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Boys were built differently in the stone age.Ed Benedict told me that a lot of animators didn't like animating "UPA" style characters because they couldn't turn them around.But there were some excellent toy sculptors who didn't seem to have any problem doing it. I love how these designs of Ed's are so full of subtle angles and carefully designed asymmetry - and the sculptor caught it all! Today

Harder Angles

Forcing New Information To Stick In The Brain

I copied a couple of my HB Rubber toys to see what I could glean for future use. (HB characters make the best toys)I took two characters and turned them to see what general characteristics they had in common,and what features were specific to the particular design of each. Whatever they had in common might tell me about what happens to cartoon faces when rotated - and more, what happens when toys

Toys VS Humans

Boy, drawing 3 dimensional cartoon toys is enough of a challenge. People ask me all the time whether I think life drawing is useful to cartoonists and animators and my answer is a hesitant - yes. Under certain conditions.the shapes in real life are so much more intricate than 2 dimensional cartoon characters that the gap between the 2 is immense. It's very hard to bridge the 2 disciplines in

Puppet Interlude

I wonder how it's possible to take something cute and do this to it:

Toy Drawing 11: Observation VS Rote Animation Cartoon Style

It's great to learn fundamental cartoon basics, like construction, line of action, silhouettes etc. But those are just your starting points. You don't want to be trapped in formula. Principles alone don't make a point of view or entertainment.Not everything is made of the same few shapes. Animation, being probably the most inbred artform ever (maybe excepting rap) has a bad tendency of producing

Toy Drawing 10: How To Draw Porky

If you are trying to teach yourself classical cartoon construction, this is a gift from on high. From high up the stairs where Mike Fontanelli lives. It's a beautifully sculpted 3 fully dimensional Porky Figure.Good sculptures of cartoon characters tell you what cartoon shapes really look like in perspective. Note in the 3/4 shot that his cranium is not stacked directly on top of his lower face