BLOGGER WON"T LET ME PUT UP PICTURES!

Or maybe my computer's on the Fritz. I don't know. I can't figure it out. Whatever it is, it'll probably be better tomorrow. Anyway here's something that'll probably look good in print. It's the opening title for an old 30s radio show called...


GRAND CENTRAL STATION


ANNOUNCER: (SLOW BUILD) As a bullet seeks its target , shining rails in every part of our great country are aimed at GRAND CENTRAL STATION, heart of the nation's greatest city.

Drawn by the magnetic force of the fantastic metropolis, great trains rush toward the Hudson River... (FASTER BUILD) ...SWEEP down its eastern bank for 140 miles...FLASH briefly by the long, red row of tenement houses south of 125th Street!

SFX: RACING ENGINE. TRAIN'S BELL.

ANNOUNCER: DIVE with a roar into the two and one half mile tunnel which burrows beneath the glitter and swank of Park Avenue! AND THEN...

SFX: ENGINE CHUGGING SLOWS. TRAIN'S BELL. HISS OF AIR BRAKES.

ANNOUNCER: ...GRAND CENTRAL STATION!



Nifty, huh? That's what a REAL writer does! Why can't we have writing like that in our industry!?

IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO DRAW AT THE ZOO?

No it's not, not unless you have a special reason. If you're a realistic animator working on a sequel to "The Lion King" then by all means go and enjoy yourself, but if you're a cartoonist you might find yourself wondering if the trip was really necessary. Artist-friendly zoos are a myth.


Zoos used to be a great places to draw. Older zoos like the one above kept exciting animals like lions in horizontal cages where the lions used to pace up and down for half the day (the other half was spent outside). It was hard on the lion but great for artists who got to see repeated side views of dynamic walks only a few feet infront of their sketchbooks. The cages were indoors and the lighting was perfect for drawing. Best of all, there was no wind to blow your paper and you got to hear the lions roar at each other with the sound echoing off the walls.


Modern zoos put the lions into enormous outdoor habitats. It always takes visitors a minute or two to locate the lion who's usually sleeping behind a rock. No roars, no pacing, just...sleep. If you try to draw the parts of the lion that are visible then you encounter the other problem, namely the difficulty of drawing on reflective, snow-white paper under a blazing sun. Contemporary zoos are not really artist-friendly.


Another myth that artists have is that it's fun to draw at baseball games. Is it? From the grandstands the players are tiny figures that seem to be miles away. If you can see to draw those guys then you've got better sight than I have. It might be fun to draw the fans if they'd only turn around but they won't, unless it's to give you a dirty look for drawing them.

LEARN TO DRAW YOURSELF

If you're an animation cartoonist then it's your responsibility to learn how to draw your own mannerisms and quirks. Pay attention to the way people describe you! Things you do that annoy other people are particularly valuable! Don't stop slurping your soup, study it! Analyze the slurp! Forget about drawing at the zoo, that's for realistic artists. If you're a cartoonist then YOU are the weird and funny animal you ought to be studying!

I'm too sleepy to illustrate this with new drawings but here's (above) a few old ones that might help. The top one is how I feel when I'm talking to people in a restaurant. It's probably not the way I really look but cartooning is more efficient than realistic drawing at portraying mental states and it was fun to draw it that way. Anyway I had to analyze what I was feeling and what kind of personality I have before I could draw it.

Ditto with the second drawing. The first bite of pizza is sacred to me. You have to tune out the world and focus solely on the delicious food in front of you. I tried to...to... I can't type anymore. I'm falling asleep.......

CURSE OF THE PUFFY CROTCHES

Why is that!? Who's responsible for this!!?? Do other people have this problem or is it just me!!???

THE BEST CONVERTIBLE EVER

The car above isn't the best convertible ever, I just put it there as a teaser. No modern car qualifies. The modern aesthetic allows only the head to appear behind the wheel. You can't get an open car feel when you're cocooned that way. 

Early convertibles had a better idea: They (above) were a sofa sitting atop a motorized carriage. The driver was high off the street and could feel the wind all over his body. Driving it must have seemed like a magic carpet ride. If you didn't look down you'd hardly be aware you were in a car. It would seem like your seat was just floating down the street.

Okay, here's (above) my pick for the best convertible design of all, the best of the best. I speak of the Stanley Steamer. It has all the advantages of the austere gas-propelled car at the top of the post but is a beautiful work of art besides. I actually had a short ride in one of these, thanks to Jay Leno.

Here's (above) a later version of the Stanley. It's still beautiful but now you have to open a door to get in and you're behind the engine rather than above it. It's a great design but I prefer the earlier green and brass model. In the newer version the driver is a functioning part of the car's steering and control rather than a god-like figure who floats above it.

Here's (above) a Mercer Raceabout. The dashboard is far in front of the driver so he still feels somewhat independent of the car. No doors, a beautiful piece of work. This is one of the last convertibles that really delivered the convertible experience. After this drivers would sit in enclosed boxes.

PHILOSOPHY CORNER

My favorite recent films are both deeply philosophical. Hurry up and rent them

so we can talk about them!

The first is 'The Devil wears Prada" which asks the question, "What kind of person really makes the world work?" The film's amazing answer is, a mean, self-centered, dominating, talented tyrant like the character Maryl Streep plays.

I believe it. My hunch is that at the heart of everything really worthwhile is a tyrannical genius who wills the thing into existence and who sacrifices everything to keep it alive (no, I'm not talking about John K.). Everyone else is either too dumb or too inept to do it. This person is indispensable.

A lot of people would be willing to accept all this providing that the tyrant isn't dominating and self-centered after work. Under the gruff exterior some people demand a heart of gold. I'm not sure if I go along with that. It seems to me that in the real world you have to play rough to keep the ship afloat. Nice guys would sink it because nice guys can't keep the bad guys at bay. And you can't play rough part time. You'll never be good at it unless you're rough all the time and unless you actually enjoy it. Our tolerance of people like this enables the rest of us to live the humane and stimulating lives we currently lead.

Are there exceptions? Of course! John K 's a nice guy, so was Clampett. So was Bach! So was Mozart! But every leader and innovator can't be like that. We should have the wisdom to accept antibiotics with gratitude regardless of whether or not Pasteur was nice to his assistants.

The other philosophical film was "Pursuit of Happiness" with Will Smith. I almost didn't see the film, it looked so hokey. Boy, am I glad I did! The film reminds me of the old saying, "Nothing is as beautiful as a good man struggling against adversity." Smith's character is such a man. He doesn't blame anybody for his problems, he doesn't turn cynical, he just keeps focused on finding a solution, no matter how bad things get.

I don't know much about the Stoics but I can't help thinking about Smith's character as a stoic hero. I never took the stoics seriously because I thought their way of dealing with loss is never to want things in the first place, which seems drastic and unnatural to me. Things I've heard lately make me wonder if I misunderstood them. Smith's character definitely has an effective philosophy and if it turns out to be stoicism then I want to find out more about it.

PICTURES TO DRAW FROM

All photos by imogene Cunningham, except maybe the first (above). Click to enlarge.