By the way, the reason I put all this information and advice up here, is partly because I'm willing to save people the decades of time I've spent uncovering some secrets of the past and learning from trial and error, but also in the hopes that in a couple or a few years I might have a small army ready to help me make the kinds of cartoons I can direct with skilled and willing cartoonists.
I sure envy the days when Clampett, Avery or Jones could just walk in the next room and have a whole staff of already highly skilled crafstmen and all in a progressive mind set to outdo themselves and everyone else every time they sit down to make a new cartoon.
http://search.blogger.com/?as_q=Preston+school&ie=UTF-8&ui=blg&bl_url=johnkstuff.blogspot.com&x=0&y=0
Don't wait till you're in your mid twenties and your conservative hormone kicks in! Then you'll be satisfied with slaving for the man.
182 comments:
Christ John! Dont quit.. We all look to you for inspiration and maybe even a chance someday to work for you. You are very influential to this industry and most of us realize this and want the same changes as you do. Keep up the lessons and we'll keep up the training
DON'T QUIT!!!
How are you suppose ta' change a whole fucking industry?
But we very much appreciate your knowledge!
Well I already did 3 times, but I want allies next time.
Yea, don't quit. I work on these lessons everyday.
Hope this blog continues for many years.
-John
I'm only 14 and I've had a talent for drawing since I was born and picked up a number 2 pencil. When I discover REAL art I couldn't and still can't take my peepers off of it. Free lessons from someone who actually knows something is what I've been seeking for a long time and when you started your blog last year, I've been checking it every morning with a bowel of cereal absorbing all your knowledge and reading it over and over again to better understand what you try to get at in your lessons and cram into my brain, using up all the ink in the printer to print your pics out for me to copy over and over again has been quit a hassle and I admit that I've sort of cried thinking that I'll never succeed in becoming a true artist but I've pushed myself over and over again and when I finally get what your saying and can redraw the things I've practiced my beaten soul on, I feel better and better about succeeding in the wold of animation.
So I beg you, I'm on my knees. Please keep posting, you know that I and many otheres are depending on you to teach us to be better than we think we can!
I really hope that in the not too distante future I and hopefully many otheres can help you change this corrupt industry for good.
I work at a lousy construction job 5 days a week. I come home beat every night, but it pays the bills. There are only two things I do everynight that's the same every night (besides eating and washing - natch!) I check out the latest from your blog and I draw. Every goddamn night!
i'm with ya man, to the bitter end! you know i've benefitted from all you've shown and told me. i appreciate all that you've done. you can count on me John.
You have a great blog. Would you like to be paid for your writing? If so, email me at scotsd50@yahoo.com for more details. We have a lot of work available.
About the lessons; I don't own any of the PB books, and haven't been able to find them in any of the local stores.
While I am in my mid twenties I still think I have a chance. I have been working full time since I was 15 and drawing and painting everyday. I never had any way of knowing what I was doing wrong or learning more skills because I can't afford school and my parents won't fill out my FASFA so I can't get financial aid (you're a dependent according to FASFA until you're 25) UNTIL YOU CAME ALONG!!! Granted I discovered you a little late but I have set up a lesson plan according to everything you post and draw every night, there is no weekend for me when it comes to art. Stop by and tell me everything I am doing wrong, I won't cry I will only get better. THANK YOU JOHN!!!! Don't stop doing what you're doing I have loved your cartoons since the moment I clawed my way out of my mother's deep dark vagina.
John,
Bear in mind that you're contributing to the historical record, too: i.e., due to this blog, you might have better cartoons to watch at least by the time you're retired.
You can't quit! We need your lessons to help us look for the mistakes we make in our own work after being exposed to years of bland animation. Please continue posting.
Hasdrubal (hamilcar1234@yahoo.com)
John, It's not in vain. I've been applying the information offered on my current toon project, and I don't work for a dammned studio. I thank you, Ducky thanks you.
Keep going.
I'm glad to have it. I'd picked up a lot of it wandering through Spümcø but it's great to have it all together, and somewhere I can point young cartoonists to - your guides are now my standard link for 'you wanna learn how to draw better?'. I need to grab all of these for my own archives sometime soon. And stop letting myself cut corners so damn much.
If you took the material in all these handouts and cleaned it up into a book (assuming you could get reproduction clearance on all the examples, or replace them with something else demonstrating the principles), I would totally be telling everyone to buy it. It might well turn into an instructional classic that survives for a generation or three.
Posterity doesn't do you much good here and now, though, especially when the lure of a steady job with insurance keeps pulling your students away. You'll always be able to get some percentage of your previous crew back for new projects - the desire for a challenge, and to try and make something that matters again, is compelling.
I wish I had some solutions, or was actually any good at sympathy.
You make a difference in people's life's, please remember this. Your mark on popular culture is glaringly obvious.
