Design: Grammar of Ornament Part Four

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


We had a request for more from Owen Jones' landmark design study, The Grammar of Ornament. This is the fourth entry on this topic. If you missed the earlier ones, see... Part One, Part Two and Part Three.

A lot of my posts here are very specific, and are aimed directly at learning about animation. But sometimes it's a good idea to take a step back and get a broader perspective. Although this book may not specifically teach you how to draw Donald Duck or inbetween a scene, it does apply to your creative process as an artist. Along with expressing emotion, the creation of pleasing patterns is at the root of all forms of art; not just animation, but music, architecture, and dance as well. Recognizing the links between different creative disciplines can help you become a stronger artist.

MORESQUE ORNAMENT


The designs in this section all come from the Alhambra in Spain. The Moors believed in decorating construction, not constructing decoration, so even though the graphic designs in this section are elaborate and awe inspiring, they always serve the overall form of the structure. Their religion forbade literal depictions, so the focus is on geometric patterns, along with written inscriptions reminding the viewer that regardless of the great accomplishments of its builders, "there is no greater creator than God."










PERSIAN ORNAMENT

Persian ornament is a mixed style, with elements of both Arabian and Turkish design. Unlike the Moors, the Persians were free to depict human, animal and floral subjects, and their illuminated manuscripts were well known throughout the Mohammedan world. In Persian rugs, you can see floral ornamentation that was particularly influential to the development of art in India.








INDIAN ORNAMENT

Indian art is simultaneously elaborate and completely balanced. In both architecture and textiles, there is a remarkable ability to create a heirarchy of detail that holds together from a distance, yet reveals new details as you look closer and closer at the design. Even though the colors are vivid and varied, there's always an overall harmony. The depiction of plant life is elegantly stylized and well observed. Some of the flowers look like you could pick them right off the page.









THE IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN
When The Grammar of Ornament was originally published in the mid-19th century, Victorian designers pilfered it shamelessly for fabric and wallpaper patterns. Jones was horrified to learn that designs that had served specific purposes to the ancient artists who created them were being mixed and matched randomly across cultures and centuries for purely decorative reasons.

This book is a lot more than just pretty "wallpaper samples"- it's an historical encyclopedia of pattern, shape and color. The history of mankind is revealed in its attempts at graphically depicting perfection. While there are marked differences between cultures, there's also a certain unity of aesthetic. Whether this is a result of "nature or nuture", I'm not sure. No culture ever existed in a vacuum. But I lean towards thinking that there are certain patterns and shapes that appeal to us on some sort of primal level.

Nowhere is this more evident in recent times than in folk and ethnic art...




If there's a "magic" to creativity... an element that is just there, defying all attempts to analyze or quantify it... The Grammar of Ornament contains it. There are certain combinations of pleasing colors, shapes and sounds that are common to us all. I think of these patterns and designs as being the visual equivalent of music. It doesn't matter what language you speak or what culture you come from, music speaks on a basic level that all humans comprehend from birth.

MUSICAL DIGRESSION
Last week, I got a DVD that illustrated the commonality of different musical cultures very clearly... Pete Seeger's PBS music program, Rainbow Quest. In this series, Seeger attempted to show the link between all types of folk music- blues, bluegrass, old time country, sea chanteys, Irish folk songs, etc... In this clip, Seeger brings together Roscoe Holcombe (the Kentucky mountain musician for whom the term "high lonesome sound" was coined) and Scottish folk singer Jean Redpath. Even though Holcombe and Redpath come from opposite universes, check out how Seeger gently leads the musicmaking towards the core elements that they share in common...


Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest" with Roscoe Holcombe & Jean Redpath (PBS/ca.1965)
(Quicktime 7 / 18.6 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

I've always found that the more you know about different creative subjects, the more you understand each individual one. This is the secret to the magic and power of creativity. I realize that this is a pretty vague and nebulous point to try and make, but I hope the examples I give you here express it better than my feeble words.

If you find these useful, check out our first two posts from this beautiful book... Part One, Part Two and Part Three

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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2007 Review: 7 Modern Animation

As the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive completes its second year in operation, it's time to review the accomplishments of the past year. Here's a countdown of the ten most important subjects we've covered in 2007. See if your list matches mine. (View the complete list.) Click on the links to read more on this topic.


From Early 50s Disney Christmas Cards February 10th, 2007
NUMBER 7: MODERN ANIMATION

Amid Amidi's great book, Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation stirred up a recent revival of interest in 1950s stylized animation. Just about every animation related blog had posts dealing with the subject. Back in May, a firestorm of controversy erupted around a fascinating series of articles on John Kricfalusi's blog, All Kinds of Stuff.


