...will he ever win?

OK, I’m back home now from 12 days of ICON followed by San Diego Comic-Con. At both events there was a lot of talk about how 2-D illustration is (once again) “dead”. Previously killed by photography, illustration is now suffering death-by-animation. Or rebirth, as many point out. Naturally, the debate was instigated by Adobe, purveyor of motion-graphics software, and publishers such as WIRED and the NY Times, who are increasingly moving to online and iPad delivery. Graphic media writer Michael Dooley in Print Magazine’s online presence has assembled comments from ICON attendees about it. By the way, the RSS feed on Imprint’s column for illustration is worth subscribing to.

Of course, just as the illustration community is discussing the impending motion-graphics turn as the event of the immediate future, those who have been immersed in it are already sticking it in the museum. You animators might like to submit your work to this exhibition being curated by the Guggenheim:

Developed by YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum in collaboration with HP, YouTube Play hopes to attract innovative, original, and surprising videos from around the world, regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget. …Now through July 31, 2010, participants are invited to submit new or existing videos created within the last two years at youtube.com/play. Submissions may include any form of creative video, including animation, motion graphics, narrative, non-narrative, or documentary work, music videos, and entirely new art forms.

Meanwhile, more illustrators are transitioning into gallery venues with their still images. The photo here is of the exhibition opening at Nucleus Gallery, showing works by attendees at ICON. Is this where illustration art will increasingly go if motion graphics is the medium of the future?

Posted by Jaleen Grove on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | 14 comments
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July 27, 2010 05:22 PM

This is the other Harvey artist that draws the characters in a really appealing style.http://davekarlenoriginalartblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/steve-muffatti-friends-salute-to-unsung.html

July 27, 2010 02:36 PM

Here are some great frame grabs from Clampett cartoons thanks to Chris Lopez. His site is a wonderful resource for cartoon and comic lovers.Daffy in his absolute prime. Look what an appealing design that is!More teeth in Clampett cartoons.Best eyes.Funniest poses- this is McKimson here! He never drew like that in his own cartoons!This is the best cud chewing scene ever animated. Chris..please put

July 27, 2010 06:38 AM

The way I heard it, John Huston was so taken with Bette's over the top rage in "Of Human Bondage," that he was hot to do a film with her which would be one long mad scene.  With "In This Our Life" (1942) (above) he finally got his chance.

The expressions Betty makes in this film are not to be believed.  She must have spent a lot of time in front of mirrors at home, figuring it all out.

You have to admire her for putting so much into a role that made her look evil and crazy.

Bette was a live action cartoon character. I can't believe that no modern animation studio except Spumco ever attempted to use poses like this.

Animation fans talk about Disney's Cruella de Vil as if she were the ultimate example of villainous cartoon acting. She's okay, but she can't hold a candle to Bette (above).  Disney should have pushed Cruella farther.

Here (above) Bette begs a dying old man to help her get out of a crime she committed.  He's only moments away from meeting his maker and can't force himself to pay attention to her.

She's outraged at his self-absorption (above) and gives him a piece of her mind. The last thing he sees on Earth is Bette screaming at him. What a scene!

Oooch! Big mistake (above)! Never slap a crazy person, not unless you want to find arsenic in your morning tea. Look at the way Bette reacts to the slap.

Bette plays crazy so well, that it's hard to resist wondering if she was crazy in real life. I wish I knew. She certainly had a reputation for being hard to get along with.  Her daughter wrote a vitriolic "Mommy Dearest"-type biography, called "My Mother's Keeper" which I'm reading right now, but there's no way of telling if the book is reliable.

That's Olivia de Havilland above. I digress to include her here just to call attention to the number of good manhandling scenes there are in the Huston film. We could do this easily in 2D animation, but you're not likely to see it in computer films. In 3D the polygons would interfere with each other and produce a hideous monster.

Back to Bette acting crazy: Vincent Sherman, the director of my favorite Bette film, "Old Acquaintance," had an interesting story to tell about it.  He said Bette gave him a lot of trouble at the outset of the film but eventually became friendly. Even so he got the feeling that he was walking on eggs, and had to be very careful.  One day, near the end of the project, Bette confided to him that she loved him, and he didn't know how to respond. Soon after her husband (or boyfriend...I can't remember) came to visit Sherman and advised him, for his own good, to be careful, that having an affair with Bette would be like taking a bull by the horns. The implication was that Bette was crazy. The affair never occurred, and Bette and Sherman parted amicably.  Sherman looked forward to working with his old friend on their next film together, "Mr. Skeffington," and was shocked when, with no warning, Bette showed up on the set ready for war, and loudly refused to co-operate with Sherman on absolutely anything.  The entire shooting became a famous disaster. So was Bette crazy? I don't know, but does it matter? If she was crazy we can be grateful that she channeled that craziness into her art, and by doing so redefined film acting.

July 26, 2010 04:06 PM

yeesh

July 26, 2010 01:16 AM

The answer is: Almost none. Almost no ads succeed big on the internet. The truth is, it's a lousy place to advertise. It's kinda sad because advertisers are throwing dollars at the net these days, and they're not going to get most of them back.


Okay: iTunes, ebay, Amazon, porn, airline and hotel booking agents, gambling and dating services are making out like bandits on the net....but, really, who else is? Try to sell detergent or coffee on the net. You can't.

Try asking your friends this question, and see what answers you get: "Can you name an ad for a product you discovered on the net, (but not on Amazon or eBay) that gave you an intense desire to own it?" I bet you'll draw a blank.  Nobody takes internet ads seriously. It's odd because we can all name print and TV ads that had that made us salivate. I'd kill to have TV products like AirHog or a Fushigiball or a bladeless fan. I'll bet my daughter is mulling over Boody Pop right now.



Maybe the net's a bad place to advertise because it's a bad place to tell stories.  Print and TV excel at stories, and the net doesn't.  That's important to know because fiction, or documentary that's structured like fiction, is what drives sales on TV.  You buy Donald Duck Orange Juice because you've grown to like and trust Donald Duck on TV, and you secretly believe that Donald will somehow know you've bought his juice.

 In my opinion advertisers made a big mistake in not supporting print and broadcast media, even when their audiences declined.  The net's not a great place to discover a new product, but it's a killer place to follow up on a desire that's been planted in your head by another medium.

BTW: John K just told me how he would advertise on the net if given the chance, and the ideas were brilliant. That prompts me to amend what I said here to something like,  SO FAR advertising hasn't worked well on the net.

July 25, 2010 05:32 PM

Important pelvic wrinkle mechanics.The way girls' arms bend backwards always baffles me. I'd like to get a cartoon version of this but I'm struggling to figure out how it works. I toned it down too.

July 25, 2010 05:03 AM

Did you know that Canada produced both the world's greatest actor and the greatest supermarket?I was molded by these commercials and there are even earlier and more thrilling Shatner/Loblaws commercials. Are there some Canadian commercial collectors out there? Help educate the world and share our cultural heritage. I'd also love to see the old Dominion commercials too. With the "Mainly because

July 24, 2010 05:29 PM

July 24, 2010 01:06 AM

Honestly, I'm not sure yet.I'm realizing that I use a whole different type of thinking when I copy live humans (or photos of them) than when I draw cartoon characters and I haven't yet figured out how to link the two types of reasoning.Boy I see even more mistakes when I compare the drawings to the photos after I blog them. Like many cartoonists I tend to shrink open spaces when I copy real

July 23, 2010 08:13 AM