Documentary Time, Students.

Since I'm working on my first Red Hot Riding Hoods, I've been reading up on her creator, Tex Avery. I found this great documentary from the late 80's about Avery's life and work. This was done about eight years after the maestro's death.

Betty Boop Editable The Sequel!

Well, I promised a Betty Boop standing editable .png file, and here it is. I've tweaked the lines as far as I think I really can. Anything else would just be tweaking for tweaking's sake. This file is fully editable. Enjoy futzing!

A Shadowy Vixen

I've added some shadows to my first Betty Boop. I think that I still prefer the pure lines and colors of the standard render, but this adds some depth, which is pleasant.

Red Hot GRANDMA?

What the hell is this? It's so random. I just had to share.

Ah-ooooooooo-ga!

I've started work on my second favorite cartoon vixen, Red Hot Riding Hood.

I have no high-falutin' feminist ideals in this case, only an extreme admiration for the animator behind her. Tex Avery was a genius of the highest order. He, Friz Freleng, and Chuck Jones completely defined American skit animation. While Disney's rigid, more "mature" animation dominated the theatrical releases, skit cartoons, and eventually television cartoons, were the domain of Warner's band of merry maniacs in Termite Terrace.

When Red Hot Riding Hood premiered, many people in the animation world assumed that Avery had rotoscoped a real dancer. Rotoscoping was a pretty common practice even at that early date, and the fact that Avery had not done this, instead using free-styled movement so fluid and real, is a testament to his skill. That the cartoons also have some fan-freaking-tastic slapstick is icing on the cake.

So yeah, this is an early framework build of Red in a dance pose. You can make out some of her grosser characteristics. I'm working on this in between my second Betty Boop and my first Jessica Rabbit.

Here's a video of the Toonheads broadcast of Red Hot Riding Hood. I always laugh hysterically when the wolf drinks the giant cocktail.

Betty Boop Farting Prototype Numero Dos

My second Betty Boop is coming along pretty well. A whole bunch of her lines are still out of whack and it's annoying me how slowly it's going to get her looking just right. I've added her eyebrows, so she doesn't look so dead like in the first prototype. I also added her heart pin and added some real depth to it with gradients. It gives it a general ruby-like quality and makes it seriously stand out from the flat colors of the rest of the image. This is a large image but IS NOT editable. I'll throw that one up when I feel like I've done the drawing justice

Would The Real Betty Boop, Please Stand Up.

I'm working on the other widely available Betty Boop image: that of her standing and looking like she just popped a fart.

This image is a pretty dirty image as it is, and I've cleaned up the lines a lot. This one has been particularly difficult to get looking right, and I'm not sure why. I tweak and tweak and some aspect of her keeps looking like crap. Just look at her feet. They make me want to cry, I've done such a bad job.

Hopefully I'll have this one done and ready for color swaps soon.