Tex Avery Layouts and Backgrounds

Here's some pictures of the original pencil drawings along with the finished backgrounds from Tex Avery's Blitz Wolf and Red Hot Riding Hood. Though I love the stylized and cartoony backgrounds in my earlier posts on Montealegre my favorites are the ones from the MGM's late 1930's Harman-Ising shorts all the way through to Dick Lundy's mid 50's Barney Bear shorts.

More Montealegre

Here's some more screen caps of backgrounds by Fernando Montealegre. These ones are all from Michael Lah's Droopy shorts.

Hanna Barbera Backgrounds-Montealegre

Here's some screen caps of backgrounds from the Huckleberry Hound Show by Fernando Montealegre and one by Vera Hanson and Sam Clayberger. I wish I had the originals as that would obviously be much cooler but this will do. It's hard to find out any information on the artists but Montealegre was the background artist for Michael Lah's Droopy shorts at MGM before Hanna and Barbera opened their studio. He worked there through at least the mid 70's as a painter and also background supervisor. I can only find Vera Hanson being credited as a background artist at HB, so who knows where else she may have worked. Sam Clayberger in addition to working at HB also worked on Mr. Magoo and later The Bullwinkle show and George of the Jungle. I really love background art from cartoons, particularly MGM's late 30's and 40's backgrounds but as far as stylized backgrounds go early Hanna Barbera are the best.

Fernando Montealegre

Sam Clayberger

Vera Hanson

Goober Post-Run Cycle

Wow, I haven't posted anything since Monday, I usually don't go that long between posts. But if you're looking for a classic cartoon related post bear with me for another day or so. I haven't posted anything crappy of mine in awhile so here's a short pencil test of a run cycle I did the other day. I haven't worked on anything in a week or so but I've been reading Shamus Culhane's book Animation from Script to Screen and he talks about just drawing and not thinking about anything. Not to let anything interrupt the flow of creativity. Forget the timing and everything and just draw, not stopping to fix a bad drawing, just toss it and keep going. I tried this approach and drew some quick roughs and then went back later and cleaned them up. It turned out better than I thought, I find walks and runs really difficult but I think this one turned out OK. There's some improvement but I've still got a long way to go.

Ren and Stimpy Lost Episodes

I'm very excited that tomorrow the Lost Episodes DVD comes out. Stupid me didn't pre-order it figuring I would have to wait past the release date to get it. I keep reading on John K's blog that people already received theirs. I have yet to see the episodes that didn't air on Spike TV and they look great. In a lot of ways I enjoyed the Adult episodes more than the original series. The animation is great throughout, the expressions and acting are just amazing. Here's some model sheets and other random stuff, plus a sketch that came with my Jim Smith sketchbook.

Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote Model Sheets

Here's a couple of more Warner Bros model sheets, plus early design sketches of both the Road Runner and Wile E. Check out how goofy the Road Runner looks.