Yeah John, don't quit I've been a professional for 14 years and I enjoy reading your post everyday. I think I had a pretty good education at The Joe Kubert School. But, I still learn something new or you remind me of things I should be doing. You can get pretty jadded working on one lame project after another. I've been trying to re-capture the fun I used to have when I just drew for fun and you've been a big part of that.
Hey John,
Not to stray away from the topic but are you gonna' do any post about your earlier work? Like I saw Christmas in Tattertown, and I agree that it's not good but there has to be some ideas learned from such an effort. How do such cartoons get made? Was that Ralph's idea or someone from Nickelodeon? A lot of it looks like Milton Knight drawings.
Did you ever see Pat Ventura's Jamal the Funny Frog? I thought they we're good, expecially for what other crap came out with it. Any stories abut Pat?
I know ya' rather talk about older cartoons and the core fundamentals of drawing but as a fan of cartoons I want to learn all about them. Animation has such a poor way of passing information on so it's hard to find information on anything. These blogs help out tremedously and it's exciting to talk with the people who make and work in the industry.
Staying in the public eye can help your own marketability. This type of forum helps to mobilize your fanbase to purchase the works you produce, and bleeds out into other venues where others will be encouraged to purchase your output, or be informed of its existence; this type of community increases your marketability.
Your worries seem to be about creating a commons; c.f., when someone creates a public park across from their home, they do not capture all the value of the park. People use the park, as it is in common; but the people who built the park tend to feel possessive of it, in spite of the fact that they made it a public place because that way they got a permanent park view without having to pay taxes on it.
Encouraging a discourse on something you feel is missing can only help increase the presence of what you feel is missing by encouraging people to engage in it. If you retreat from encouraging people, then you would not be enriching the cartoon commons and others couldn't benefit. But then you won't have a nice tax free view when it comes time to look out the window, or a ready pool of vagrants to fill your hobo graveyard with...
I can't ever see you quitting John, you've worked too hard fighting for cartoonists to leave the remaining ones who can draw in the dust clueless. You're an example of how most of us got into cartooning in the first place.
I started drawing before I entered kindergarten and didn't realize how many bad habits I picked up in my art until reading your blog. You're a godsend to us all and to hear you wanting to quit only disappoints me.
But then again I see it this way, you can't take the art out of the artist so I have a feeling I'll see your work no matter what in the future because drawing is in your blood and whenever you see something wrong in the world you're going to want do something about it by showing people how you see the problem and the world with your art.
Plus look at the family you've created through becoming an artist, Eddie, Steve, Marlo, Katie, Marc, Chad etc. You're not going to let the ones closest to you be disappointed eh?
I'm off my soapbox now, it's time for me to attempt to continue your legacy by drawing some more.
-Sean
Dogg, do not quit. Your lessons are always interesting and thought-provoking, even if I don't have a lot of time to work on them during college semesters. I feel like I've improved a lot just from doing the first Preston Blair lesson.
I hope I have time to do more next semester, but meanwhile don't stop doing what makes your blog so awesome.
You have presented artistic principles better than anyone I have ever found or heard of. I think we're all born with intrinsic ideas of even the most primal of this shit but as we become grown-ups and sell out we cease to renew our understanding of artistic truth and we do our own self-important thing. (Exupery's The Little Prince was right on every single count.)
I've only seen two art books I've ever remotely approved of. Noone articulates ideas better than you. I'm an art tutor: your presence is felt.
never quit.
Firstly thankyou for your blog and knowledge. Secondly yes 60 years ago cartoons were better. I scribble because I can't come up with one single idea for a cartoon I would like to make and put every single bit of love into it like the cartoons of the past.
I don't consider myself the brightest spark, though I know what's good and what I like, I'm shit at writing and have a terrible attention span and can't read for long before I want to do something else and am probably dyslexic too.
I learn by doing and when I do I believe I do good.
There's so much shit on the net I end up wasting my time (damn stupid videos and porn).
Maybe some of your viewers are the same as me? It does though seem that they all want to do good!
This is one site that actually gives warming knowledge that is appreciated.
A BIG book with all this wonderfull knowlegde and pretty pictures would be really nice, to get me away from this energy absorbing hell machine, so I can go to a quiet corner and work learn and smile. ?
That's the best I can do to express my thoughts into words, sorry. I'm starting to get restless now and must paint!
P.S. Apologies straight off,
last year I made my debut cartoon and it would really make my day/life if I could give you a copy, I'm not after your address or anything, I'm sorry you must get this all the time. Anyway I live on the other side of the world and I'm not gonna buy a ticket just to find you.
Could I please send a copy to a buisness address or PO/Box?
hrymabusta@hotmail.com
I would love some helpful criticism
not like a certain Oscar short animation nominee who called it 'tecnicolour vomit', luckilly I'm not that bright and don't know if that's good or not.
