About The Color Theory + Interesting Look At Color Schemes and Layouts

 

I've been on a blog called John K Stuff, if your curious he's the person who made Ren and Stimpy. He's a questionable person but I do like his blog on some occasions. My favorite series of posts he did was on Color Theory.

The first one I found was scenes created by the layout department from the old 50s Hanna Barbera cartoons. When I was first introduced to these cartoons, I wasn't all fond of the animation or the slapstick similar in vain to how I felt about the old Disney shorts back then, but I was always so invested in the color and the environment, it was hard for me to avoid what was going on.

In Part 3, this is where he discusses more of the opposite of good color styling. I do have to say using more common colors especially the primary colors isn't the most clever idea you can think of to creating something so I do agree with his statement.

Part 4, he talks about how greys are more colorful and lively than "dull and dingy" colors. This is a fun post, and in one of the pictures he showcases is a bunch of handsome old Disney scenes like Donald and José walking to the café, and Bambi. They were comforting. But something tells me that when it comes to the other pictures like at the beginning where he shows some dull prints of Roger in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, aren't actually the real colors of the remastered version that came afterward.

Note this is a comparison image. This is from John K's blog, compare it to blu-ray, notice anything different? Yeah the newer version is more dim, but I particularly like it even more. It fits the song and the atmosphere alot more clearer.

Part 6 he chose a Huckleberry Hound cartoon that stood out. I agree, these are fun to look at.

I cannot help as to why these backgrounds and their color scheme were natural and genius. They just know how to make the viewers amused easily.

I don't want to go all day on talking about a singular series of posts on someone else's blog, so here's my final thoughts.

I highly appreciated the opinions and critiques on every single animated film he chose to give memorable and knowledgeable examples. It's a good sign of appeal and personality into making a cartoon. His pictures in particular I have saved from time to time, and I still enjoy looking through them for reference. While I do tend to enjoy some of the modern colors and styling, you cannot beat the rich natural colors of the old stuff. I think they had it best. 

I do have to say, him nitpicking on the worst of color styling is rather dated nowadays. We see those pinks, violets and rainbow colors as a sign of appeal nowadays, and it won't stop trust me. 

I also do have to point out a serious flaw, he does mention that even some of the worst of color palettes, he mentions the "s" word. So don't ever feel like you have to listen to everything he says.

And like I said about some of the posts I mentioned, the images like the Disney ones are probably from VHS or old DVD screencaps and the blu-ray and Disney+ remasters are more pleasent.

Here's links to my favorite post + the ones I mentioned. 

https://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/color-theory-look-at-sky-before-you.html?m=1

https://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/11/color-theory-art-lozzi-interview-early.html?m=1

https://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/color-theory-neutral-or-natural-colors.html?m=1

https://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/color-theory-pee-and-poo-colors-versus.html?m=1

https://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/12/color-theory-montealegre-lion-hearted.html?m=1

I felt inspired so here's my color styling choices.

Robin Hoodwinked (1958) has some incredible backgrounds at the start. The color scheme with the castle and skies in particular are nice.

I would love to mention painters as a position for use of Color Theory. Here is an example of one of my favorite painters Albert Bierstadt, he makes the most beautiful paintings I ever saw and this one here is called A Storm In The Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie c. 1866, just stunning!

The Pluto cartoons had some nasty and awful color remasters throughout the years where they look so bright and fake it hurts my poor eyes, but a GOOD Pluto cartoon with GOOD color styling is from a great title name, The Legend Of Coyote Rock (1945). I love the sunset, the interesting colors of the grassy textures and feels normal and almost resembles the original cels and layouts.

In my opinion, Disney has had alot of immense color schemes to their feature films. A great one is Snow White. The shot sequence of the cottage is just beautiful. 

The Seven Dwarfs have an incredibly accurate color style to the backgrounds as well. They're immediately recognizable and iconic.

Unlike some of the dreaded live action remakes we have today, the layouts and atmosphere feel more natural and there isn't too much gloomy darkness and seriousness to them, and to me that hardly ever works.

There's this Donald Duck cartoon called Fall Out Fall In (1943) with the best sunsets painted. I adore this. I actually talked about the full cartoon in the link below.

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/fall-out-fall-in-1943.html?m=1

Bad Ol' Putty Tat (1949) is a Looney Tunes cartoon that could've been included on the list of Color Theory posts but those are almost a near 2 decades old. This is still very appealing and pleasurable. I don't enjoy a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon but I recommend at least one of their first few solid hits.

When I gave Peter Pan (1953) a second chance, I just loved the different colors and landscapes in each of the opening credits. 

J.C Leyendecker is my favorite magazine artists, he makes alot of elegant and stylish art. The palette is the best of limited color schemes. It uses only black, red orange, brown and beige colors. 

For my final choice is not particularly animated but it's very useful and is a part of life. The seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. This is like those Instagram/Pinterest posts you see of different aesthetics.

Anyways I hoped you like something a little more different than what I usually post, if there's any other blog websites I should check out, then I'll gladly visit them, so far I liked Michael Sporn's, Deja View and Yowp. They're fantastic check them out.

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/?m=1

https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/?m=1

I can thank all of these bloggers. They inspire me so much!