Tuesday, March 26, 2013

*unintelligible*

Last week I gave my praise for the voice work in the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This week, I thought I'd talk about what I think is the one small exception... Yakky Doodle.

He's an adorable little duckling, but every time he opens his mouth, I cringe. His voice is obviously supposed to sound like Donald Duck, but, in my opinion, it doesn't really fit the character.

Anyways, here's my take on Mr. Doodle. Hopefully, my art doesn't make you grit your teeth as much as I do when Yakky says, well... anything.

Yakky Doodle

Monday, March 18, 2013

Dat's My Boy!

I decided to go back and do some more of the Hanna-Barbera characters in the same style. Here we have Augie Doggie and his Doggie Daddy.
Doggie Daddy & Augie Doggie
One of the great things about most of the Hanna-Barbera characters is how their voice actors (Daws Butler in particular) are just doing very thinly veiled impressions of random famous people from the time. Yogi Bear is Art Carney, Snagglepuss is Burt Lahr, and Doggie Daddy is the great Jimmy Durante. Yet despite the strong resemblance in the sound of their voices, the characters still manage to be completely original as well as timeless. If someone asks you to do a Yogi Bear impression, it doesn't cross your mind for a second that Yogi Bear is sort of doing an impression himself. You just go, "Heeeyy Boo-Boo!" and then wonder who that weirdo was asking you to talk like a cartoon bear.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Peeyoosa!

The Star Wars films are filled with several moments that could be described as "iconic."
For example, when Luke watches the twin suns set, or when Leia tells Han she loves him as he's lowered into carbonite, and he responds, "I know."

These are subtle little moments that give us a lot of information about who the characters are and what's going on with them.

And then, good ol' Jar Jar Binks strolls along and steps in a piece of animal crap. Also iconic, though probably not EQUALLY iconic. It does, however, give us some information about the character: He's an idiot. You know... in case anyone was still wondering.


And just as that annoying piece of poo clung to the gungan's giant feet, so does Jar Jar himself stick to one of the most beloved franchises in movie history, forever associated with those iconic moments. 

All of that said, ...he is a lot of fun to draw! Here's to you, Mr. Binks!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Meet Gertrude

Back in October, I made a poster for a friend, featuring a bunch of adorable little Halloween characters that I came up with. Here's a closer look at one of those characters. The Little Specter with a lot of Spunk! - Gertrude!!


Yeah. The Specter with Spunk thing is kinda cheesy. How about... the Poltergeist with Pizazz?

The Ghost with the Goods?

Ooh! I know! The Apparition with Appeal! ...with Allure? ...Alignment?

The VAPOR WITH VIGOR!!!
All right. I'll stop.