Chuck Redux

Image of the Day: Charlie Dog

"100% Charlie Dog" is a fine art reproduction on paper, created from original drawings by Chuck Jones and a background designed by Bob Givens.  It measures 24" x 17.5" and the edition size is 200, click on the image to learn more. 

"Charlie Dog is one of my favorite characters.  I don't understand him, but I do like him.  He is so unquestionably a dog.  Charlie is merely trying to find a master and a home, which are perfectly natural ambitions for any dog.  Comedy is always concerned with simple matters such as this.

"Charlie Dog is in many ways Daffy Duck on four legs.  He never doubts his desirability as a pet dog ("You ain't got no dog; I ain't got no master.  So I'll make you a preposition"), and he is openly obnoxious to anybody who appears unwilling  to accept what is to him a very desirable proposition."--Chuck Jones, writing in Chuck Reducks, Drawing From the Fun Side of Life

Image of the Day: Chuck Jones' Marvin Martian

"Marvin is one of those mysterious creatures that come out of the sky or up the stairs late at night.  You don't know what he thinks, and you don't want to know.  It is not simple happenchance that he appears to have no character.  He is a Martian, and you cannot expect to find much personality there.  I gave him a certain amount of gesture, but he expresses little passion; instead of howling with anger and excruciating pain when his plans lie in ruins, he merely and carefully says, "Oh dear; back to the old drawing board."  -- Chuck Jones, writing in Chuck Reducks, Drawing from the Fun Side of Life

"Chuck Jones' Marvin Martian" is a hand-painted cel art edition of 100.  Measuring 13.5" x 16.5" (a 16 field cel) it is accompanied by a fine art printed background that has gathered several of Chuck Jones' watercolors of Marvin Martian.  The cel itself was created from an original drawing by Mr. Jones.  We've included "Spaced Out Bunny" directed by Jones in 1980, a segment of his television special, "Bugs Bunny Bustin' Out All Over."  

Image of the Day: Sketchbook Page, Primates

Chuck Jones always felt that you had to know how to draw animals in order to make your cartoon characters (human as well as other species) believable.  Here is a page from one of his sketchbooks (graphite on paper) filled with drawings and notes about primates.  His notes detail their behavioral habits as well as noting their physical characteristics.  He made good use of his study of primates in his television adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book story "Mowgli's Brothers."

Titian vs. Roadrunner

Titian vs. Roadrunner: newyorker.com.

Titian vs. Roadrunner by Dan Chiasson

If you are made for flight, intended for it,

you had better find a pursuer, fast.

Otherwise all that fleeing is going nowhere.

This bull, he’s got a bad intent, he wants

to hog the entire corner of the picture.

The girl is looking tasty to the espying putti.

This small bird crisscrossing my childhood

at enormous speed, outrunning everything,

running out of road to run down, running

out of canyon, running out of cartoon

runs out of the cartoon, never to return.

That’s why this landscape looks forlorn.

The world turned upside down and shaken

like a piggybank, the one last coin

rattling around inside, just coughed it up.

 

Image of the Day: Bugs Bunny

Two of my co-workers and I spent part of the morning pulling artwork for the upcoming Chuck Jones exhibit at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that opens May 14th.  Although we all work with Chuck Jones art everyday, we're oftentimes removed from it (via computer screens, etc.) and today to have had the opportunity to get close to so much visual richness, ingenuity and creativity was completely inspiring!

This drawing of Bugs Bunny by Chuck Jones (graphite and colored pencil on 12 field animation paper) was a preliminary layout for a life-size (6') cut-out sign that was posted at the gate to the Warner Bros. lot in the 1950s.  

Image of the Day: Untitled Watercolor (Two Stagehands)

Untitled watercolor and ink on paper (Two Stagehands) by Chuck Jones, 11" x 14", circa late 1950s.  Although Chuck Jones is known primarily for his work in animation, he was also a serious and respected fine artist.  Classically schooled in such exacting artistic mediums as oil painting and watercolor, both of which he was a master, Jones was an avid chronicler of his real life, travels, friends and family throughout his long life.  This watercolor captures a moment on a soundstage (perhaps on the Warner Bros. lot) where two of the stagehands are caught watching the action unfold out of our field of vision.  Their posture and attitude is sublimely conveyed by Jones' inimitable handling of the medium as well as his elegant and simple line work. 

You may view more of Chuck Jones fine art series, "Incognito" by clicking here.

Image of the Day: Rabbit Seasoning

Original background layout drawing by Maurice Noble for the 1952 Chuck Jones directed "Rabbit Seasoning."  Graphite and colored pencil on 12 field (10.5" x 12.5") two-hole punch animation paper.  Selected for inclusion in the upcoming Chuck Jones exhibit at AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) opening May 14, 2010 in Los Angeles. 

Chuck Amuck: A Legacy of Laughter at Tempe Center for the Arts (Interview with Linda Jones & Craig Kausen)

Image of the Day: Creature From Another Planet

"Creature From Another Planet" hand-painted cel art edition of 60, 10.5" x 25"

Chuck Jones' iconic 1953 film, "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century" pits the intrepid Daffy Duck and his sidekick Porky Pig (Space Cadet) against a Martian named Marvin in a spoof of the very popular space opera films and radio/television serials of the period.  Maurice Noble designed the amazing background layouts for the short film (Planet X!)  

Image of the Day: No Barking

"No Barking" bow-wowed in theaters on February 27, 1954.  It was the final installment in the Frisky Puppy series and considered by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald to be one of Chuck Jones' mini-masterpieces.  The entire cartoon was animated by the phenomenally talented animator Ken Harris.  It was the only Jones cartoon where the Clampett/Freleng character, Tweety Bird, made an appearance (albeit a cameo.) 

This image is a 12 field hand-painted cel art edition (Director's Cut) that captures the moment Tweety Bird first appears and utters his trademark line, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat."