Kiskaloo

Since you guys suffered through my poor examples of pen and ink, I thought I'd share the work of a true skilled hand. I don't remember how I came across Chris Sanders' blog, but I am glad that I did. He recently started a weekly strip called "Kiskaloo" which he posts on his blog. Start at the bottom with #1 and work your way up.

(I just noticed that his strips open up within a frame on his blog. Be sure to open the images in a new window or tab for easier viewing.)

According to at least one of his posts, Sanders uses brush and pen and ink. His lines are luscious, and the drawings clean. His characters have perceptible life and volume even though they are "cartoonish". He's also very skilled at composing his panels (or shots), and he's not afraid of dynamic scenes (i.e. not always drawn 3/4 view at about eye level). He makes good use of darks and shadows. He shows how much energy and zest you can get out of just black and white. His animation background really shows in the emotive qualities of his characters faces and poses. In short, absolutely terrific in every way and something for me to aspire to.

Also, I find the strips very funny. I find #7 especially delightful. Hopefully you will too.

You may find that his work looks familiar. If you check out his bio page, you'll see he's worked in feature animation at Disney for a while. Notably, it says he directed Lilo & Stitch, and I'd have to assume that he had a large influence on the look of that film.

While you're at his site, don't forget to check out his sketchs. There's more fine work there.

It's terrific that people like Sanders are willing to share their work like this. In the past (before the internet), it wouldn't be so easy for him to share his more personal work nor for us to get to see it. We live in a time of many problems, but we also live in a time of ample opportunities. For some reason, little things like "Kiskaloo" really help me remember that. Great art and good times.