Thankyou John K
-Your biggest fan,
Anthony
Yeah honestly, John, there are a LOT of us reading. You're making a much bigger difference than you realize. Even for a hack amateur like me. I'll always be an amateur because my true passions lie elsewhere. But my dumbass scribblings have gotten a little less dumbass since I got the Preston Blair book. There's now a hack out there, making silly doodles for his friends, WITH COMPOSITION! Crap just got a little less crappy. Just imagine how much the truly talented are benefiting.
There's a kid at the archive right now working with the Preston Blair book on your drawing course. He's been in every day the archive is open for the past two weeks, drawing all night till we close. This stuff is getting used.
See ya
Steve
John, if you quit, I'll probably cry. Big ugly man tears.
I also vote not quit.
John, you keep bringing up topic they never taught me in school, or if they did teach me, they didn't go into the detail, theory, and history that you do.
keep up the good work, and we'll keep learning
Kevin
wow, i think you get a lot of feedback from people. and it sounds like a lot of people take to heart, your lessons. i know i do, I've already tried to send some links to pictures i've done for my classes at UotA. in every single piece i've done in the past month, i've chosen colors influenced by your lessons.
Don`t fucking quit!!
Sure, you ripped apart my scribbles, but I`m going to school, working a graphic design job, and just dealing with feeding myself, so I`m a little slow at this stuff!
But god damn it I`m reading everything you put on these pages and I`m taking it seriously. I`m applying everything I can to my school projects (in which I get good marks), and my own personal work.
When I have a bad day at school I come home to this blog and I learn something! Amazingly, you always post something which is the topic of the day at school, and I always learn a lot.
Don`t you fucking quit I`d be nothing without your teaching!
I`ve started those Preston Blair lessons when I have free time -- otherwise I`m applying what I learn to my schoolwork. You`ve also exposed me to so much that I`m ever harder on myself. You wanna see some lessons? Well, once I`m satisfied with myself, then you better believe I`ll show `em to you!
Don`t quit! MAN I am so pissed off that you said that! And I`m not sorry for saying that in honesty. I completely appreciate the free wealth of knowledge, but flashing this in my face and then taking it away forever is devistating!
But if you do quit this, I'll just have to take everything you taught me and then try to find out all the secrets of the past on my own... and don't think I won't do it, buddy!
I have the talent, man! I've made progress with no skills! Now I'm working on those too.
I'm young and naturally rebellious! I've always been that way, so it ain't gonna leave. It's a part of me.
So KEEP IT GOING on your side, and I'll do the same on mine. TRUST ME.
i am constantly checking this thing, and learning stuff every single post. The color theory posts LITERALLY opened up my eyes, and for the past couple weeks i can't help but analyze the colors in the cartoons i'm watching, if they are good or not.
if i were you, i'd keep doing this blog. there's a good deal of us out there who will be submitting to you in the next couple years, as soon as we can move/afford/get situated. i'm planning on being out in LA by this time next year. and damn it, it would be a DREAM to make your cartoons.
I think the lessons are valuable, they are providing a much needed contrast to the art-schooling I have received over the last 5 years.
It's amazing, but although I understood the concepts from class, I didn't really see how they should be applied (other than trial and error to see what works and what doesn't). At least you are more than bluntly (which is a skill lost in N. American society) showing prime examples, and more importantly, explanations.
It's nice to know why something is good, and what makes something wrong, in more of a manner than formal art theory definitions.
I still feel that people aren't learning all they can from their seniors, they have all these years of experience, and our generation (I'm 24) has no interest in learning and preserving it, and most shall be doomed to start again from scratch, re-inventing the wheel.
For God's sake, don't quit! If you want to take a month off then do it but don't stop completely! The industry and art in general needs you! I'll write more about this on my own site!
I'm LEARNING! And i take special vitamins that fight off conservative hormones. ( i call them grapes!) An'd my head is even gun-free.
Nobody makes cartoons like you! Where else could anyone learn from the best?
You might as well quit.
We children of the New Dark Age are just mindless consumers anyway. We'll watch, listen to, eat, drink, smoke, shoot, snort, fuck, & buy anything they put in front of us.
Thanks anyway...
I agree with Mitch, it’s amazing how we come back from school all confused, go to your Blog, and read an amazingly educating post on the SAME TOPIC!
It speaks to the heart. We need an alternative voice in animation, and we’ve always loved to have you.
I remember the drawing lessons you wrote me about 8 years ago, it was the first time I ever listened to a grown up about these things.
Within one year I could see a huge improvement.
I don’t intend to spend my career as a drone,John. I’ll enlist in your army.
Thanks to your blog, I have hopes of making a decent animated feature for once! Even though I'm 24 years old and a pretty mediocre artist, I'm still giving it a go for life! Keep it up, Mr. K. We love you!
