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26
Sep |
} | The Background Stylings of Don Driscoll |
- 1. Feedin’ the Kiddie (1957) (background artist)
2. Give and Tyke (1957) (background artist)
3. Tops with Pops (1957) (background artist)
4. Millionaire Droopy (1956) (background artist)
5. The Egg and Jerry (1956) (background artist)
6. Good Will to Men (1955) (background artist)
There’s no mention of who the background artist was on the original shorts. If anyone knows, please let me know.
The original background paintings are exquisite in themselves, but definitely have a dated look to them. MGM was probably trying to fool the public into thinking it was a brand new cartoon. Cinema Scope was their answer to TV, so they had to deal with a new aspect ratio. They cut off a lot of the frame, and re-did all the backgrounds. It looks like they could have been done in a hurry, and someone like Driscoll, whose style looks quick and basic, would have been the perfect person to help rush these out the door while giving them a bold and flashy new look.
Look at the red and green!
It’s everywhere!
Tops With Pops (1957) is a remake of Love That Pup (1949):
I love the animation in this short. I’ve taken a butt load of frame grabs from this for study which I’ll post later once I get back into drawing.
Pretty bold stuff, hey?
Another thing I like about the backgrounds, call me crazy, is the brush strokes and rough look. This one is out there; what’s the point of the blue blob behind Tyke other than color balance?
This frame is sexy.
These two frames are great examples of his sense of freedom. A pink barrel!
And look how wild he went with this one. So much better.
There’s that green and red again, except not so harsh.
The Egg and Jerry (1956) is a remake of Hatch Up Your Troubles (1949):
This one just reminds of Mary Blair. But the color stying isn’t as good as Mary, and it’s funny how Driscoll just completely threw out the layout from the previous short.
This is probably the sexiest Driscoll example, I LOVE this frame. There’s so much color harmony, and it’s much better than the original. This is what I mean when I say he used basic theory and FREEDOM, the branch is BLUE, and it works! The nest is a much richer and harmonious brown and everything just screams, “Look at me!” I love it!
I’m a mix on this one. I really love the traditional rendering of the original, but I love the color in the remake.
Another sexy color combo. Once again the tree is blue, but the top inside part (what is that called?) is yellow. Very complementary, indeed.
Here’s some frame grabs from Millionaire Droopy (1956). Note the color variation in this short as a whole. It goes all over the place.
The stuff in this short is borderline crude. I can understand the argument that Driscoll’s coloring is very childish and sometimes ugly. Maybe that’s why he only did six shorts…
Basic color theory:
Driscoll’s style appeals to me because it’s so easy. Someone like me could easily adopt the same technique for a student film, and create some pretty striking imagery. Here’s the other two shorts Driscoll worked on. So there you have it, his entire career as a background artist in one post. Whew! 
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