Saturday, December 4, 2010

31 Days Of Santa: 4th Day- Ub Iwerks

Ha, sorta been losing at least an extra hour of sleep doing these, so last night after work, I decided to take an hour nap before I tackled today's Santa.

That hour lasted 10. Hours.

Had skating practice today, then went and helped some of the derby members wrap gifts in the mall, and by the time I got home and comfortable, it was 5pm- NICE.


Without further stalling, here is Day 4's Santa, done in the style of Walt Disney's right hand man for many years, Ub Iwerks. (Note: the coloring's more stylized after published Mickey Mouse illustrated stories, rather than the b&w or fully colored cartoons). IF you didn't know, Ub and Walt worked at the same design studio together in Kansas City and were tight like bros for a number of years. Walt, displaying his savvy entrepeneurial skills early, designated Iwerks as his main man with the magic hand.

Together they went on the road from Kansas City to California. They worked for an animation studio and created Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, a precursor to that familiar, cute, black rodent. Walt basically gave a friendly metaphorical gesture involving a middle finger to 'working for the man', and went off on his own. Ub joined Walt shortly after, when Ub, on some free time, created a new, copyright-free rodent that Disney apparently ha-zaa'ed at and proudly pronounced, 'This character will make me, er, US, kings of the WORLD!' So Walt creates a new company, and employs Ub Iwerks as the main animator, probably the ONLY animator.

Employed with a fist of steel, that is. Apparently Walt worked Ub's pencil down to a stub, and after creating Mickey Mouse and some episodes, Ub quit. Friendship ruined. Ub started his own company, created a couple new characters that amounted to not half the popularity that MM had, walked around Hollywood with his hands in his pockets for some years, until finally coming back to the man with the master plan. Disney I assume asked for his feet to be kissed, and after loyalty had been once again established, allowed Ub to come back and work for him.

There's a lot more, but I prefer to move onto the next Santa then go on babbling with knowledge I picked up from Wikipedia and distant memories from my History Of Comics And Cartoons class at school.

Medium- ink, with dyes, digital for old paper texture.

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