>>The industry and art in general needs you! I'll write more about this on my own site!<<
You missed the point Eddie. What do I get out of it?
Don't bother, you'll just get hecklers.
keep this gold coming! I don't want to keep looking at sites where people gush about how good each other's stuff is, without any kind of critical thought at all, and the stuff you share here is invaluable information to use to analyze whether or not something is working, and if not, how to fix it so it does work. I read this stuff every time i see a new post on here, and every time i'm learning something new, or at the very least reenforcing the good things i learned already. FEED MY MIND!
I was afraid of this. It does seem like a lot of people are not posting or just gave up on the lessons. Many decided they did all the lessons so why continue to post. But they don't realize that you just don't stop at the end, you have to keep repeating the lessons over and over and over until you get it right. I think that was the main instruction when the innitial school thing started. When you see the amount of people who started on lesson 1 and the ones that are still left, it's amazing on how small the group diminished. I think a lot of people thought that you would personally critique every time they drew a line. That was never part of the bargain. The point was to put the lessons out there and have the students analyze their work and find out what they need to improve upon. That's how you learn. I say keep posting because the ones who are left I'm sure will be 100% into helping you out whenever you need them. If I ever get to the point (skill-wise) where I can be of service to your future cartoons, be sure that I will. I'm an old coot but I'm trying my hardest to break myself down and start all over. Keep on posting because there are still some hardcore people out there willing too keep on posting their lessons and follow you into the fight.
-David O.
P.S. I'll stop my scribblings that have nothing to do with the lessons.
Hi John K,
As for what you get out of offering your knowledge and advice:
Apparently I'm a little late starting the $100000 Animation Drawing Course but I intend to follow through. I'm motivated to get good by my own selfish reasons, but frankly if at some point down the road you ever saw fit to use me I'd be honored to offer my services in any capacity. I live in LA so this is a possibility as far as I'm concerned.
Even if you quit now I'd probably have more than enough material to study to get my own projects done, but if you keep going there's at least one person who's going to try and suck up every bit of knowledge, and is willing to work for you if the time comes.
I didn't want to show anyone my weblog until I'd gotten better, but if you like you can check on my progress. (Today was my first entry coincidentally.)
http://obso1337.blogspot.com/
Please don't stop if you think I'm worth the effort. (Hint: I am.)
Sincerely,
Nathan Robert
PS If anyone else is interested in helping me out, I wouldn't mind some feedback. There's not much to comment on right now, but in the future it would be much appreciated.
Well John, I always believed you would lead an animation revoulution. You're laying a great foundation with folks like me that grew up on your cartoons. Setting goals, communicating what you know, and sharing lessons with us has me returning back here nightly. I've been in L.A. for four months now and between discovering this blog, the ASIFA archive, and even 1 trip to your house I feel I've gotten priceless schooling and giant steps in the right direction. I'm willing to help you battle and you' are helping me to get ready. Don't give up!
--What do I get out of it?
happy cartoonists!
If anything, don't take down the lessons you already put up. Maybe years from now it'll sink in with someone.
isnt teaching outdated animation techniques kind of like posting a blog on how to use a telegraph???
I worked for you some 14 years ago, and it took about 6 months after I left in disgust for your "tough love" principles of art to kick in. Once they did, though, my work improved by leaps and bounds and now I am a much happier cartoon-drawin'-guy. My message is: Don't give up! Somewhere out there is a young you- or even a young Bob Clampett, who is licking all this info up with mustard!
Ain't that worth it?
I get a lot out of your lessons and your insights, John, I'd be sad if you gave up on this. I think you msut speak to an inner logic in even the most idiotic young scumbag.
There are profound cultural implications to all this stuff. Profound! Although I realise you're all about the concrete and the practical. You make me have magic thoughts.
I have no idea if I'll ever work on a cartoon, but I've been Preston Blairing it on the quiet because it's such good discipline, and such a specific kind of skill and dexterity that's needed, it can't help but enrich my understanding of cartoons and all the good stuff.
I'll be your ally! In some form! Words or pictures... Bloody hell!
Wow, I don't know wether I should encourage you to keep posting lessons, or to just feel generally insulted....What ever the case, I just turned 28 so you obviously weren't talking to me. I've always liked your art, but do what makes you happy i guess! Maybe you should create a site and have us pay to read these posts and view the art on here. Shane Glines does that and my friends and I pay him every single month to view them. I mean there's some pay off for you right there! BTW, Good help is ALWAYS hard to find. I almosts lost EVERYTHING I own moving out here to L.A. at the hands of incompetent moving hands I hired. I'm sure it was the same for Chuck Jones, and Bob Clampett back in the day as well...but maybe not, what do I know?
-Bob
How much you need to make the animation of you dream? (with all the skilled artist you need)
I'll start a Toon-o-thon right now.
