A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0922

I don’t know where to start on this one. It definitely made me realize my limitations as an artist. For some strange reason, some people are under the misconception that if you can draw that means you can draw ANYTHING… While this may not have been the exact case with this MINIon, it has happened to me multiple times so I thought I speak about it here. I actually tell kids that by law I’m not allowed to draw copyrighted characters, because kids are honest, and cruel and will tell you when something is wrong. I have drawn my characters off and on for six years. I’m getting to where I can draw them to a point where I like them. Being a fan of Warner Bros. Animation I understand the differences between me and Chuck Jones, Friz Freeleng, Tex Avery and their counterparts at other studios.  A character like Tweety has been refined to the point where if anyone makes even the slightest change, including how it is inked, you recognize it, it’s glaring. You don’t change an icon, and you can’t draw an icon the first, second or 100th time out perfectly. I pride myself on being able to watch a Bugs Bunny cartoon and tell who the director was, just by the subtle differences in the way Bugs is drawn… having to draw Bugs, Garfield, or Snoopy, is extremely difficult for me, because I know when I make even the smallest mistake, and so does everyone else. So for this one, I found a line drawing of Tweety and put it on the hand of MINIon #0922. Then I looked and just shook my head at my style vs. that of Friz Freeleng. Kind of like a mash up of  Jasper Johns and Albrecht Dürer. Some day, maybe, if I have the time to set aside to draw more, I’ll be that good, if I’m lucky.