More than any other animator, John K is responsible for bringing stylized animation back to television. The Log commercials on The Ren & Stimpy Show and John's more recent commercials for Old Navy (pictured above) were masterful homages to what Amid terms "Cartoon Modern". But John's interest in the style isn't without criticism. His comments about the dominance of design over entertainment value in the theatrical cartoons of UPA resulted in one of the most stimulating and provocative discussions of animation theory in some time. The informed and impassioned arguments on both sides of the issue spilled over into Michael Sporn's Splog and Amid's Cartoon Brew.


My own volley in the battle over UPA was titled...
Design: UPA Done Right May 24th, 2007

Criticism of modern animation isn't without precident... Mark Mayerson posted a blistering analysis by one of the founders of the UPA style, Chuck Jones...


Chuck Jones On Modern Animation March 11th, 2007

Other posts this year that featured the modern style were...

• Story: Alvin Show Pilot Board September 21st, 2007


• Herb Klynn's The Shrimp February 25th, 2007

I'm sure there will be many more discussion of this interesting topic in the coming year.

Go To Number 6 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Design: John K On Character Design

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


Click for more great designs by John K.
Today, John Kricfalusi has posted another great article on his blog, All Kinds of Stuff. You owe it to yourself to check it out. If you're a student, you'd be smart to print articles like this out and organize them in a binder for easy reference.

ALL KINDS OF STUFF: CHARACTER DESIGN PRIMER

Another example of how blogging is changing the face of animation.

Thanks, John!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Theory: Propaganda Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.


Here is a continuation of my previous post on Propaganda Theories.

When the nations of the world entered into World War I, the methods and techniques of propaganda were naiive and innocent. But by the end of the First World War, the techniques of waging war in the hearts and minds of the public had entered the modern era. Propaganda had become much more sophisticated and powerful. By WWII, leaders realized that battles could be fought and won on the homefront. Propaganda became an important part of motivating the population to work together toward the common goal of defeating the axis powers. Compare the WWI posters in this and the previous post to the examples from WWII presented here. Notice how the design and layout enhance the emotional impact of the concepts. Many of these posters still pack a wallop.














For more on this subject, see Alfred and Elizabeth Briant Lee's book The Fine Art of Propaganda: A Study of Father Coughlin's Speeches 1938.

If you enjoyed this post, check out... Propaganda Theories Part One

Also see... Walt Disney Goes To War, Dispatch From Disney's Part One and Part Two, Arthur Szyk's The New Order and Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Theory: Propaganda

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.


Back when I was in college, I was wandering through a junk shop and found a file folder that was stamped "Return To Louis Van Den Ecker, Technical Director". I peeked inside and found a pile of interesting clippings. It was a reference file dealing with propaganda posters from the First and Second World Wars. I bought the folder and brought it home and did some research on Louis Van Den Ecker. He turned out to have been an expert employed by the studios to insure that their depiction of particular times and places were accurate. He worked on the 1939 version of Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beau Geste, Adventures of Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo among many other films. I assembled his clippings into a logical order and mounted them into a scrapbook. Today, we scanned this book for the Archive.


The concept of propaganda is widely misunderstood. Many people automatically assume that it's a negative thing. But propaganda is just a tool that can be used for either good or bad. Propaganda involves bypassing the intellect and appealing directly to emotion to motivate a group of people to action. During the World Wars, time was of the essence and masses of people needed to work together for the common goal of defending the nation. It would have been too slow to talk each and every move out with the whole population, so governments used powerful imagery to bring everyone together in the war effort.


I'm not sure if it's just the bias of this particular collection, or if it was actually the case during WWI, but looking at these examples, one can see how inept the Germans were at using propaganda. The German posters in this collection seem to appeal to abstract concepts like national pride, flags and mythology; while the Allied propaganda goes straight for the heart with concepts like motherhood, security, and moral outrage. Look at the example above. The figure in the foreground represents the outrage of the nation at the sight of a sinking ocean liner and a sailor's hand rising from the surf begging for help. Even after nearly a century, the powerful imagery still makes its point.


Contrast that impact with the poster above... Abstract concepts are stacked up on top of each other... It's not a baby... it's a statue of a baby. And it isn't even a statue of a baby, it's a statue of a cherub. There is no eye contact, just empty eye sockets. The emotional impact of the bullet hole in the helmet is totally negated by its similarity to the baby's belly button! It's hard to imagine this image motivating anyone to give money to the cause.


Early examples, like the one above, were created by renowned artists, and the subjects required close inspection, reflection and thought to grasp.

As time went by, the images became more graphic and direct...



Sketches of children orphaned by the war were potent images...




National and religious symbols seem to be much less effective, even when they are more interesting from an artistic standpoint...