You missed the point Eddie. What do I get out of it?
Can't you say what exactly are you hoping to get? What is your specific purpose? Are you waiting for the next Katie Rice to emerge from the people who read your stuff?
Oh, yeah, and don't quit!
I find all of ur stuff interesting. I find something to help me. I'm 15 and most of my life, I have wanted to be a cartoonist. I look for influences everywhere... but this blog and ur info has been a true blessing. Please don't quit... :(
Don't quit either!
Your color and composition theories are ensuring that Im getting better everyday. You're the one bright clear bunch of ideas in a great big fucking fog of vagueness.
You are the best teacher ever.
Dan
Dear John, I work in Italy as an illustrator, and, recently, animator. Or something like that.
I discovered Ren and Stimpy in June (I red an interview with Bill Wray on an Italian underground magazine). I saw some episodes around the net, then I bought the 1st and 2nd seasons DVDs.
In a few words, I reborn in George Liquor.
On September I started working on my second cartoon. During the entire work your blog has been THE daily appointment. I felt very lucky.
Your analysis of cartoons is priceless. You do point out and name some aspects that everybody sees, but just unconsciously. These few selected concepts are the result of a life of work. They are simple and darn well aimed. And incomparably useful.
I finished this short cartoon in October, before you started your lessons about colors. Now I'm eating my liver out, because with some of your advices it could look way better. And I'll omit talking about the composition (I'm starting to post some bits on my blog. I'll post the entire short when the movie will be released).
Willing or not, in a few months, from the other side of Atlantic Ocean, I have been strongly influenced by your school.
Don't quit.
if its cause of the inane troll comments, Im the one making most of them and I freaking love your blog and think its the best art resource online by a mile
> You missed the point Eddie. What do I get out of it? <
How about a name that transcends time like Frederic Chopin?
I havn't been following these lessons as religously as some people but in the 2 weeks I've been doing them, my drawings have become 10x better. Doing stuff rather than just reading about it all day actually works! You convinced to me to get off my lazy ass and actually do stuff and make me feel like I'm achieving something everyday instead of just getting older slowly.
I posted my first lesson by the way.
Please don't quit.
This lesson hits home for me. I've really neglected backgrounds when i draw because i've always felt they interfered with my characters (at least when i do draw them). The thing is i feel a background is almost needed to add to the suspension of disbelief of a cartoon.
This emphasizes that i had the right idea (not having a background interfering with the character), just poor execution.
And i will echo the many posts i imagine telling you not to quit this. Your lessons and dissection of cartoons and animators has been a daily enthralling read for me. It has inspired my work and has improved my ability when following what you teach.
Your blog is an amazing resource and i hope i am not the only young cartoonist who thinks so.
Hi John,
While the idea of a blog is a good one because you get instant feedback, I agree with Peggy - the lessons would be better if they were more organized in either a book or on a web site.
The problem with blogger is they only display a certain amount of links at a time, and if someone isn't technically savvy, some lessons could be missed. Maybe get Stephen to help by putting them on the AFISA web site (not the blog).
Re: your question "what do I get out of it?"...what do you want to get out of it? Let me know - it might me something that I or others can do.
john please do not quit these blog posts. you are doing the art community a great service by training budding artists and retraining jaded older artists. i have reinvented myself as a better artist from your informative posts. i have learned more in the few months i have spent reading your posts and applying the PB book concepts than i did in 4 years of school.
if posting examples of our practices and progress would help i will start posting my core skills practice.
you are right about the networks snatching up all of your ideas. i would add that they are snatching up your retrained skilled artists too and making them pump out mediocre work. personally, i would not offer my services to any studio if i did not respect their art. (mebee thats why i still haven't gotten into "the field" yet) lots of these skilled kids get stars in their eyes when they think their works will be seen on tv or big money gets flashed around.
i hope what you "get out if it" is the satisfaction that many people read and believe in what you have to say about the medium of animation. you really are an excellent person for allowing us to read your observations over years of insight and experience. it certainly has changed me into a better artist. i can see and feel the difference from my old sketchbooks.
who knows, maybe you will not get your reward during this lifespan. maybe you will be immortalized like your predecessors. maybe you will be greeted in the next life by a harem full of buxom, bountiful, pneumatic, ever-so-soft and smooth maids of heaven who are incredibly motivated and highly skilled artists ;p.
Hey, if that weirdo-looking guy with the hugh afro can babble on about painting imaginary landscapes year after year on PBS, surely there is an audience for these theories and instructions you are providing.
I've been hammering away at them since May.
But does this benefit YOU? In my case most certainly not, as I am TWICE the upper-bracket age of the group you hope to influence.
Will any of this EVER benefit you? How'm I supposed to know? I ain't no Nostradamus!
Just put me down as being most appreciative of the lessons and the motivation to finally crack the binding on my 25 year old copy of Preston's book.
That is to say, "Thanks."
I strongly suspect that with this site (along with a few of the other good ones the ASIFA Blog, Mark Kennedy's site, etc.) you're planting the seeds of real renaissance in animation where new artists embrace all the old almost lost principles.
Give give those seeds time to sprout John...and DON'T QUIT!
You should also really put all this together in to a kick-ass book!
Aw man, don't quit! I've been learning from these lessons and taking them to heart and trying to get my artist friends to use them too!
I thumbnailed an entire 24-page comic and I'm currently re-doing the whole blasted thing based on these most recent lessons... they've really reinforced and made clear some of the stuff I'd been paying lip service to forever.
Although the downside is, the stuff on my blog is the crappy pre-John K-ification process, so I can't really show you anything to make you convinced I know what I'm doing.
Which maybe I don't, but at least I feel like I'm capable of doing whatever it is better than before.
This blog is a prime resource for me. I read the entries, sketch in my sketchbook, go look at other artists to see how they've applied these principles.
Well the 20s have passed for me but I've never developed that conservative gene... don't want it. Couldn't function with it. In fact, if I ever had it, it's been worn away by your relentlessly hammering these points in your blog.
Damn... I wish I had some art to show you but I'm in Japan without a scanner and all that stuff.
One of my friends is a young cartoonist from Brampton, Ontario, and she's been doing some work in magazines and campus papers. I've been pushing your lessons on her like crazy and hoping she'll start putting it all together. She's got skills and she needs a real teacher.
You're right about your entries too- they're definitely concise. Well written. Unlike my comment here.
Oh yeah... and I guess I missed the point too. But yeah, you do need something in return.
And I mean beyond gratitude. Something concrete and kick ass from some of those really amazingly talented people who were doing your Preston Blair lessons.
Where are they now? Are they still around?
isnt teaching outdated animation techniques kind of like posting a blog on how to use a telegraph???
That's one stupid thought. Really stupid. Oh, but an anonymous posted it - figures.
John, don't quit! It hasn't even been a year since you started this thing. It's sure opened up my eyes like everyone else. There's gotta be artists out there who are applying all of this theory and technique to their own projects right now. Great cartoons will begin to emerge in the very near future, thanks to this blog alone.
I also must thank you because I've discovered some great artists out there through these comments. Sure, there are plenty of 'fans' posting here, but there are also cartoonists and artists who congregate here and 'get it' when it comes to your discourse. They're starting to understand what it takes to make good cartoons - even if a lot of them suck at the moment (myself included).
Keep posting - it doesn't even have to be as frequent - because this is the blog I visit the most. And it's not just because I've always been a John K. fan - it's because I want to learn.
I've been reading and thoroughly enjoying everything you've posted ever since my cousin Justine pointed me to your blog. All that colour theory stuff—I've really been paying attention to it more when I'm painting. I'm not really a cartoonist, per-se, but I'm notorious for my storyboards here at film school. So, I appreciate all the stuff you put up here! Keep it coming!
Thanks,
Nina
hi jonh ,visit my blog...
Unfortunately, you just aren't getting much out of it. It's costs you the time to write the posts and reply to the comments (which you actually do). And I'm certain that most (if not all) of us can't compensate you your going hourly rate to make it worth your while.
The only thing you have going for you is that this information is on the internet, where it will be archived for many years, and be referenced as a resource for those who find it. You're contributing to the contemporary history, and actively influencing at least 5% of the readership, and more who will have it lodged in their subconscious where it will eventually rear it's hear.
But in the end, like most things done for the public good, you will get nothing out of it for yourself to compensate for your time and effort, other than the knowledge that your assisting others, and maybe a good feeling.
In the end, it's still up to you whether you feel it's a worthy cause to persue, as doing something just for the sake of doing it isn't that fun and probably just adds to the stresses of life if you're feeling obligated to keep on updating often.
Jeez dude, way to make me feel old! Hey,I 'm learning so much from this blog- I 'm tellin' you- you're opening my eyes. I gotta long way to go!
"Shitbitch said...
About the lessons; I don't own any of the PB books, and haven't been able to find them in any of the local stores"
Hey! You can ask any clerk at any Barnes and Noble and they can order it for you...its not the same book John has...but the lessons are the same, just no tom and jerry etc etc...trust me, its worth it.
and to John!
I don't really know what I could say that everyone else hasn't already said. What do you get out of these lessons? Obviously you aren't getting any kind of satisfaction- which is perfectly understandable. Any other teacher in any other subject gets to watch their students grow in their abilities and talents where as you are denied that in this anonymous internet setting. Seeing is believing, especially now a days. I wish I knew someone with talent enough to inspire you to continue. Just think about how daunting that task is- the student good enough to inspire John K? I'm personally too intimidated to even show you my own work- but I HAVE been getting better and I suppose thats all I really have to offer.
sincerely,
j.juett
Keep the lessons up! I'm getting better because of you.
and as you said in a couple or a few years you might have a small army ready to help you make the kinds of cartoons you want with skilled and willing cartoonists...
It 'll pay off John... keep it up!
and BTW Thanks for all the free lessons.
Hi, John -
What do you get out of it? You get ripped off! You train artists and theyll go work for someone else! (I'd like to hire some skilled artists to work on my hack productions! - but Nick, CN & DW keeps hiring them)
Another thought: When I started in the Animation business, most of the "old timers" didn't want to share their secrets with young beginners. If you wanted to learn something, you had to really want it and work assisting the experienced artists, and little by little you learned. Giving this stuff away for free,a lot of people won't appreciate how valuable it is. If you work & struggle to learn something, it's important and you appreciate the value.
On the other hand - What you're doing on this blog is a great thing - You present a lot of ideas in a clear & logical form that is directly applicable to making cartoons - If you printed these as a correspondence course you could charge people hundreds of dollars and make some money off it - I don't understand the people who say they can't find the Preston Blair book at the store - THE DAMNED THING IS ONLINE!
Anyway, thanks for doing what you're doing
Kent B
thanks a lot for all this master-class online!
Hey John! Please don't stop! Your recent posts on form, color, composition, and the awesome Lozzi interview are all amazing! I love getting all the tips from your blog. Maybe you should publish a book.
Whenever I'm blown away by a post on your blog, I always make sure to click on a bunch of the ads. I don't know if that helps much...
The people who are reading this will be geeks who liked Ren and Stimpy, since it seems, more than anything else to be your signature cartoon. I liked Ripping Friends all the same
'HEY THERE'S THE BOOB, RUN AWAY LITTLE BOY, WITH POOPERMAN ON MY SIDE THE WORLD IS MINE, YEAH I LIKE IT!'
but when people think John K in the cArToOn WoRlD first thing that jumps to mind will be R&S.
When I started college three years ago, I was 18, and with alot of people my own age, who, it appeared knew little or nothing of art. Mt art teacher kept pushing me to get an A in my 13th year exams, and these people I was thinking to myself probably got on the course with a D (not that that should give you a reason fo' hating them, just a bit dissolutioning about the nature of college). It almost appeared that the teachers were trying to train kids (who never had an interest in any kind of art to start with) into mad scientist genius. At the end of the year it looked like most people had turned into something they weren't, it was pretty weird... a girl who had come onto the course as a timid plain jane was now a fully fledged punk rocker dressed in as many colors as a parrot, and with all the clutter of a christmas tree. I don't recall talking to anyone with any real interest or artistic nature apart from my house mate, Matt, who was as eccentric as a cheese wheel. I recall watching the chart shows on the tube, and this industrial indie band came on, and he said 'someone needs to find a new way of playing the guitar whether it can be done or not.' Most people seemed totally clueless lacklusters who were only concerned about having a 'good time' and getting from college perhaps what 'high' [-_-] school
had denied them for the lion share of their teens. So college is a bit gay
It seems to where there is hope 'in anything' there'll be alot of folks telling you what you're doing is stupid. It seems to succeed in any media proffession (especially where art is involved) you go to the depths of madness to try and proove your points and cement them in your living art.
There's so many cartoons where you can point the finger and say that it was because of Ren and Stimpy that this thing exists and the creators will deny it, most Nickeloden animation has that.
Do yer not think that in your mid-late 40s you've outlived your creative genius?? And whatdya mean you changed the industry '3 times??' Didn't you just do that with Ren & Stimpy? You have that bravado character on Venture Bros. who resembles Crag alot, but I'm not sure that Ripping Friends completely change the industry...
Fahrenheit 451. You might be off in the woods right now but this blog and what you represent is inexorably becoming the definitive resource for what good animation and cartoons are.
Take solice in that fact that a stuffy uptight stereotypical attorney has been drinking his daily coffee from the Ren and Stimpy Smashed Mug for the better part of a decade. And when ever he sees his son, he has one question for him—“Have you found your stinky?”
JOHN, I LOVE YOU, DONT GO!
I was in a depressing animation college for three years and it threatened to suck all of my passion for cartoons away but this blog keeps me going, i'm on it every single day so thank you. But please don't quit, you might not get anything material for all your free lessons but many allies are listening intently. i did the Blair lessons but i never posted them and i'm sure there's hundreds like me.
It's my dream to one day work for you and this blog makes me believe that this dream isn't completely impossible.
Please,please,please do not quit.
Your ally, Ruairi.
John, don't quit. My skills have vastly improved in quite literally a week. No bullshit. My fellow graduate students have raised their eyebrows and given me thumbs up for some recent drawings and animations I cranked out, but on the contrary my 3D modeling professor is getting irritated with me for going above and beyond my assignments. (He's a fucking communist in my opinion).
