Drawn Together: Preserving a Hand-Made Craft

http://www.2dlib.com/buy-4-2d.html

Animator Tony White's passion is hand-drawn animation, something that is fast becoming a lost art--especially in its native USA. So he put together a worthy project to "preserve, teach, and evolve" 2D animation. For more information on the project, and the book above, check out this link

http://www.2dlib.com/

For the book, Tony gathered the hand-drawn work of 222 artists, illustrators, animators, and fans. The book also contains each contributor's personal expressions of love for traditional animation, and an original animated cartoon by Tony White!

http://elwoodsmith.com/

The masterful Elwood Smith contributed this one!

Not a purist by any means, I've nothing against digital works. I love much that I see coming from this exciting medium. 

I do, however, dislike the predictable, fart-joke-ridden, big budget, digital Hollywood offerings. Shiny, plasticky, and bland; they offer little for my imagination--both visually and musically.

http://shardlowart.com/

 

One of my favorites from the book--this one by Paul Shardlow.

Like most artists, my own imagination as a kid was stimulated by the classic Disney films. Each one had its own visual personality. Whether it was the sinister, watercolored environments of Snow White, the dramatic, gouache settings of Pinocchio, or the brittle xerox-y atmosphere of 101 Dalmations, the films carried the distinct personalities of the artists.

Even more, the black and white Merrie Melodies of the 20s and 30s charged me with creative excitement. I plowed through reams of paper drawing my own personal characters, filmed my own stop-motion cartoon as a 16 year old kid, and continue my career in art as an adult. 

Beyond the Disney films, Merrie Melodies, or the thousands of relatively unseen, hand-drawn films, non-digital animation is bursting with the spirit I see contained in the original drawings, paintings, and illustrations in any art museum.

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

I'll leave you with my contribution to the book, and this:

My hat's off to Tony White and his ongoing quest to promote the value of this legendary medium. If you love the craft as well, and don't want to see it driven to extinction by corporate uniformity, please support 2DLIB and Drawn Together.

Thanks!