BACKGROUNDS

Just about finished: My backgrounds for a color reprint/remake of a black & white story for GRAPHIC CLASSICS. As there are balloons & characters filling most of the space, I'm not rendering as "finished" as I might.

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Screen grabs from the black & white "Milton Knight" Google search. I am overwhelmed, in senses good and bad!

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT 

THE "OLD GUYS"

In the 1990s, quite a few of the original animators were alive, and some of them working. But the new hotshots nor the studios gave a damn. Norman McCabe was at WB TV doing exposure sheets. The young Turks were threatened by him, or something; McCabe found himself on the receiving end of nasty office politics, and ended up leaving. It was the same case at the "new" WB for Maurice Noble, whose designs were paid lip service, but never followed. Friz Freleng was called in for one meeting planning the 1990s PINK PANTHER show, and actually donated a boxful of art from the original series for the new studio to follow, but his suggestions were ignored.

It's only been since these men died that animation became all about "studying" the old techniques. Now every animator (whatever that means now) wishes they could speak to an old timer.

SERVITUDE TO EQUALITY

I've posted my page of art (from an unpublished graphic bio of CLR James) before. I'm not sure that many people, even British ones, would have noticed that I swiped from a coffee label to make the point.

Pictured above are the three ages of the label: from servitude to equality.
Labels borrowed from this blog, whose poster states: "At this rate I may not live to see the Sikh and McDonald’s first kiss."

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

SINCERE QUESTION

So what's positive about Trump aside from the "rape America great" platitudes? What has he actually offered besides crowd fever?

Asking "so what's Hilary got to offer?" is no answer, it's just a retort.

(Besides, I don't know.)

UB IWERKS' "OLD MAID"

Ub Iwerks' best character: The Old Maid.

If the studio had offered a series of Old Maid cartoons, they would have made for truly original novelties!  But it was customary to grasp at straw Mickey Mice.

Thanks to dustincropsboy for posting these cartoons.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK

Background detail from current project.

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Ted Weems & his Orchestra with Perry Como - Sunday in the Park (1938)

 COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

DRUNK MONKEYS

This Chinese cartoon is closer to the Fleischer spirit than any of the "retro" games or videos I've been seeing lately, especially after 6:15. The characters are rubbery, but there's still structure & draftsmanship, and the facial expressions aren't limited to toothy grins and frowns. Probably from the 70s-80s.

ANIGLIMPSES

Drawings from CAPRICE scanned & colored but out of order. (To be put in proper order later.)

I've got some more completed scenes on a disc...somewhere...

 COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT 

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From the People's Republic of China, 1957: It's just fun to see what the fanciful characters will do next, as in the animation of Grim Natwick or even Jim Tyer. (Watch for the inflating bear!) Even the music is cool. Must have made a powerful big-screen experience for the youngsters. I love Eastern cartoons for the folk art traditions reflected in them. Artistic qualities unique to their countries. Now dying.

NO. I'm not sorry. I HATE CGI. FUCK IT, I *HATE* IT. (Tears in the eyes.)

REVELS

Page from my adaptation of Fitz-James O'Brien's THE MAN WITHOUT A SHADOW for GRAPHIC CLASSICS.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

I PREFER PAPER

 I just read my first e-book. I prefer paper.

One thing I dislike about e-books is that art must be viewed in pieces or relatively small in full. How much fun is that??

 
































A book of paper I can treasure. An e-book...well, it's on a thumb drive somewhere.

An ART BOOK.

 

CARLO VINCI

I wrote a little evaluation of Carlo Vinci's animation on my Facebook page. I'm repeating it here:

It's a matter of following his work since childhood, before knowing his name. Always hard to put an animator's specialty into words; Vinci's is largely the quick body motion into a slower, steady position before going into a quick move to the next slow. That timing. The body moves in reaction to the weight of the joint raised or moved. There's a grace to it, and a dimensionality.(He didn't spare three-quarter to profile views, etc.)

From PASTRY TOWN WEDDING: The little guy in this scene after 2:20 makes my timing thing clearer, I hope.

 Another quality of his I admire is that when Vinci drew a character, it appeared to have an intellect, rather than only an emotion. Even his early HB stuff. Making a character like Fred look aware of what's going on instead of just a dumb nut isn't all that easy.

 

NEW BLOGGEROO!!

Hello, Friends! I've uploaded a crude first edition of my art sale blog so you can see and buy! Tell your friends!

http://miltonknightartsale.blogspot.com/

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A commission just completed. Get yours now!

