The Life Of An Artist

 

I haven't posted anything surprising lately because of how dry it is out there and I'm just zoning out my inner world since I'm off for at least 15 days.

It makes sense that I'm not posting as much as I did in March. Ho-ho, you should really check how much pressure and hardwork I made to entertain you last month. 

Lately I've been loving the classic feel of things and listening to music. It's a good hobby whenever your having a mental day off.

I just realized how powerful Classic Disney is with it's realistic characters, and astonishing backgrounds they're basically aesthetic titans. I see these regularly and they influence me.

Previously I showed some drawings I made. This is sorta of a Part 2 but I'm mostly going to be talking about other aspects that inspire me.

The beginning of my drawing career was copying designs from my old toys and books. I didn't knew Preston Blair until I was in the 11th grade, so it was a long journey to get me there, but ey it was truly fun back then.

The toys I had back then were really appealing and easy to draw. The octonauts toys I had were similar to these. I loved that show as a kid but I seemed to like the toys more, they were colorful, highly expressive and cute.

When I discovered model sheets and Preston Blair for the first time, it was successful and life-changing. You can't beat classic animation because the designs, facial expressions and creativity was on another level. No computers, no electronics, but isn't cheaply made, and has natural potential. Which is such a disappointing sign nowadays since everything made should be made for only adults and not everyone.

Now I want to make my cartoons somewhat homage the classic cartoons but have a more modern approach. I don't want to make it just standard even though I adore characters that feel more alive. Animators seem to disgrace modern animation, I'm kinda the same way, but I don't outright tell them to change their style. Modern Disney 2D animation, and 3D animation can be expressive at times. I'm not expecting everything to be funny or round-shaped, as long as it looks good and feels alive I wouldn't mind it because if people made these for passion and dedication, why hate it and have little appreciation with it? 

My taste in cartoons feels kinda restricted but I'm only saying that because I kinda have short-attention with entertainment. I don't watch too much TV shows or movies because I like to do other stuff in my spare time like exploring various media, listening to old music and taking a moment to breathe.

You can look into more of my interests in my post on how strict my interests are with this link.

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/am-i-strict-with-my-interests.html?m=1

I'm always trying to slightly improve my drawing skills here and there because sometimes I mess up or I get too drawn to details I want to practice drawing them. 

I tried to study the Bugs and Willoughby frame from The Heckling Hare.

The reason why I'm doing this on my notes app on my phone is because I have more time to zoom in and check for any errors.

I'm highly impressed with this drawing. I didn't trace it in the slightest. I carefully planned each of the shapes and sizes for both characters and I managed to do it quite well. Took me about 20 minutes.

If you wanna see my original characters I've been designing lately I'll talk about em.

DALLASON DUCK

Dallason is an anthropomorphic duck who has a cool and calm nature but often uses his imagination and takes his strangers to another world or into something he has problems with. His fashion is inspired by 90s fashion and the rise of cool hip cartoon characters.

Here's a more sketched and constructed version

I'm not a big fan of the daydreaming concept, Calvin and Hobbes, the Ralph Phillips shorts, while those can have good moments at times and feels original and interesting, they don't hit me as much because it usually happens when they're at school and usually they would get laughed at which I don't like. 

This is Dallason's pet frog. He's caring, fun-loving and always ready for an adventure. 

The last character for now is his school teacher. She's the successful authority figure who doesn't like when her students misbehave or cause a mess.

PINK ELEPHANT

Take this as some sorta modern old tale of Pinocchio. He was born drunk and unstable, he became an elephant. Sorta points out the scene with the bad kids turning into donkeys. Man I still have chills from that scene. I wanted to do the same. 

I had a dream a few nights ago where there was a random pixie elf flying around and searching for the pink elephant in overalls, he was mistreated by a bunch of bulky men trying to impress themselves from a mirror. It was at that time I started creating the characters and their distinct traits.

This is the pixie glitter elf. Just how he looked like in my dream. 

This takes place in 1922, New City. It was renamed a few years later for obvious reasons. It has a campy amusement park, nickelodeon theatre, music bands, paper airplanes flying around 24/7, you name it. 

The 6 men rule this place and try to help the pink elephant from running into trouble.

They were obviously inspired by my love for J.C Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell and old photography. 

I drew one of my current comic heroes.

Would you like to know how I drew characters 2 years ago? 

The redesign I carefully planned out completely. You can definitely see more fluidity. 

When I watched Disney, such as their movies, alongside MGM and Walter Lantz, I knew I had to step up my gain and improve my drawings since they looked like the cartoons from the 70s-80s.

My biggest inspirations was The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, mostly the scenes involving Scribner's Duck Twacy scenes, The Three Stooges, Three Caballeros, and classic musicals, such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Trust me I have the biggest inner world ever. 

I believe that films should still allow freedom and creativity. My ideal ways on making a film is using storyboards and appealing to everyone just like with Looney Tunes, Ren and Stimpy and Spongebob and those are shows that changed the world for the better.