Classic characters from 1930s animation often used a ball for the head or the pelvis.
A good source of this style is the 1936 book Cartooning Self-Taught by Otto Mesmer, which shows heads, hands, and body shapes based on circles or spheres.
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Read Cartooning Self-Taught on Archive.org
More about this book at CartoonSnap
Essay by Mel Birnkrant about the Art and Imagery of Comic Characters
Do you think that part of the reason may be that balls are bouncy and cute? Do villain cartoon characters get based on spheres?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link! I love the look of vintage cartoons both in print and animation. My dogs and cats are begging to be vintage cartoonized :D
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what you share from Mel Birnkrant. Great collection, and I love his spherical figure drawings. They are beautiful. I’m amazed at how they have his style and he rendered proportions simply and directly.
ReplyDeleteFrank and Ollie's 'The Illusion of Life' says that early Disney animators used nickels and quarters to trace consistent-size circles when drawing Mickey.
ReplyDeleteThen of course Fred Moore introduced a bean-shaped Mickey and Walt told everyone to draw that way from now on. And rummaging in pockets for change ended abruptly.
Frank and Ollie's 'The Illusion of Life' says that early Disney animators used nickels and quarters to trace consistent-size circles when drawing Mickey.
ReplyDeleteThen of course Fred Moore introduced a bean-shaped Mickey, and Walt told everyone to draw that way from then on. So rummaging in pockets for change came to an abrupt end.