A Humble Professor

Current blog: @granthenryart This place is like a diary that tracks my adventures in art, animation, and cartooning. (disclaimer: I am not actually a professor. Also, most material here was written years ago, so forgive any wackiness or errors.)

[granthenryart]

Merry Christmas!

[granthenryart]

Happy October! 

[granthenryart]

been enjoying Nathan Fielder‘s show THE REHEARSAL where he tries to improve people’s lives through the most insane stunts I’ve seen on tv. brilliantly conceived and filmed and taps more into human nature and mistakes and flaws than I expected. All thanks to the monotone maniac at the center with his damn laptop sling.

[granthenryart]

Happy fall!

[granthenryart]

Merry Christmas!

[granthenryart]

Old sketch I did of Toshiro Mifune, the hero of Akira Kurosawa's films. My friends and I recently watched High and Low, and his character's struggles navigating his options to end a hostage crisis was easily the best part.

[granthenryart]

Spiderverse is brilliant! I saw the new one today. The next one should have meme icon Italian Spider-Man. I made an art showing how it could happen.

[plaguedoctormemes]

Also i dont know if you guys have ever seen medieval beekeeper garb, but:

Its the best!!!

[plaguedoctormemes]

Nope!

Woodcut from 1545! 😊 respect our basket faced cousins 😡

[glitchhologram-deactivated20230]

The Beekeepers, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568

[bogleech]

Now that plague doctors are cultural icons I want these to be next and I hope we arbitrarily decide that the two are somehow rivals.

[scarlettaagni]

why would they be rivals, they're dating and bop their masks together to kiss

[ghost-cassette]

The birds and the bees

[chonk-mama]

!!!

[concernedcrow]

They’re dating  ❤️

[ahumbleprofessor]

Makes me think of the witch In Witcher 3 who dressed like that, love the illustration so much!

[granthenryart]

Loving Succession this season, the Roy family are so complex, hilarious, and depressing all at once, Rome especially. His big moment in the newest episode touched my heart. A moment of rawness in the middle of a complex business deal. Excited to see what happens next this weekend.

[granthenryart]

I’ve been immersed in the Resident Evil 4 remake, the brilliant action game about a secret service agent saving the President’s daughter from a zombie cult on the coast of Spain. Lots of people have started doodling the game’s characters as mice, which is up my wheelhouse, and I wanted to join in :)

[granthenryart]

James gandolfini hugging Zoe from sesame street, inspired by the skit he did on the show. Partly drew it as a meme, partly boredom during the Oscars (go EEAO and Pinocchio!) partly cuz James was a great actor and the skit shows a soft side of him you wouldnt see in depressed tough guy tony soprano. RIP james you are a legend ❤️

[granthenryart]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!! Here’s an illustration I drew for my family’s Christmas card, depicting the family pets exchanging gifts!

[granthenryart]

I just beat the video game Pentiment, which was an amazing game that I recommend to any history or art fans out there, or fans of great storytelling in games.

It tells the story of Andreas Maler, a traveling illuminator crafting books in a 16th century Bavarian abbey, who stumbles into the role of detective after a murder exposes tensions that only an outsider like him can untangle. Pentiment is a love letter to the artists, thinkers, theologians, and regular people of this time, with some of the best writing and art I’ve seen in a game. By the time you’re done, you’ll feel the gravity of history as well as a kinship with a town coming to terms with all the problems of life, both personal and existential.

I drew Andreas running because it seems like he’s always running or hiding in the game, be it literally running around the town to find evidence that exonerates your friend, or hiding from problems and people he’s not ready to face.

It’s great and absolutely worth your time, thank you to everyone at Obsidian who helped create it. :)

[ahumbleprofessor]

Long time no see! I have a new blog @granthenryart, if I feel like a post from there feels relevant to here I’ll try to reblog it :) Hope all has been well. Pentiment was awesome, definitely play it!

[oliviawhen]

The three family cats. 🍂🌨🍃 A birthday present to my sister, Blue (middle)’s human.

[ahumbleprofessor]

RIP to Richard Williams. Easily one of the most important animators and filmmakers to ever live. On surface value, his work animating Roger Rabbit, creating the Pink Panther cartoon character, crafting his own film The Thief and the Cobbler, and writing the definitive animation textbook (The Animator's Survival Kit) are legendary feats on their own, but between the lines there's important history.

He personally hired the legends of Disney and Looney Tunes to teach him how to animate. He took their wisdom and techniques and anthologized it, and  passed those lessons on to the next generation. It is no coincidence that animation reaches a second golden age in the 90s, and continues to be a powerful cultural force today. Without him, there's none of that.

(note, the above clip was animated by the also-amazing Eduardo Quintana, based on a visual anecdote that appears in The Animator’s Survival Kit, based on Richard’s experience working with Milt Kahl.)

It doesn't hurt that he was an amazing animator on his own too. He could draw any style, stylized or with perfect anatomy, any material, and with intricate layers of linear perspective that boggle the mind.

He's the only person who could have lead the animation for Roger Rabbit, a film that juggles hundreds of unique characters from history existing in the physical world, interacting with actors, sets, props, lighting rigs, and moving cameras.

If I could share only one clip, the most effective one would be his character Zigzag from The Thief and the Cobbler (who inspired Jafar in Aladdin). He's masterfully animated, but the dialogue also captures the power of Richard's animation. His drawings were that of a magician, capturing everybody, both inside and outside the screen. Juggling stacks of animation pages like a deck of cards.

.

.

.

(apologies for not updating in a while. Reading about Williams’s passing reminded me of years back when I wrote on this blog more often, and I felt it warranted a post. I’ll try to share more stuff soon!)

[ahumbleprofessor]

Hello! Thank you for your blog! It's one of my absolute favourite. I follow you through all my tumblr blogs (this one and cinemamonamour) and on youtube. I find your posts really interesting and, at first,I thought you were an old animator because your analyses requires a maturity and a spirit of observation that is rare in young people. Anyway, thank you, I really enjoy everything you write about and we share similar tastes. Cheers (-Luisa-)

[ahumbleprofessor]

"Earlier today a weasel saw me practicing. He started laughing, and then said I can't play tennis." "CAN you play tennis?" "Well, no... but I'm not going to let HIM be the one to decide that!"

Some of you might be interested in my Instagram account ( @professorgkh ). I try to make a habit of posting a sketch or two each day, and am working on a few picture-book ideas that I’m experimenting with right now, so you can follow my drawings there! 

Above is one sketch of a bunch I’ve done for a Wind in the Willows inspired talking-animal story about a mouse visiting a shady hotel. Each one has a little caption related to what the characters might say within the story. I’m still working on the storyline, but doing these sketches has been a lot of fun!