You'd think boxing would be the easiest of all sports to caricature for the papers. After all, the posing is often pretty extreme. My guess is that boxing is actually one of the most difficult sports to caricature.
The problem is, that some poses that look great in photography often don't work well in newspaper cartoons. Why, I don't know. Even when they're superbly drawn as they are in this Mullin sketch (above) they sometimes miss the mark.
If the newspapers would allow a caricatured blow by blow of a fight like Jack Davis did here (above), readers would probably love it.
Haw! Maybe they'd love it
too much. It could provoke a lot of street frights.
I wonder if short, funny, animated caricatures of real newsworthy prize fights would work on TV? I could picture it on ESPN. In "Boo Boo Runs Wild" John K proved that animation was a great medium for things like this.
Tying animation to real prize fights would certainly offer challenges. For one thing, it would put a limit on how far the animator could exaggerate. In real life the kind of punches that do the most harm in the ring are often jabs and short, close-in blows (above) that aren't very photogenic.
That doesn't mean it can't be done.
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And for the vets on Memorial Day...
THANK YOU!!!!!!!
somewhere I saw a sample of Primo Carnera's cartooning abilities, but can recall where. It would be interesting to see how well he depicted boxing action in his art.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V64T_s77LVc
ReplyDeleteInteresting. This immediately made me think of a great James M. Flagg postcard illustrating an old boxing match. I went to dig it up to prove you wrong, but damn it, I found it and you're right! There's something really lacking.
ReplyDeleteThat does look insanely hard to draw but I think for me it would be very rewarding if I tried stuff like that soon.
ReplyDeleteStill haven't gotten my MacBook Air yet. The extra one that my cousin got he had to return but my Dad is still going to help me buy it really soon. I'll keep you posted and after that, I'll buy the Intuos tablet from Amazon and go from there.
One thing I've seen in cartoon boxing or martial arts in general is part of the trick to getting it dynamic and interesting is spacing.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the photograph you see strong negative space between the boxers, look at the cartoons their cramp and extremely close despite being very well drawn.
The second trick ive seen is knowing how martial artist move, actually knowing what parts of the body the boxers are moving. Boxers arent just swinging their arms, their twisting their waist, positioning their feet, trying to maximize damage. Same with kicks etc.
I've been recently trying to apply realistic body proportions to a more cartoony-type ethic and been trying to get better at layouts/composition at the same time and these pictures will fit in great to those studies.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Eddie, go take a look at one of my favorite painters, George Bellows. He was a newspaper illustrator and painter at the turn of the 20th century (ashcan movement), and painting the grimy streets, bars, dance halls and boxing dens of new york. Made some of the most outstanding paintings of energy and motion with his boxing subjects. Next time I see ya we should talk about it.
ReplyDelete