One of the useful skills any visual storyteller can develop is the art of drawing thumbnails. These are small sketches, usually several to a single page, that represent a continuity of thought. They are first draft of your storyboard or comic.
In my early career, working at Disney Feature Animation, I filled reams of 8.5 x 11 paper with thumbnails for The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. But the best training I received was drawing gags with fellow story artist Pete Young. We would spontaneously choose a topic (often it had nothing to do with the film on which we were working) and race to see who could draw jokes the fastest. The person who used the fewest lines would win. As a general rule, Pete could beat me at this game without breaking a sweat.
Mark Twain (allegedly) said “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” It takes more thought to express an idea in simple terms. Unfortunately it is only in the drawing of thumbnails and gags that I practice economy of line. My finished work is too often bloated with unnecessary visual information. I’m still working on that.
Ray Harryhausen 1920 – 2013
It is possible that I would have ventured into the entertainment industry if my dad had not taken me to the drive-in to see One Million Years B.C., but he did. I was nine years old, and I became obsessed with the man who had created the dinosaurs that shared the barren prehistoric landscape along with John Richardson and Raquel Welch. I didn’t know how he did it, what he looked like or even how to pronounce his name, but I knew I wanted to be Ray Harryhausen.
The Grandmaster of stop-motion animation died last week. I haven’t had time to write a proper tribute, but rather than wait a year (as I did when Ray Bradbury passed away) I wanted to post images of things I never would have built, directed or drawn if not for Harryhausen.
After four years of development, and thirty five years of contemplation, the Scrollon® iPad app is ready for release. It will be available in the App Store on June 3rd, 2013 with four of my original stories.
www.scrollon.com is now live, and the definitive source of news and information pertaining to Scrollon®.
Also at www.sevenextraordinarythings.com I’ve posted a (long) overdue tribute to Ray Bradbury.
