Boy, people sure could draw 70 years ago. In lots of different styles, and all with the same principles.Look at the clarity and great organizing of all the design elements.
If you go back to the first few posts on BG Layouts and the composition posts too and read about the principles of good composition and layout, then
WATCH THIS FILM.
http://www.archive.org/details/Destinat1956
Interestingly, some of the scenes are cluttered and others are brilliantly organized. Look at the street scenes and neighborhoods. Great! Maybe it's 2 different layout artists.
But, this this isn't good because it is "flat" or "UPA" style. It's good because the scenes are really well organized...or composed. These artists are thinking artists who plan their scenes to make everything that is important stand out. They don't clutter the scenes with arbitrary details and visual noise.
This image is well organized. The characters make a circle shape and each character fits well within the shape.
Here are the same organizing principles applied on a much more complex level. A picture with this much detail in it could easily be a mess of clutter if attempted by a less thoughtful artist. It would be extremely hard to put all this complexity together and still make it clear and striking-and still compose to focus on the character! Amazing.Unlike this.
This scene is not organized. All the design elements are cluttered and just thrown in haphazardly. (I know Hunsucker or someone will jump in and say "It's purposely cluttered! That's the point of the scene!" Is it purposely ugly too?Here's more clutter. Some composition and thought could have made the individual shapes read better. Of course the shapes themselves aren't that thrilling. Isn't there a point when things just get too primitive?
Here's a real Jim Dandy.
You can have good compositions and design in any style. Bambi has it, Chuck Jones cartoons have it. Tex Avery, Clampett, John Hubley, they all have good organization of visual elements in their films. Even many Terrytoons do. Some don't.
Clear compositions in more traditional styles. Organized to make what's important in the scene to be emphasized.
Yeah the surface styles are different, but style is the last step good artists apply to the product. In all the important artistic principles they are all in agreement. The first step in any work of art or cartoon entertainment is spending years learning to draw correctly and logically so that you can have control over your creations.
Go see all these principles working on an extreme superhuman level:
Tenggren is even better than UPA at composition and design
