Spümcø - Ranger Smith Cartoons

"Man.. four o'clock every morning.. what kind of life is this?"

Oh my goodness. How I love these Ranger Smith cartoons. They were made by Ren & Stimpy creator, John K. If I remember correctly, they had a short run on Cartoon Network in 1996. It's basically John's homage to the classic Hanna Barbera Yogi Bear limited-animation cartoons from the 1960's (which also had great character and design). To me, this is pure art. These drawings capture so much mood, emotion, sincerity, appeal, character, personality, expression, humour, design, and draftsmanship, that it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Just look at these great stills..

These backgrounds are just amazing! I wish I could find somebody who could paint like that.. Note the subdued use of colour. No loud 'cartoon' colours. The way cartoons used to look in the golden age.

Some of the background layouts were done by Ed Benedict.. designer of the original Yogi characters.

Ferdinand Chicken Redesign..

I made this doodle this morning.. after seeing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I just love Christopher Lloyd's character in that film! I think subconsciously I've based my Ferdinand chicken character on him. So what I did with this doodle was to remodel my character's proportions a bit to better suit his personality, the way it was originally intended. Now he's more of a tall moron with a bow-tie, the way I've always imagined him in my mind. He's basically an insensitive moron professing to be a smart chicken. It's obvious to him that most other beings are stupid. He seeks intellectual conversation, but when he finds it he doesn't understand a word and just considers the person to be a moron.

All characters and images copyright © Gerhard Cruywagen 2009

More Construction Practice

Here's another construction exercise. This one made me really consider the volumes of the shapes, aswell as the line of action (especially with the duck). It's quite hard to draw characters with such round-shaped construction. Again, a very useful exercise. It's slow progress, but I feel like I'm learning all the time.

Another children's book drawing..

A sample illustration that I did for Fantasi Books:

More Doodles..

Doodles

I've been making doodles when I should've been working.. Sometimes I like the doodles more than the finished illustrations. Also, I got a new pen, and I'm loving it!

Ferdinand Chicken

I finally finished my first one-page cartoon.

(click to enlarge..)



I'll be sending it to a couple of magazines.

Let's hope someone bites!

All images copyright © Gerhard Cruywagen 2009

John K Construction Practice

I'm following John K's advice and copying classic cartoon drawings by using construction. This is attempt number one.