This is the finished version of one of the previous concepts I updated on the blog a couple days ago. I’ve been trying to work out what I want this project to be and also what the overarching style and colour scheme for the background art will look like.
Before deciding on style and colour I did a fair bit of research on Pinterest (I’ll link my Pinterest board at the end and you can look at what stuff I tend to save). I’m still fairly on the mid-century cartoon aesthetic so I tend to take a lot of my inspiration away from the old Hanna-Barbera shows. Samurai Jack’s background painter, Scott Wills, is very much in this wheelhouse as are some of the Cartoon Network animations from from 90’s, like Dexter’s Lab and The Power Puff Girls. I’ve also been looking at some the old Looney Tunes backgrounds by Maurice Noble, though more for interiors than anything else.
The main inspiration, however, came from the backgrounds of the Disney classic 101 Dalmatians. I liked the way the colours were really washed out, imprecise and offset, as well as how they used inked linework to draw everything. I think for that era Disney was making the shift towards braver art styles and the backgrounds for the film will have been somewhat avant-garde, though to look at them now they incredible conservative.
As to what I’ll do with the project… well, wait and see!
Pinterest link – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/mattwalkerart/illustration-inspiration/
Cheers
Matt
mattwalkerart.com 