I will keep going, I'm on Preston Blair lesson number 4, so when you decide to make a feature length Ren and Stimpy movie, let me know.
Your efforts are not in vain. I'm about to graduate with a BFA in Animation/Illustration and I can't get it out of my head how dismal the job front looks. Not that there aren't jobs - but the industry seems like a cold-hearted place at the moment. Why hire me when you could outsource for much cheaper?
Anyway, I have a ton of peers who are reading your blog. Believe me, you have allies, and we appreciate what you're sharing with us.
Hi Rex,
you're one of the ones I'd like to work with, but you'd have to get yourself to the functional level. My guess is you'll end up at Nick working on a "John-K. Style" show like everyone else does.
I always like to see examples of what NOT to do, along with the examples of what to do. The bad stuff throws an extra clear light on what's good about the good stuff when they are presented together.
PS: Don't quit.
John DON'T QUIT!!!
The army you speak of will occur!!
By doing this amazing blog you are not only giving younger generations the tools they need but also the motivation to practice them by offering a chance to work with you as their prize!
You could be surprised by your mid twenties comrades too, were not all conservative zombies.
Please don't quit John! There are a lot of cartoonists who read your blog and try to apply the knowledge you post to their work. Maybe you should make it a pay service like Shane. Post lessons and give more hands on critiques to the subscribers. Make some money while training your cartoon army!
Cartoonists have no choice but to work at the latest 'John K Style Show'. They can't work for you since you don't have a show right now. Cartoonists need to pay the bills too and it's better to work on a half-assed cartoon then work at Starbucks or some sort of ad agency doing bullshit design.
If you quit John then we all lose. Please don't quit:( I beg of you!! I'm absorbing this stuff like a sponge! I need KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge only you can provide. You may not see it now but there will be very succulent fruits from your hard labors. Trust me.
Whaa!!! Don't quit John! I need your knowledge. I absorb these blog lessons like a sponge! You're easily the greatest teacher of all things art. I'm not going to learn this stuff at community college. If I don't learn it from you then I don't learn it at all. So please don't quit. I promise you, the fruits of your labors are real. You may not see it now, but your lessons will pay off.
please please please don't quit. I just started drawing again for the first time since forever, and I just recently found this site along with the temple of the seven camels. There are a lot of people, like me, who have never been exposed to _any_ kind of systematic/formal training or schooling. I never really knew how people learned any of the things you've shown: I was always told a person either had enough talent or they didn't. If you had the talent, you'd figure everything out, if you couldn't figure it out, then you don't have talent so no hope for you. Your site is showing people like me to see and think about what we make, and most importantly, that there are skills that we can learn and work at to get better. I just want to be better: I want to make what's on the page look like what's in my imagination. I've been burning up the internet trying to learn and learn. Please don't quit. I just bought the animation book this weekend, and I'm getting my website up for the lessons you started!!
please please stay: I have to learn.
oh yeah, if I ever got good enough that you would want me for one of your cartoons, I would be there so fast you'd think I'd been living in your sock drawer. Please don't quit. Fight the good fight, man. You got some new recruits (even though some of us are still wet behind the ears!)
John! Man, you have no idea how much I love your lessons! I love your lessons and they're fucking free!! I know I'm not saying much, but what people here are saying is true. Don't go. I reccomend everyone I know to go to your blog to learn about real cartoon art and animation! I tell it to my friends even my professors and they totally agree with all the points you make. People miss good cartoons and great animation. They tell it to me all the time. As for me, Hell, I practice all the time. I always look into the Preston Blair book for inspiration and get inspiration from different artists from past and present. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have known so much about cartoons. I think I would've turned into a brainless hack doing nothing! Cartoons are my life. I'd be nothing without it! And for it to just wither away and die would be an awful thing to watch. I try to motivate people as much as I can to watch good cartoons and to actually analyze them. Go to my blog. I've been learning alot from you and I think it shows in my art.
P.S. I also came up with a notebook to draw and write information on artists who influence me. I got the idea from when Shane Glines posted that comment on your post on the importance of influences. I'll make a post about it in my blog as soon as I can!
Pedro
Dear John,
You should simply turn this into either an online school, think animationmentor, but without CG crap, only pure 2D instruction, or a physical school in LA.
In fact, you should hold a physical school in the Los Angeles area. You could have interns that come directly out of your school and work on your projects.
Now maybe some will hop over to Nick, but 'F em - you'll have more coming up through the ranks. If you're on their tails training them, you'll never run out of talented folks in that green phase before they get greedy. Heck, even you admit you want people green before the conservative hormone kicks in - well think of Nick and others as being a nursing home for your artists once you got some good out of them. And for the truly loyal - they'll be there with you.