Joe Barbera died yesterday at the age of 95. Joe Barbera was, of course, the co-founder of the Hanna-Barbera studios with Bill Hanna which was, more or less, created out of their Tom and Jerry cartoons and commercials while at MGM. The studio went on to produce much loved classics like The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound and the Jetsons.
Chris Sanders fired from American Dog: I knew all about the layoffs at Disney last week, but I was totally unaware that Lilo and Stitch creator/director and Antikewl favourite Chris Sanders had been dropped from his project, American Dog. It’s very sad news but, as Cartoon Brew reports, may have been a blessing in disguise.
Il Etait une Fois Walt Disney: I meant to write about this earlier, but I got so excited that I’d actually be seeing it next month that I almost completely forgot! Le Grand Palais in Paris is running an fantastic exhibition of classic Disney artwork alongside the works that inspired them. It runs until January 15th 2007, so there’s still time to catch it before the exhibition moves to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from March 8 to June 24th 2007.
There’s a superb slideshow of artwork at l’Express and Cartoon Brew (where I originally found out about the exhibition) has a few more details as well.
Update: I’ve been! Read my report here.
Tim Biskup is one of my favourite modern-day artists, and there’s a new article on him over at Helio: 7 things you should know about Tim Biskup. (via Drawn!)
New animated shorts from-guess who? Disney: Jenny highlights a recent article from the New York Times.
After a hiatus of nearly 50 years, Walt Disney Studios is getting back into the business of producing short cartoons, starting with a Goofy vehicle next year. The studio has released a few shorts in recent years — “Destino,†“Lorenzo†and “The Little Match Girl†— but those were more artistic exercise than commercial endeavor. The new cartoons, by contrast, are an effort by a new leadership team from Pixar Animation Studios, now a Disney unit, to put the Burbank company back at the forefront of animation with a form it once pioneered.
Following his lessons on cartoon colour theory John has started a series on composition. I’ll readily admit that I don’t always agree with every word the guy says on his blog but, once again, these lessons are a treat. Again, many of these lessons can easily be applied to other mediums, such as film, television and illustration.
Steve Worth is also adding some more valuable stuff on compostion at the Hollywood Animation Archive blog; including the 1960’s Famous Artists lesson: 3. Composition – How to make pictures.
They also have a couple of other Famous Artists lessons on their site, including: 24. Television Art and 16. Animals
Enjoy!
John K, of Ren and Stimpy and Spumco fame, is currently doing a very interesting series on his colours theories on his blog. Although he’s talking about colour in cartoons, the information could easily be applied to most artistic mediums.
UPDATE: He’s also now posting some great stuff from early Hanna Barbera colour stylist and background painter, Art Lozzi.
Colour Theories for Cartoons
Seward Street returns! The fantastic blog, chock full of animation industry handouts, sketches, tips and tidbits appears to be back from the dead. Wonderful news — welcome back!
How to draw really well: I can’t draw really well, but there’s one way to try to remedy that… by drawing!
Amid has a mini-review of the new version of the classic Nightmare Before Christmas 3D re-release over at Cartoon Brew. It’s out in the US tomorrow, but we’ll have to wait until December 1st to see it over here in the UK. I love this movie, and it’ll be good to see it in a theatre again — and in 3D!