Character Design & Poses


The image of Betty and the cacti were drawn by Grim, himself. The doodles that surround the image are mine, which are studies from the classic cartoon, "Mysterious Mose". The purpose of this assignment (due to Bob's disappointment of our class's ability to properly use construction) was to design a character that could of existed in a 1930's theatrical short. It should have proper hierarchy and construction. Since I was fed-up with designing large characters, I wanted to do something that was "cute, girlish". So, it was off researching / drawing / analyzing the cartoons from that era (Swing, You Sinners, Mysterious Mose, Balloon Land, Toby Tortoise Returns, and some more) as well for some of the best comic greats (Otto Messure, and so forth).

Most importantly, however, was that I was studying the bulk of the work that was done by Grim Natwick, one of my heroes. The image was a slow, careful study from the Ub Iwerks cartoon, "Funny Faces". Is what came out, after several hours of studying Fleischer cartoons. However, while Bob liked it, he believed (and he was right, I might add) that it was too "Spumco-ish". Bob, being the awesome Fleischer geek that he his, had recommend me to watch the "lost" Betty Boop cartoon, "Buzzy Boop," as that title character had the qualities that would help my design ten-fold. Sadly, the final design is in Bob's possession. However, I do have the two poses that were made for this assignment. I hope you like these, Bob! Update: Bob was able to send me a scan of my final design. It is displayed at the top of this post. Thanks again, Mr. Jaques!