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

TESTS TWO

Tests from CAPRICE, TEEN OF TOMORROW:

Caprice dodges flaming rocks shot by She-Monster.

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The She Monster runs in terror as Caprice shoots from above, eventually hitting the monster's tail. The final animation would look slightly less frantic, as a few "cycles" are meant to be repeated a few more times.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT
 

TESTING...TESTING...PENCIL TESTING, THAT IS

Test for CAPRICE, TEEN OF TOMORROW. Caprice flies into air and looks down below. (Missing a few drawings.)

The She-Monster has propelled Caprice into her mouth, and swallows her.

Caprice mocks the She-Monster.

Caprice lands on her Bubble Cycle, is dizzy, realizes she must get home.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

THE JOY OF EDITING

Just now, I've been doing a little impromptu editing of my (completed) novel, THAT'S SHOW BIZ! after finding some in-progress notes. The original paragraph:

"At the other end of the room, Pa Flannery chopped away at a side of meat with a cleaver almost as big as he was. He was in his early forties, skinny, with a squirrelish, eager look. His apron was spotted with caked blood, and he wore the kind of beat up straw hat butchers wear in advertisements. The thick lenses of his glasses completely obscured his eyes. His teeth were noticeably immaculate. They didn’t match the rest of him."

Looking it over, I did a bit of revising:

"At the other end of the room, Pa Flannery chopped away at a side of meat with a cleaver almost as big as he was. He was a skinny man in his early forties. His eyes were completely obscured by the thick lenses of his glasses, and his eager, darting movements made him seem not unlike a mole scraping away at the earth. His apron was spotted with caked blood, and he wore a beat up straw hat butchers usually wear in advertisements. His teeth were ivory white and immaculate. They didn’t match the rest of him."

Then the final (presently):

"At the other end of the room, Pa Flannery quietly chipped away at a hunk of meat with a cleaver almost as big as he was. He was a skinny man in his early forties. His eyes were completely obscured by the thick lenses of his glasses, and his eager, darting movements made him seem not unlike a mole scraping away at the earth. He sported a beat up straw hat butchers usually wore only in advertisements, and his apron was spotted with caked blood. But his teeth were an immaculate ivory white. They didn’t match the rest of him."

I'm most pleased with the last version because, fortuitously, I introduced a simile (chipping away at meat & obscured eyes=a mole scraping at the earth), and a contrast ("sporting" a shoddy hat and bloody apron, but having immaculate teeth). And you saw it as it happened! That's right, all one of me.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT  

MORE SETTINGS

...from my unfinished cartoon, CAPRICE, TEEN OF TOMORROW.

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Frames from a camera test.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

SKETCHES

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

MY MARILYN MONROE

 One can learn much about drawing womens' (not "cute girls'") faces by trying Marilyn Monroe's (at least I do). For a beauty, there are lots of interesting wrinkles & folds going on.


In truth, I'm not certain of the success of these likenesses. They are exercises; impressions.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

ANIMATED ON THE EVE OF PEARL HARBOR

Anti-war ending in this cartoon in the American style. A year later, forget it. Soon, Mitsuyo Seo was directing his infamous Momotaro features. (Posted by Vulture Graffix.)

THE FOX BUILDER (1936)

From Soyuzmultfilm, THE FOX-BUILDER makes great use of American-style fox trot & jazz rhythms. Note the hints of "Old Man River" that start the climactic chase. Directed byAlexander Ivanov.

BACKDROPS FOR A TEEN OF TOMORROW

Out of closets and drawers, reviewing art from my abandoned animation project, CAPRICE. Sonofagun, I did a lot of work on this, including a great portion of the animation & even the inks (w/o color). This project was started during a very bad period, 1999. It was conceived as a 'show reel', to show everything I could really do, as opposed to my limited input on the TV stuff.


It went through a series of legit producers who offered to finish it. But drawn animation was on its way out, and all the studios were closing. By now, it's too old for my own interest, and as a 'show reel', it's not in step. I'll be posting a few more tests, eventually.
If I do try another film, it'll be on a much smaller scale. Never try to approximate POPEYE MEETS ALADDIN all by yourself. 

 

 

 

 

 

Test scene. Walk needs work (I've learned since), but is OK enough to show here, I think.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

QUESTION AUTHORITY

"I'm an Unemployed Sweetheart", played by (the pseudonymous) Wallace "Ed" Kirkeby.

Another version, by Harry Bidgood:

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT!

BRING BACK THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS

...I mean those days when people could cross the street without an iPhone.
(Played by Benny Goodman.)

TRISH DRAWINGS

All done 2012-2013.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT