One more thing to top of this post for Best Short Animated Feature The Danish Poet won! This is exciting since there was a presentation at DeAnza Community College where we actually saw in person Torill Kove and another producer if I am not mistaken which I didn't catch her name where we saw the actual movie The Danish Poet. So congratulations Mrs. Kove on a job well done!

Children's Book Illustrations Part 2

Here are some more really nicely illustrated pictures from the Disney Book's on tape series. I was rather shocked to find that a friend of mine wanted me to speak to his cub scout group on animation. Maybe shocked is not the best word to use I would rather say honored. I am going to have to set up a power point presentation of a brief history of animation. That is going to be quite a challenge but I will do my best. My school workload is slowly catching up with me so I have to focus more on my animation projects for class. It might be a while when I post something new next. This mystery picture should be a snap to figure out it is in red pencil.

Children's Book Illustrations Part 1

This is going to be a post of some books that I had as a kid. These are wonderful illustrations from Walt Disney's books on tape. Wonderfully illustrated books by Disney artists who unfortunately are unanimous within the book but I am sure that some of these illustrations were drawn by artists like Mary Blair, Dick Kelsey, Burny Mattinson, and others.(Eventually I hope to have posts about those artists) For more information on the topics I would highly recommend John K.(creator of dog and cat duo Ren and Stimpy, there will be a special dedicated post on him later) all kinds of stuff look under the previous posts under November 2006. John explains things better than I do since I have not created a huge success in the animation field,... yet. Hopefully there will be more posts in a row about this sort of material spanning from part one to four. It could be longer. Just for fun I will also post a picture of my own work and in the comments see if you can guess what the picture is.

Mystery Picture:Who is it?

Alphonse Mucha

A friend of mine introduced me to Alphonse Mucha. A great Czech illustrator during the height of Art Nouveau (basically the 1880-1914). Personally I really love his attention to the finest detail and his thick dark outlines of the figure which is usually a woman. Mucha drew illustrations for popular magazines of the day but he was paid bare minimum for his efforts. Now he is recognized as a saint to illustrators. Well maybe not to some but to me there is a certain class that makes you really appreciate such beauty. I think I am going to need a tissue...


On another note here is an old illustration I did a few years ago coping his work JOB. Didn't have the time to color it and hopefully one day I will be able to do that in possibly photoshop. Nashledanou (Goodbye in Czech).

Walt Disney's Duck Comics

As long as I could remember I really liked ducks. In the cartoons they were always the under"dogs" in my mind like Donald Duck. I think why I liked ducks was my dad has a big Donald Duck hardcover book with Carl Barks comics in them. Carl Barks was one of those popular character and storyboard artists that worked on the Donald Duck shorts from 1935-1942. Not only that but he gave Donald his own temper (since he was partly deaf at an early age) and the short beak with round body features. Barks contributed to the skating on ice gag in Bambi. Eventually Carl resigned from Disney Nov. 6,1942 to have his own chicken farm. Later on he actually began illustrating Disney comic books. Unfortunately Mr. Barks is no longer alive since he died of leukemia in 2000 at the age of 99. He has left a legend to all those kids who read Disney comics that had Donald duck in them. These are some of the comics that I have currently finished and are worth to check out. By the way I would like to give a shout out to Keefe who is probably the only person reading my blog. Not that it is a bad thing it is just I know it will take a while for me to get noticed that's all.

Animation Book Review

Just recently I had a chance to finish this book called Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG by Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff. A friend of mine by the name of Bruce gave it to me and I sat down every night and read a little every night.After reading the book I feel a little more confident in doing CG animation. Personally I wanted to do 2D for a living but seeing how popular CG is today well I might just do 2D on my own time. This book is very well rounded for both traditional and CG animators as well as the novice and more experienced animator. A term used in the book that I found to be hilarious is "framef***ing" which is when you have too many key frames of animation in a CG program and are over analyzing the movements. Definitely worth while to read or pick up. Here is a scan of the book cover.

Behind the Blue Genie

Hello fellow friends! This post is going to be about the amazing Eric Goldberg. Now Mr. Goldberg was born in 1955 in a place called Levittown, Pennsylvania. While a teenager he created an animated short called, For Sale (1974) which won the grand prize in Kodak's Teenage movie awards. From there his career shot off working with the famous Richard Williams (director of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit?) on some of his films and eventually opening his own studio called Pizazz Pictures. Some of his screen credits include Animation Director of Fantasia 2000 in particular the "Carnival of the Animals" and "Rhapsody in Blue," Co-Director of Pocahontas, and last but not least Supervising Animator on the Genie of Aladdin and Phil in Hercules. You can find this info. almost anywhere on the net but I have a great story that goes something like this... When I was studying in San Diego in 2006 I went to a wonderful convention called Comic-Con International. There I had the chance to meet some of the industry's giants like Eric Goldberg. It was at the ASIFA-Hollywood booth where I actually got to see Eric animate a cat get hit by an anvil using proprietary 2D animation software from DreamWorks on a Cintiq (flat computer that you can draw on). To see that cat move in action and how he was just drawing frame from frame it was a sight to see! After he was done I asked him to sign my sketchbook which I will show you at the end of the post. Here's to you Mr. Goldberg for your inspiration! Cheers!

Cartoon Movie Reviewed

Recently I have become reacquainted with this movie, Cool World. For those of you who have not have had a chance to see it I will tell you a bit more about it. This particular movie was made in 92' during what is known as the second golden age of animation (about 1980s-1990s). Directed by Ralph Bakshi the controversial man who directed the first X-rated cartoon in the U.S. by the name of Fritz the Cat. The movie is suppose to be a rip-off of a more adult kind of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? The synopsis of the film if you are curious is about two dimensions, one is a cartoon world called the Cool World and the other is the "modern day" world in Las Vegas. Looking through the film with a stronger appreciation for the animation the movie was O.K. It is probably better to rent the movie than go get it. Interestingly enough there is a cameo of an animation enthusiast in one of the scenes which is....drum roll please... Stephen Worth the Director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive! To see what Stephen is up to these days I encourage you to check out http://www.animationarchive.org/ for really cool animation and illustration art with interviews. Also one of my favorite teachers from the Art Institute of California-San Diego Jerry Brice worked on the animation for Cool World and taught me the true magic to 2D animation. Toon' in next time for more exciting animation facts! If anybody is reading this I would like to have some constructive critisim on how I can improve this blog. Check out this cool Cool World art from the actual movie. Enjoy!

Welcome To My Blog!

Hello, fellow animators, cartoonists, illustrators, and comic book artists! This is my first time posting things in a Blog. Being new to this please excuse the learning curve that I have to go through. Tom's Toon Troubles will in time be a place where all artists can come together to talk about...cartoon! Basically any and all animation including fine art, comics and at times what is on my mind. Please sit back, relax, and get yourself a cold one cause here we go!