Donnachada Daly, a directing animator on MADAGASCAR, has started his own blog HERE. He writes on the site: “Almost every day I’ll try and post up a doodle for no other reason than I just love drawing. Nothing quite like putting pencil to paper and getting that tactile touch. Expect to see a mixture of traditional and digital drawing.” I’ve been enjoying the work he’s been posting so far: the drawings are spare in detail, but have an animator’s touch with plenty of vitality and a search for elegant combinations of shapes.

Here’s some random art from 1950s cartoons which appeal to me for different reasons. To start things off, below are four details from UPA background paintings. The complete BGs will be printed in my upcoming book on 50s animation design (pre-order at Amazon). From top to bottom, the paintings are by Paul Julian, Jules Engel, Bob McIntosh and Herb Klynn. I was prepping these particular paintings for print this weekend, and was marveling at how utterly great all of them are. The paintings really drive home the point that there was no house style at UPA. Artists at the studio were free to paint in whatever style they desired, and when that luxury is allowed to artists of this caliber, you’re bound to end up with some gorgeous stuff. Bonus points to anybody who can identify which films these paintings are from.

A lot of people create ’stylized’ art to hide weaknesses in their drawing skills, but the best designers are invariably excellent draftsmen as well. These two concept drawings for SLEEPING BEAUTY are the real deal and leave no doubt about Tom Oreb’s drawing skills. It’s all there: an understanding of drapery, anatomy, perspective, and an uncanny ability to create appealing designy shapes while maintaining solidity of form.

Here’s a few model sheet drawings of the sun character created by UPA for the Bell Science special OUR MR. SUN (1953). The entire model sheet, which has a lot more of these sun-heads, will be included in the book. It’s a very decorative approach to character design, but it’s also an interesting design solution that makes a character who is a basic circle look interesting and unique. I haven’t been able to solidly identify who created the model sheet though I’ve narrowed it down to director Bill Hurtz or designer Lew Keller (I’m leaning towards the latter artist because of the drawing style). If anybody knows for sure, please drop me a line.

CARTOON: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANIMATION is currently accepting pitches for its next issue, which will be published in December. The magazine is the revamped version of the ASIFA-NEWS magazine and is edited by the Ottawa Animation Festival’s Chris Robinson. Chris writes about what he’s looking for:

As usual, we’re open to articles about ANY aspect of the animation world from TV animation to hardcore abstract films. We want pieces about animators, characters, techniques, schools, business. Whatever ya got. And it doesn’t have to be words, if you’ve got a cartoon idea, a strip, I’ll consider anything.

The deadline for pitches is soon, so best to send them off within the week. Chris asks that article pitches be no more than a few sentences. The magazine pays for articles. Send pitches and questions to robinson (at) magma (dot) ca.

What do Tim Biskup, Shag, Miles Thompson, Robert Williams, Frank Kozik, Coop and Leonard Nimoy have in common? They’ve all had exhibits at the Copro/Nason art gallery in Santa Monica. The latest installation, SPLAT! opens this Saturday August 20th featuring the highly entertaining cartoon artwork of Anthony Ausgang and Krk Ryden. Both artists have an obvious subversive 1940s cartoon edge in their work - thus they are two of my current favorites. An artists reception on Saturday night is open to all from 8:30pm to 11:30pm.

Something about the character designs for Tim Burton’s upcoming stop motion film THE CORPSE BRIDE have annoyed me since I first saw them. The extreme deep-set eyes, flat cheeks and awkward definition of the mouth area look, well, rather wrong, for lack of a better word. The main characters look Burton-esque, but they lack the distinctive graphic shapes and raw charm of the designs Burton created for THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Yesterday, the NEW YORK TIMES explained why CORPSE BRIDE looks the way it does when they published a profile on the film’s character’s designer, Carlos Grangel. Burton apparently did rough character concepts for the film, but then handed off final design duties to Grangel, who is a regular character designer at DreamWorks, and has designed on films like THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, THE ROAD TO EL DORADO and SPIRIT. After realizing this connection, it becomes pretty hard to miss the design similarities between CORPSE BRIDE and late-90s hand-drawn DreamWorks cartoons. And believe me, that’s a connection I hoped I’d never have to make for a Tim Burton film.

Need any 16mm prints of GUMBY? Want any back issues of UNCLE SCROOGE? Can you use a collection of black & white TERRYTOONS?Gotta clean out the garage. So it’s time to have a yard sale! Visit Cartoon Research for all the details!

Dan Lee remains both famous and anonymous. You might not have heard of this Montreal-born, Toronto-raised artist, but you already know his animated characters. Dan Lee was a character designer at Pixar Animation Studios for 7 years. His most famous character creations include the design of the lost clownfish Nemo from Finding Nemo, and the charming little girl named Boo in Monster Inc.At the young age of 35, Dan Lee passed away much too early on Jan 16th, 2005, after a 17 month battle with lung cancer. To honor his Dan’s life and talent, three of his good friends from Pixar, Mark Holmes, Noelle Page, and Carmen Ngai had an idea of compiling some of Lee’s most recent personal artwork together as a coffee table book, In Your Face (Zippety Publishing), to show the other side of Lee to the rest of the world.In Your Face is all about faces. When Lee wasn’t busy designing blockbuster characters for Pixar, he could be found doodling the local coffee drinkers at Canvas Gallery Cafe in San Francisco, where the book launch will take place. All of the proceeds will be donated to a chosen charity. You can find more information about this event at:http://danleebooklaunch.blogspot.comIn Your Face
A Dan Lee Tribute, Exhibition and Book Launch
Thursday, August 25, 2005 7pm to Midnight

UPDATE: Ronnie del Carmen writes on his BLOG that the Dan Lee show on Aug. 25, will not just include Dan’s artwork, but artwork by a variety of Pixar artists. All proceeds will go to charity. Artists participating include Albert Lozano, Robert Kondo, Ronnie Del Carmen, Ernesto Nemesio, Enrico Casarosa, Paul Topolos, Louis Gonzalez, Liz Holmes, Daniel Arriaga, and Jay Shuster.

Following up on the first round of caricatures from a couple days ago, Fred Osmond has posted more amazing caricatures by John Kricfalusi HERE. Thanks to Fred and Katie for sharing these drawings with everybody.