Saturday, January 01, 2011

Pretty Girls by Rasmusson

Hal Rasmusson is a cartoonist who I only know of from the Walter T. Foster cartoon books.
He draws pretty girls like a sonuvabitch.
It's nice of him to explain some of how he does it too.
He's got some real common sense advice. No hippie teacher mumbo-jumbo.

I used 2 different editions of the same book, because some of the pages overlap. The older edition (the skinny pages) has slightly better printing, but the newer one shows more of the images.
Each edition has some art that the other doesn't so I included everything for you.

That's a funny caricature he does of his own butt.
I think this (below) is actually Walter Foster imitating Rasmusson's style. He does a pretty good job of it and added a nice wash ink rendering style .
Foster couldn't resist including his interpretation of his favorite Disney movies. The guy was pretty good at a lot of different things.
I like his Jiminy Man sketches.

Ok, back to Rasmusson:

Note how using hierarchy gives him control over his poses and clear staging. Line of action, negative shapes and good construction.
His comics are well above average in skill and technique, way beyond Archie and most teen comics - even for the time. I'm amazed I have never seen any in the funny papers. I wonder if Chris or Ger can dig some up.
Look at this stuff. Cartoon gold.
The inside cover shows some of the other cartoon books Foster published. Imagine if there were actual courses like this in school? I wish I could find that "How To Draw Funnies" book. Remember when cartoons were supposed to be funny?

I guess I'll have to settle for learning to be cool.
Here is a nice double page spread from the later edition of " Modern Cartoon".
Thanks to everyone who donated in December!







Oh, here is the George Scarbo art from the same book:

Swell, huh?