Thursday, August 25, 2016

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/


http://miltonknightartsale.blogspot.com/

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A commission just completed. Get yours now!



COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

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
 

Sunday, August 21, 2016

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

Saturday, August 20, 2016

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  

Friday, August 19, 2016

MORE SETTINGS

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














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Frames from a camera test.








COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Thursday, August 18, 2016

SKETCHES


















COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

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

Monday, August 15, 2016

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.)

Sunday, August 14, 2016

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.

Friday, August 12, 2016

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!

Thursday, August 11, 2016

BRING BACK THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS

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

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

TRISH DRAWINGS

All done 2012-2013.

















COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

...WITH A CAST OF UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS!

The Popeye characters are best of all; but aside from them, I've thought of my four favorites.

The Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang in TOONERVILLE PICNIC (1936)



I think Mr. Bang was the best character the Van Beuren studio ever used, even if he wasn't in the best cartoons the studio made (and the studio didn't create him). There is an effective absence of background music in the set-up scene. This film is the last completed by the studio.

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Dogface in A SELF MADE MONGREL (1945)


If there is a single, solitary Famous Studios character I can relate to, it's DOGFACE!! Check out the cynical "cartoon blues" hidden by the heavy dialogue.

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Wally Walrus in CHEW CHEW BABY (1945)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kw64c

I can't praise the "concept" of Wally enough; a pompous, lovelorn, gluttonous "solid citizen" who could probably dig in and enjoy his life if it wasn't for the woodpecker. Gullible and dumb, but not as grievously cretinous as Fudd. And an extreme case of the voice "being" the character. Other actors were never as effective. Woody certainly had a colorful gallery of adversaries.
 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kw64c

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Butch in GRIN AND SHARE IT (1957)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vs4o2_grin-and-share-it-1957_shortfilms


Deadly greed deeply camouflaged in a stereotyped Irish jollity. Even his music is harmless bumptiousness as he sets up his nefarious traps.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vs4o2_grin-and-share-it-1957_shortfilms

Monday, August 8, 2016

YUMMI & FRIENDS

I've found quite a few works I'll be posting, since I am no longer posting work in development.

Yummi YumYumm and her Aunt Peg had some kind of S&M scene going. (Yummi was to have been a character in MIDNITE THE REBEL SKUNK, but that book was cancelled. Pages here are from the early 2000s, one story appeared in WILD KINGDOM.)














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 Zoe is from a strip I drew for HIGH TIMES in the mid 1980s. (Drawings from late 2000s.)





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Song of the Day: I love hearing pseudo-Gospel pop songs sung by operatically trained singers who roll their 'R's.

Radio Melody Boys (Harry Hudson) - "River Stay 'Way From My Door" (1931)





COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

CARTOONING WAS FUN

Once one could get a weekly salary for drawing like this.



























From "The Hairy-Berry Bush" by Jim Tyer.