Now I’ll be the first to admit that I only have a superficial
understanding of Cubism or abstract art but the cartoonist in me likes it
because it’s funny.Picasso is pretty funny.
Juan Gris is not as funny but he has great color and design sense.
Of course every cartoonist knows Miro is the funniest.
Anyway I always liked this stuff even though I'm no expert on fine art.
I think it’s because
as a kid I was so fascinated by the early Hanna Barbera style which didn’t make
logical visual sense but was fun to look at.
...like how Fred's mouth and hair looked the same from the front as it did from the side.
What if they took it further - Like having his mouth appear from different directions from each angle?
Or how Yogi's eye (only 1 of them) went in front of his hat.
It’s fun and easy to do because the abstraction is already
inherent in the (Ed Benedict) designs.
I have a tougher time abstracting more constructed characters like Looney Tunes.
I tried the other day. First I started with just trying to exaggerate the characters - as opposed to abstracting them.
Even that is hard to do because Bob Clampett already exaggerated them to such extremes.
Then I began to transition from mere caricatures to more abstracted deconstructed designs.
This is about the best I've been able to come up with so far. Still a ways to go.
My own characters are kind of a blend of old style construction and abstraction.
But even these can be pushed farther into bad dreams.
