This is me on the left and on the right Tom, working in animation studio of Ralph Bakshi in Burbank, California, I believe in 1981.
this is the painting that I have on my board in this picture, an outline for "Fire Keep," the castle of the good guys in the film.
Tom and I had been assigned to another as freshman roommates a few years earlier in 1976 at the University of California, Berkeley. He headed for Southern California to go to the Art Center College of Design, and I followed him there later. old
At the point where we started Bakshi Studios, we were each 21 years. He had much more experience of painting that I have done, have hundreds of canvases painted since he was in elementary school. I drew a lot, but hardly painted at all.
To answer the question posed by Arnaud yesterday, we entered the door Bakshi together and sold as a background painting team. But my skills sucked at the time. Tom helped me get the job, and I learned a lot watching him paint. We had to adapt the styles so that the circles were interchangeable. So you might describe the Fire and Ice background style as "Gurkinzetta."
OK. Stories. One thing about Tom and me was that we both enjoyed pulling jokes on the rest of the crew. Once, when the coordinator of the production came to check our progress, I grabbed a razor blade and start scratching the paint on porcelain palette. I had made a false inch latex and I filled with red paint.
Just when I turned around to tell him that the money came along well, I pretended to cut my thumb. The piece of inch bounced on the floor next to his feet. She threw the circles she was holding and screamed. We took turns doing this stunt on just about everyone on the crew.
Tom and I were always thought to how we could create an interesting diversion for facilitators. They slaved away for countless hours in their dark cabins, bored out of their minds, looking around distractions.
We found a brown paper roll and unwound 100 feet long piece. Tom grabbed the front end and I grabbed the back end. He started down the hall, dragging the long piece of paper, and I followed a long way behind. We meandered that piece of paper in all corridors, before the doors open for animated rooms.
The animators looked up from their work and waited and waited for the piece of paper to pass. It was a long time before I came along holding the tip of the tail, waving and saying, "Pan Strike"
All paintings were made with acrylic cel-vinyl, the same paints they used to paint cells. they are remarkably low. most are approximately 9x12 inches. This overall plan Nekron glacier was about 11x14 inches.
acrylic Cel-vinyl is very opaque and pleasant to work with, but it clogged airbrushes, and he destroyed the Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes we used. These brushes were beautiful and expensive, and I felt bad that they only lasted a few weeks, but we were each on a quota of 11 finished paintings per week
other posts in this series..
Part 1: Fire and Ice - rekindled
Part 2: Fire and Ice - Frank Frazetta
Part 3: Fire and Ice - Tom Kinkade
Part 4: Fire and Ice - Ralph Bakshi
Part 5: Living Inside PaintingsWikipedia on Thomas Kinkade
Wikipedia on fire origin and ice.
official website color cartoon Cel Vinyl
