This was another one that gave me a moment of emotion, and interestingly, it happened while drawing the feet. It stems from memories of drawing Loony Tunes as a wee sprite, and my consciousness back then of just not getting the feet right. Actually, anything below the knees is still an issue for me when I'm drawing, so when I hit those feet on Santa, I thought, Not bad, kid. The feet looked even better on my original sketch. The cartoons I enjoyed watching most, and I realized that at 28, I got those feet down ;)
Chuck Jones started early with Leon Schlesinger's animated production studio, which eventually became Warner Bros' animation studio. He worked in Tex Avery's unit when it was formed, and eventually became a director. His early stuff was conservative in style and cutesy. Then THE DOVER BOYS came about, becoming a ground-breaking short that took a step toward the other end of the animation style spectrum- abstracted shapes, less fluidity and movement in shots, and finally, he began to get funny. The rest is history, and he's known by many moreso than other greats, much of which is because he continued to make some great cartoons after his time was up at Warner Bros (Grinch, hello?). He created his own studio, and did work at MGM with Tom & Jerry... and if you don't remember or never saw the MGM opening trade mark for his Tom & Jerry cartoons with Tom attempting to be macho inside the emblem like MGM's mascot Leo the Lion, it's on YouTube. Cracks me up every time I watch it. The one I saw was dubbed in Spanish, but, well, Tom's part wasn't. Same ol' "Meowrr... MEEOOOWWRR FSST FSST!" Haha, love it.
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