Extreme Examples of The 2 Major Streams Of Cartooning

CARICATURE CARTOONS - BASED ON REALITYThis is Sullivant. His cartooning style is based on realistic caricatures. All his shapes and forms are accurate depictions of real anatomy. What he changes are the proportions. He makes big heads, small bodies and he caricatures the joints. He is caricaturing the contrasts that actually exist in real life.

Sullivant became a big influence on Disney in the 40s - when they started moving away from Freddie More's rubber hose type characters.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/02/being-enslaved-to-someone-elses-style.html





http://www.animationarchive.org/2009/01/biography-father-of-cartooning-t-s.html

PURE CARTOON STYLE - SHAPES NOT BASED ON REALITY

Milt Gross is the more modern cartoon style. His drawings are made up almost entirely of unrealistic simple shapes. The eyes are ovals, the characters have no joints or anatomy. They are made of tubes and bulbs.
These drawings are from a brilliant novel that has no words. Gross tells the entire story in pictures and it's really funny.


http://mrdarbyshire.blogspot.com/2009/01/he-done-her-wrong-milt-gross.html

There is every type of variation of both styles and many styles that are somewhere in between. What they both have in common are that they are funny pictures - which makes them both "cartoons".

Pogo is mostly rubber hose cartoony, with some touches of anatomy. Dennis the Menace is a beautiful combination of the 2 schools of thought. Betty Boop is 100% cartoony. Mickey Mouse, Gerald McBoingBoing and Popeye too.
Bambi is mostly caricatured anatomy. Captain Hook - a combination.

Looney Tunes are somewhere in the middle, but aim at either pole depending on the time period and the director.

Whereas this is not a cartoon:
Even though it's a decent drawing and shares some of the same drawing tools and principles as the other 2 styles. It's just not supposed to be funny.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/04/2-types-of-cartoonists-origin-of.html