These last two are interesting because they show how the two sides saw themselves. The German soldier is idealized in a kitsch way, while the French soldier seems more real and down to earth...



Which side would you rather be on?

Now you may be asking yourself, what does propaganda have to do with animation? Well... Think for a moment about the definition of propaganda, "bypassing the intellect and motivating an audience through a direct appeal to emotion" and then think about this image from an animated film I'm sure you're familiar with...


Can you think of any other plot devices used in animated features that operate on this primitive level?

If you enjoyed this post, check out... Walt Disney Goes To War, Dispatch From Disney's, Arthur Szyk's The New Order and Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Design: UPA Done Right

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



John Kricfalusi's blog, "All Kinds Of Stuff" continues to be the most information packed and eye opening animation resource on the internet. If you haven't visited it lately, you'll want to check out the series of posts John has been writing on the impact of UPA on animation. I guarantee that you've never heard these sorts of opinions anywhere else, and once you digest the concepts, you'll never look at a UPA cartoon the same again.

Wally Walrus vs. UPA Part One
Wally vs. UPA 2: Stylized Cartoonists Take Their Skills For Granted
Wally vs. UPA 3: Walt Craves Respect
Wally vs. UPA Sidebar: Flat Stylized Cartoons I Like
Wally vs. UPA 4: When Milquetoasts Rebel
Wally vs. UPA 5: UPA Bred Worse Imitations
Sidebar: Spumco Stylized Cartoons: 1990



Here is just a sample of what John has to say...

If you don't know cartoon history and you just grew up watching Cartoon Network, you might think that this flat stuff is something new and "hip". It's not. It's much older than UPA, and the more graphic styles in cartoons before UPA didn't come with the wimpy trappings. Because of our association with UPA's beginnings, we assume that when we do something in a graphic style, we have to also carry over all the other attributes that came with UPA's particular cartoon vision- the blandness, the wimpy world view, the snootiness.

People usually don't analyze or break apart the elements that make up something they like. If we like it we assume that every ingredient in it is equally good. Then when we develop our own styles, we copy the bad with the good. That's what we need ANALYSIS for!

Like many artists, I have tons of influences. There are lots of things that inspire me. I try to figure out why they do and I break them down into their separate ingredients. I then decide which ingredients are the ones that are useful and discard the others that might have just come along with it, but don't actually add anything. There are good things about UPA and Disney- Tex Avery combined them and added his own world view to them and made cartoons more entertaining than either style.

John's comments cut like a sword through the "design for design's sake" school of animation. He cites Tex Avery as the one cartoon director who was able to incorporate modern design sensibilities, while still maintaining the entertainment value and humor of classic cartoons. He's dead right. This post reminded me of my favorite series of commercials... which were directed by Avery at Cascade studios and animated by Rod Scribner.



Not only is the character design modern in the "UPA style" but the movement has been stylized in a complementary manner. Why don't the current "Flat" cartoons move like this?!



KoolAid Spots (Cascade/ca.1960)
(Quicktime 7 / 6.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

UPDATE: I was browsing through Cartoon Modern today, and I found a post that Amid did last Summer that perfectly encapsulates my thoughts about the importance of animation even in stylized cartoons...

The Importance of "Animation" in Animaton Design

One of the hardest things to get across when discussing animation design is that it's not just about character designers, layout artists and background painters. The animator is a critical member of the design team....

The primary reason, in my opinion, that so much of today's stylized animation rings hollow is because nobody ever follows through on the animation. Regardless of whether a show is animated traditionally overseas or if it's done in Flash, most contemporary TV series creators think their job is done once they've created a pretty model sheet and slapped on a bit of color styling. These few stills illustrate however that model sheets are often the least important aspect of stylized animation-- what the animator does with those designs is what truly counts.

Exactly! Great animators like Bill Littlejohn, Rod Scribner and Grim Natwick moved these kinds of designs in unique and stylized ways.

This post is causing quite a ruckus over at Michael Sporn's blog. Check out Michael's post titled Aaargh. In particular, read the comments. Here's a real doozy...

Not everything has to look or move gorgeously to be good or artful. That's one of the dumbest, scariest suggestions I've heard anyone make in animation circles.

Yow! Do people really think lousy animation is artistic?!

Cartoon Brew has jumped into... The Great UPA Debate. Will Finn (check out his great new blog, small room) writes...

