Feedback: Bruce Watkinson

My name is Bruce Watkinson. I’m 19 years of age, and I work at Wal-Mart, unloading trucks and stocking shelves, while continuing to pursue my goal to work in the animation industry. Besides drawing, I enjoy swimming, analyzing world history, and watching the Walter Lantz, Warner Bros, Fleischer, and occasionally Terrytoons cartoons. I also read a lot- comic strips and paperback novels. My blog is Understanding Animation, where I recently posted a tribute to Ub Iwerks, along with the History of Popeye. I listen to music from the 1900’s to late 1960’s- big band music, the rock group Queen, The Coasters, Wilbert Harrison, The Champs, Percy Sledge... I also have a swell taste in jazz music.

I have a host of artistic inspirations, mostly from the golden age of children’s illustration to the Playboy artists of the 50s/60s, as well as John Delaney, Jessica Borutski, Ed Benedict, Carlo Vinci and Will Finn. I study the paintings of Maxfield Parrish, Gustaf Tenggren, Einar Norelius, Kay Nielsen, and my favorite one of them all, John Bauer, whose trolls, compositions, and color values have expanded my horizons. I enjoyed reading most of the posts on the ASIFA site, but the three that I continue to read for study are...


The Famous Artists art lessons, which have assisted to improve my drawing and painting ability, that with hours of practice, no college course has yet to achieve.


Bakshi’s discussion about 2D and 3D animation- He gave some valid points to both camps, all the while giving us artists a kick in the pants for falling prey to repeating the same stuff.


The post that blew my mind the most was Carlo Vinci: The Training of a Golden Age Animator, especially the following quote: “Vinci's job was to animate, but his occupation was ARTIST. The same was true of most of the other great talents in animation- Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Grim Natwick... The reason they were great animators was because they were great artists.”

Now I’m doing my damn best to be the best, to best the best, and maybe one day to teach what I know to anyone who is interested. I’m planning to go on a two-week vacation to L.A., and besides visiting and donating to the
archive, to meet most of the artists from blogger land. Thank you for making your passion available to us young eggs, and hopefully, we might one day become cocks of the walk. -wannabe artist/cartoonist: Bruce Watkinson

Stumble It!