Corny cartoons, anyone?

[Gary David Bouton]

Hi All--

A book I'm working on requires a volunteer from the audience, so to speak. Although I was taught in pen and ink and stuff, I felt that the figure in the book needed to be "more". So I spent about half a day on the attached image, and the weird thing is that after around 2 hours, the model started to take life all by itself! No, I'm not snorting Vicks or anything...it's just that the experience left me feeling as though I knew exactly where everything went. And I love 1940s cartoons, so the figure is out of date, yet rendered with a 21st century piece of software.

Anybody else out there "channel" when you work? You have the gut instinct there to help you along and guide you?

I dunno. Sometimes things just fall into place.

Yer humble moderator,

Gary David Bouton
www.boutons.com
Gary@GaryWorld.com
Visit a really large gallery at www.GaryWorld.com!

[Gary David Bouton]

Hi All--

A book I'm working on requires a volunteer from the audience, so to speak. Although I was taught in pen and ink and stuff, I felt that the figure in the book needed to be "more". So I spent about half a day on the attached image, and the weird thing is that after around 2 hours, the model started to take life all by itself! No, I'm not snorting Vicks or anything...it's just that the experience left me feeling as though I knew exactly where everything went. And I love 1940s cartoons, so the figure is out of date, yet rendered with a 21st century piece of software.

Anybody else out there "channel" when you work? You have the gut instinct there to help you along and guide you?

I dunno. Sometimes things just fall into place.

Yer humble moderator,

Gary David Bouton
www.boutons.com
Gary@GaryWorld.com
Visit a really large gallery at www.GaryWorld.com!

[Bob C.]

Hi Gary,

This is a great figure and so fascinating to see it rendered in black and white!

I agree with you about a project taking on a “mind of its own�. I have always considered
it to be a matter of being “open� to the feedback from the work itself as opposed to muscling the work by my preconceived notion of all the details.

The forced effort helps get the image (concept) out onto the paper (screen, whatever) but then being "open" to the feed back and subtleties of the idea can let the thing "take off".

Just my $.02

Bob C.

[s.winders]

Thats just the way I do it as well Gary.I only ever have half an idea to start with and then I just run with what happens and what looks good,kinda like letting the image form itself as it goes.On of the best paintings I ever airbrushed was rendered in that way,I brushed some mountains and saw that one of them looked like it had a profile of an Native American warrior so I exploited that feature and kept on working it and using that theme and then super imposed faces in the sky as well and the water below,but there is no way that painting would have come out that way if I had not exploited that mountian range,maybe exploited is a bad way of describing it but I think you know what I mean.When I try and totally plan a painting it always come out crap,so now I just follow where the next step takes me.Is tha kinda what you meant too?

I also personally believe that the best CG tool you can ever have is an imagination,and I bet that after everyone has seen the new Final Fantasy movie the first thing they want to do is get home and fire up the software [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


I really like your character designs too,especially the use of chrome.


Stu.

[Big Frank]

This started out as nothing more than a technical exercise and look what came out! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

--
Big Frank was

Stu, thanks for the gracious comment about my little guy there. I could not agree more that a *free* imaginition and a real need for self-expression are the fuel that powers you across the canvas, the screen, whatever.

I used to be an art director for TV commercials and print about 300 years ago (I've been a computerist for ten years...of this part is the truth<g>), and I essentially got "glass ceilinged" and then dismissed for sticking up for my ideas. God, is it great to be a contract author out of my home now!!!

Anyway, the point is that some guy who I worked with has phenomenal technical chops, but a little lean on the inspiration side. He told me (this is flattery, but an honest comment) that I thought a lot like Disney, and that if I had the bucks of Disney, he'd quit his gig and work for me!

Well, except for John (PIXAR) Lasseter, there's never going to be another story teller like Disney, but I did notice that when I free myself up...stop worrying about promptly paying credit cards off and mowing the lawn more than once a month, I tend to create these creatures. And I wind up putting them in my books.

My wife Barb and I are too old to have kids of our own, so I've created a virtual family.

See attached. Everything came from not trying so hard and letting a thing hatch on its own.

Kindest Regards,

[Gary David Bouton]

Stu, thanks for the gracious comment about my little guy there. I could not agree more that a *free* imaginition and a real need for self-expression are the fuel that powers you across the canvas, the screen, whatever.

I used to be an art director for TV commercials and print about 300 years ago (I've been a computerist for ten years...of this part is the truth<g>), and I essentially got "glass ceilinged" and then dismissed for sticking up for my ideas. God, is it great to be a contract author out of my home now!!!

Anyway, the point is that some guy who I worked with has phenomenal technical chops, but a little lean on the inspiration side. He told me (this is flattery, but an honest comment) that I thought a lot like Disney, and that if I had the bucks of Disney, he'd quit his gig and work for me!

Well, except for John (PIXAR) Lasseter, there's never going to be another story teller like Disney, but I did notice that when I free myself up...stop worrying about promptly paying credit cards off and mowing the lawn more than once a month, I tend to create these creatures. And I wind up putting them in my books.

My wife Barb and I are too old to have kids of our own, so I've created a virtual family.

See attached. Everything came from not trying so hard and letting a thing hatch on its own.

Kindest Regards,

Gary David Bouton
www.boutons.com
Gary@GaryWorld.com
Visit a really large gallery at www.GaryWorld.com!