Bored Panda reached out to Kev, and in the interview, the artist shared what initially sparked his interest in perfecting his skills in such an old-school style: “I’ve been drawing since a very young age and always had a taste for older cartoons of the 1930s and ’40s. Growing up, I could recognize that there was something more appealing to me about the cartoons of that era, and I wanted to learn to replicate it.” More info: Instagram | twitter.com | tiktok.com | youtube.com “Other interests came up in the years between childhood and now, which led me to study film, TV, and graphic design. In the last 5-6 years I have returned to my first love of cartooning and putting it at the forefront of my focus, which has certainly caught a lot of attention online and allowed me to become a freelance artist.” “A local TV station would play hours of black and white Popeye cartoons from the 1930s when I was in my late teens. I absolutely loved them and wondered about this lost art form. I began to study all the animation books I could find and wonder what today’s popular cartoons and celebrities would look like in the rubber hose style. I didn’t really share my work back then, that came much later in 2021. Once the Cuphead game came around, it sparked interest in the rubber hose style again and that sparked me to start sharing and pursuing the art style I loved more,” wrote Kev. “My process is first to find personalities that have quite distinctive looks and attitudes. There are many in the rock star category! I then use the standard building blocks of rubber hose characters, such as the use of circles and pear shapes and, of course, the bendy rubber hose pipes to connect them all together. It’s then a case of choosing how to dress the character and simplify the details as much as possible without losing their essence. Even though these characters aren’t animated, I treat them as if they will be, which requires a certain design sensibility and attention to simplifying the forms for clarity. It’s always a trade-off with how far I can push it. I do the process from start to finish in Procreate on the iPad and always record myself by holding my phone in my left hand while my right hand draws. Sometimes they come very quickly, other times I will redraw the work several times before I feel it has captured the essence of the person and the rubber hose style,” explained Kev. The artist also added by sharing the insights he has learned from practicing this long-lost art form for over a decade. “Things come a lot more naturally now, through years of practice around the construction of characters from books I studied (Advanced Animation by Preston Blair, The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams, and many more). For example, I can draw a hand in most gestures from the library I’ve built up in my mind that has come from copying hundreds of hands from cartoons and books. I use the example of hands because every artist knows the struggle! But rubber hose is like learning a language, and you become more fluent over time. That doesn’t mean I don’t still struggle with hands on occasion!” wrote Kev. And lastly, Kev wrote: “I’d just add here that I don’t consider myself an expert in this field, and I have not been classically trained so there are gaps in my knowledge. I’m just passionate and have dedicated a lot of my time to studying the art form and I still have so much to learn. I don’t believe I will ever stop learning and look forward to where it takes me next!” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