I see Steve Worth's point about Kool-Aid ads and such, where perfectly admirable work is overlooked because it wasn't in the service of "Art witha a capital A". Animators who want to evaluate work on a technique level should be able to appreciate that wherever they find it and not just where the intelligentsia have enshrined it with a golden frame.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials, Alvin Show: The Whistler Storyboard and Jules Engel's Color Keys.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Pitch: Herb Klynn's The Shrimp Part One

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



Over the weekend, we received another donation from the family of UPA and Format Films designer, Herb Klynn. The Klynn collection is fascinating, because it consists of portfolio cases full of unsold pitches. The one I'm featuring today is a sort of animated Leave It To Beaver in a style very similar to the films of UPA. These sketches are very likely the work of Klynn himself, and stand as an example of his impeccable design sense and appeal.

Here is Format Films' presentation for THE SHRIMP.


My name is Christopher. I'm a guy like everybody else.


This is The Shrimp. He's my brother and he's different.


He doesn't talk much. He just follows me and copies everything I do. That's his turtle, Mr. Coolidge.


His really name is Marvin. Only everybody calls him Shrimp. Except my mother. She calls him Marvin. I don't know why. My mother thinks he's an angel. She kisses him and junk like that. Someday he'll bite her. She'll see.


My father likes the Shrimp too. I don't know why. Maybe it's because he ain't home all day like me. Some day he'll find out.


My mother thinks he's more important than the President maybe. She doesn't care about me havin' fun. Oh no. I'm supposed to take care of him and watch him and keep his nose dry. It's all I do practically. He has the wettest nose on the block.


Nobody talks like my mother. Not nearly. Just listen to her: "Christopher what's the matter with you why must you be so selfish you're a big boy you're eight marvin's only four anybody would think you'd love to take him with you wherever you go if you ever tie him to a fire hydrant again and leave him there so he has to ring false alarms for help you'll be so sorry I'll do more than just tell your father I'll take away your bicycle for good!" See? She never even has to take a breath.


These are the guys in our gang. With our shadow.


The Shrimp never wants to play with the little kids. He only wants to be with me and the other big guys. Like the ones in my gang. Which are swell.


This if Funk-Funk. He's keen. When he grows up, he wants to get tattooed all over and be in the circus.


This is Fats. He's neat. Once he ate twenty two Eskimo Pies without throwing up. He just got a rash.


This is Cannonball. He's cool. He never takes off his skates. Except in bed. Or on Christmas.


Caption missing.


This is Hubba. He's slick. He likes girls.


I do too. But it depends on the girl.

Although the humor in South Park is from a totally different universe, imagine how much better the show would be if it had half the style and expressiveness of these sketches. Quality design and expressive animation matters.

Many thanks to the family of Herb Klynn. I'll post more from this pitch soon.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... Herb Klynn And The Animated Feature That Might Have Been.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Mary Blair Song Book Part Three

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.



Today, we continue digitizing Mary Blair's "New Golden Song Book" from 1955. If you missed the first two parts of this book, see Mary Blair Song Book Part One and Part Two.



Click on the image for a full size view.

















If you missed the posting of the first part of this book, see Mary Blair Song Book Part One and Part Two.

For more beautiful illustrations by Mary Blair, see... Little Verses Part One, Part Two, and Baby's House.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Education: Fundamentals of Composition Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.

Today, I'm back at the archive, and continuing lesson three from the Famous Artists Illustration Course. (For our previous postings from these great books, see Fundamentals of Composition Part One, Chad's Design for Television, and Willard Mullin on Animals.)

John Kricfalusi recently posted a series of great articles on composition on his blog. You'll want to check those out too...

Composition For Layout And Background Artists: Framing
Composition 2: Intersection
Composition 3: Clear Staging
Composition 4: Staging Groups of Characters
Composition 5: Negative vs Positive Space
Composition 6: Asymetricality
Composition 7: Poses Working Together
Composition 8: Form vs. Detail, Lettering, Reference
Composition 9: Study Other Artists
Composition 10: Contrasts
Composition 11: Organic Shapes
Composition 12: Contrasts in Texture and Spacing
Composition 13: Scale
Composition 14: Form Over Detail
Composition 15: Form in Clouds
Composition 16: Flair
Composition 17: Reference and Inspiration
Composition 18: Scene Planning For TV
Compostion 19: Scene Planning For TV Part Two
Compostion 20: More Inspiring BG Layouts

2.) DEPTH






3.) LINE






4.) VALUE





For the first half of this lesson, see Fundamentals of Composition Part One.

The Famous Artists Course was created in the mid-1950s by Norman Rockwell, Rube Goldberg and Albert Dorne, among others. The correspondence lessons and educational materials are still available at www.famous-artists-school.com. Books from the three courses: Painting, Illustration/Design and Cartooning turn up on eBay as well. I highly recommend these great resources to students.

For our previous postings from the Famous Artists Course, see Fundamentals of Composition Part One, Chad's Design for Television, and Willard Mullin on Animals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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