Cartoon Modern

Here’s something I don’t think many have seen before: concepts of Cruella de Vil for One Hundred and One Dalmatians by animator Marc Davis. There are interesting ideas in these designs, and many of those ideas are carried over to the final design, such as the exaggerated contrast between Cruella’s rail-thin body and her oversized fur coat. Still, I think it’s safe to say that Davis’s final design of Cruella is a much more interesting graphic creation (particularly in the construction of the face) than any of these earlier concepts. And I also think it’s safe to say that any of these Davis designs are better than this or this.

I’ts been a lot of fun seeing the different ways that contemporary artists have been inspired by the artwork published in the book and on this blog. I’ve documented some of that artwork here and here. Here’s a fresh batch of artists inspired by CARTOON MODERN.

Animator Chris Chua says the book has inspired him to do “to do looser, more stylized drawings” like the one below:

Dagan Moriarty’s page of elf sketches is followed by the comment, “Can ya tell I’ve been looking at ‘Cartoon Modern’ A LOT?!”

Pedro Vargas has some great Tom Oreb Trix studies posted on his blog. The original Oreb Trix model is HERE.

Brian Smith, who I remember from the days of working on BOO BOO RUNS WILD, has posted some studies inspired by Mary Blair (below), Tom Oreb and Ray Favata:

And the French-Canadian band L’Orchestrol Parade took one of the TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM concepts I posted last month and is using it in a flyer to promote one of their upcoming shows.