"YABBA-DABBA-DOO!"

"Meet the Flintstones!"

I was asked recently if I have ever done work at studios besides the Walt Disney Studios and the answer is YES! Among the other companies I've been fortunate to have worked for are Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Warner Brothers, Don Bluth, and SONY. I was employed at Hanna-Babera as a summer job along with my CalArts classmate Tim Burton and future wife Patricia Paulick and was very lucky to get to know both Bill and Joe personally and work with them on a couple of projects I'll post about in the future.. 

Disney Legend Ken O'Connor used to advise me of the need to be a bit of a chameleon to survive in this business. That included being able to work in different mediums, styles, techniques and genre. I'm including a publicity piece I did for Hanna-Barbera of one of my favorite shows ..."The Flintstones!"

If you weren't around back in 1960 when "The Flinstones" first aired, you can't really grasp the excitement kids as well as their parents felt as they laughed together watching the animated antics of the "modern stone age family." It was loosely based on the popular "Honeymooners" with Jackie Gleason but was over flowing with witty and creative visual puns, great voices and entertaining stories that made it the unique series that it was remembered for. I sent this piece to a tribute show for William Hanna and Joe Barbera held in Sherman Oaks. 

This is definitely not a digital paint job and printed by a computer as is becoming more common place today but rather it's the "old school"  gouache on  15" x 19" board which was the preferred method and material just about everybody used in the 1950s and 60s and a few of us still use it today. I only employed a dab of black and white on the characters, none on the BG and kept line work to such a minimum it's almost non-existent and let the colored shapes alone express the image. I included my pencil sketch so you can see the subtle changes I made when going for color.

And... if you like the painting, it can be yours! It's available for purchase at the Van Eaton Galleries starting on Saturday April 6, along with many other beautiful creations by talented friends of mine such as Willie Ito, Harry Sabin, Dan Haskett and many others.