Kickstarter: AMIKROG!

Only a couple of hours more to go, Pencil Test Studios' and Doug Tennapel's ("Earthworm Jim") AMIKROG! I back it, good luck, Doug!

Imitation of Life

I've to go to Venice, right now! This classically hand-drawn short film was made not in the 1940s, not at all! This was animated recently. It's an Austrian and US American co-production. Please find more about this very piece right here: La Biennale di Venezia 2013

«Among the most pronounced features of the film is the extreme contrast between the conciseness of its scene, and the extraordinary amount of labor that went into its creation: more than 5,000 handmade sketches, layouts, animation drawings, watercolored backgrounds and ink-rendered animation cells, produced in close cooperation with acclaimed artists from the animation departments of film studios in Los Angeles, most notably Disney. Several small groups of these drawings are presented in the Austrian Pavilion. The soundtrack, another key element of the production, was recorded with a full orchestra in the style of the period at the Warner Brothers scoring stage in Los Angeles. It combines new original music created specifically for this project with a re-arrangement of a popular song from the 1930s written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown.»

Apropos Mickey

I'm a great admirer of Gottfried Helnwein and James Cauty. Newly, I discovered the work of Helsinki based artist Jiri Geller. Here's what Mark Maher writes about him:

«Like an anarchist who has studied every stitch and fold of the banker’s suit, Jiri Geller models and subverts the iconic forms of contemporary culture with vengeful precision.

While - not inaccurately - self-defining as “an outsider, a punk rocker”, Geller is also the rare Finnish artist who has both managed to stay close to Finnish aesthetic strengths and traditions and also detonate his own unique brand of post-national, mind-fucker nihilism.»

Mark Maher, Helsinki Finland, May 2010 (via)

Mickey

Mickey Mouse by Sven Ruthner. (via)

Disney And Lucky Luke

This is really news to me. Back in the early 1980s, one or two Lucky Luke animated features were distributed by Disney Home Video in North America. The cover illustration is a little off. But, anyways, it's a great find! (via)

Lunch Break

The photographs displayed here in this posting are courtesy of their respective photographer/owner.

Alfred Jodocus Kwak

Rough sketch test. For Harald and Belicta.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Bacon + Brie. Via Destination America.

Weekend!

South Bronx, New York City, 1970. (via)

Last Brownstone Standing

Manhattan, 1959. (via)

Facial Expression

Rats! I can't get that facial expression right!

Alligator

Another rough process piece...

Bygone Americana

Beautiful, via Bygone Americana.

Warm-Up!

Yeah!

Mike BaBoon: The Periodic Table of the Muppets

Here we go... (via Mike BaBoon Design)

John Starduck: Reference Samples

Enjoy (References via Space Age Planet)

Nico And Andy Warhol: Batman And Robin

«Warhol himself was a man of comics. He had used a number of comic images to create an artistic ensemble for the Bonwit Teller Department Store window in New York, including Superman, Dick Tracy and Popeye in 1961, which was one of his earliest ‘Pop Art’ displays. Here there was a Popeye from 1961, a splash of watercolour, graphite and newspaper cutting, Pop Art and then photos for Esquire magazine by Frank Bez of Nico and Andy as Batman and Robin.» ForbiddenPlanet

(Andy as Robin and Nico as Batman in a photograph by Frank Bez for Esquire, courtesy of the Warhol Museum’s press dept)

Wes Naman: Rubber Band vs Scotch Tape Portraits

Can't decide what I love more, the tape or the rubber band ones. Wes Naman's works remind me of the early paintings of Austrian-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein, but only a little. Who in turn BTW shares my love for everything Carl Barks and Donald Duck.

Talk Show Host

Readopting an old character of mine, from the late 90s. The narcissistic host of «The Rat In The Coat Show», Captain Randle. Here's a first fast rough test...

I See You

By artist Mike Mitchell.

Thunderbird

I like birds, but that's nothing new, right? Anyways, I love this very sujet here. The colours, the angle, everything. (via)

Harald Siepermann

Yesterday was Harald Siepermann's (1962-2013) birthday. I inked one of his sketches, recently (please see below). What a beautiful, soft design and lovely pencil linework. He was such an exceptional artist.

Please find more of his art, inspirations, references etc. over here: Harald's Pinterest wall - a truly treasure chest for every animation artist. Thanks for sharing, Harald...

Sesame Street

Goal! Jason Kottke was sharing this very photo exactly on my birthday, last week. The original Sesame Street cast, complete with one of my all-time favorite bird characters and truly 20th Century icon, Big Bird.

Apropos, this image below shows Jim Henson's finished colour sketch of his initial "goofy" vision for Big Bird. Here, the bird looks noticeably slimmer than how the actual puppet came to be (via):

Hello Future!

"Spacecouple", Disneyland's Tomorrowland, summer of 1960. Via Pour 15 Minutes d'Amour.

And this here below is from 1956.