The website of Robert "Bob" M. Guthrie
WBCP

Flashback Wednesdays: Personal Beliefs and Cartoons

Flashback Wednesdays. Personal Beliefs and Cartoons, or Making Products “Family Safe”.


One of the issues I encounter when creating any assignment is the moral beliefs of the individuals in charge of that project: Their views on sexuality and certain personal “beliefs” regarding non-mainstream traditions (more...)

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Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: "The Ever Evolving Lola Liberty"

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(Click on image for larger size)

Initially, what was a ten minute sketch I did for a friend (A) of Lola Bunny as the Statue of Liberty, was picked up by WBCP management for a “I NY T-shirt design for the New York City’s Warner Bros. Studio Store.

Development took longer than usual (weeks,) as non-art management and legal took over the decision of what the final look should look like, a decision usually left to the WBCP’s Character Design’s Director. After many suggestions, design control was relinquished back to the department’s art team. Dozens of variations were discarded and I went back to the original concept, “on model” and with the perspective corrected (B.)

Management got a last “input” in, when they felt that Lola, look “to much (B) like the Statue of Liberty” (?!). The final design (C), although thinner clothing wise, gave me the chance to actually made her toga more in model to Lady Liberty’s ones, which squeaked by without further management medling (D).

A moot point, because when the design was finalized, the N.Y. Warner Bros. Studio Store - along with most of the US stores, closed down and kiled the whole project. Even so, this was one the most fun designs I ever worked for, because it became a fun project to make: a realistic representation of Lola Bunny as Lady Liberty.

Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: "Where's the Kaboom?"

Flashback Wednesdays… on a Saturday this time. >.<

This drawing of Marvin the Martian and K-9 was requested by Six Flags Magic Mountain, more specifically for their park’s Looney Tunes merchandise.

While Marvin and K-9 were easy to conceptualize, I had to do some research for the style of the telescope, so it would matched the same style Chuck Jones had developed when he created Marvin the Martian - first introduced in Jones’ animated short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953.)  It was Maurice Noble background and layout, the same artist who had worked with Jones for the film, who provided the perfect inspiration for my design.

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(Click for a larger image).

I never saw the final product on any merchandise based on my designs, but a couple of years ago I was able to pick up this postcard at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California.

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Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: Jam Session

Flashback Wednesdays... on a Wednesday!. ^.^

This week’s Flashback is a rough-pencil - no inking was requested, for a line of limited prints sold at the Warner Bros. Studio Stores. For some reason, I was asked to draw the instrument’s details - knobs, keys, etc, on a second layer. After its run and with the closure of the WB stores, the image is now sold has a large-size poster, which I have signed quiet a lot-of during the last few years.

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(Click for a larger image).

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The painting was done by David Edward Byrd.

Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: Seagoing Looney Tunes (Part One)

Flashback Wednesdays,... out to sea.

This week, the first part of a series of Looney Tunes’ rough-pencil designs commissioned by Premier Cruise Lines for a commercial partnership with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

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(More after the cut...)

Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: Repairing the Past

Hi again;

This is Flashback Wednesdays… on a Thursday. This post is about a very-common task many Artist have to do, specially in the Consumer products field: the recreation - or update, of an old piece of art for merchandising…

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(More after the cut...)

Bob

Variety Cover

Here is the cover of the December 1996 Variety Magazine I worked on, announcing Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. acquisition of Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc.’s intellectual property.

The (WBCP) artists that illustrated this issue were myself - drawing Fred Flinstone, senior character designer San Wei Chan - Bugs Bunny and animation director Frank Espinosa - Tom and Jerry.

The issue was published right before Christmas, which made for a nice Christmas’ present.

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Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: WBCP Art

One more Flashback Wednesday. =) Today I’m posting more designs I did while working for WBCP.

The first one is a progression example of Lola Bunny’s design, from a rough blueline, pencil ink to a final cleaned drawing (vector-based) drawing using Adobe Illustrator.

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The second one is an approved tight blue line ready to be penciled-inked with 2B graphite pencil.

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You will find more art for WBCP on the gallery. Enjoy!

Bob

Flashback Wednesday: Favorite Concept to Reality Decisions

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Well, yesterday posts was a weak way to (almost) get out of the Flashback Wednesday’s showcase (darn). This post is about of one should not enamor itself to a projects’ rough or concept, because you will (always) be overridden by your client’s final decision.

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More after the cut...

Bob

Draw The Looney Tunes, A Story

A received a nice package on the mail today: The commercial version of our Warner Bros. Consumer Products departmental tutorial book, renamed “How To draw The Looney Tunes”. A hard to find book, ranging from $39.99 to $400.00. The trade-off here is actually quite acceptable; “...sign and draw me a sketch on one of them and you get to keep the other.”

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A review of the book on the Animation World Network. “…The credits list art by San Wei ChanMark Christiansen, Jerome Moore and Robert Guthrie. Text is by Frank Espinosa, co-written by Marie Taylor….”

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I’m really surprised to see the changes that occurred when our tutorial went public: It lost around 94 pages, most a lot of the written history of WB, animation and verbal instructions. The cuts were probably made for costs reasons and the instruction were more geared how to teach all WBCP artists in depth.

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Still, a very nice final product, kicking myself that I signed and gave away the 10 copies I got from WB. Oh well . =)

Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: Lola Halloween Designs

Hi again, everyone,

I’m posting a couple of designs I did while working for WBCP. They are designs of Lola Bunny in Halloween outfits.

As the the “Bride of Frankenstein”...

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and as a cute witch...

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Enjoy!

Bob

WBCP Gallery Live

I just created a gallery for the work I did while working at Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP.) I’ll post some more work as I clean them up, but for the mean time, here is a design I did for WBCP with Wile E. Coyote.

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Here’s the original design.

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Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: Space Jam Poster Design (Part One)

Here is the original design (blue-line) that we I did for the international version of the Space Jam poster. In the final poster, Duffy Duck’s design was changed because in the original design, he was wearing a “prop” costume that only appeared on-screen for five-seconds.

Here is the original design - click on image to enlarge.

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And here is the final poster.

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Bob

Flashback Wednesdays: Bugs Bunny Stamp (Part One)

Here’s the final color for the Bugs Bunny stamp we did at WCBP for the U.S. Postal Service. We worked on this stamp series back in 1997.

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I will post the original sketches and other designs in my WBCP gallery , plus additional information on the project.

Bob