Mel Crawford Coloring Book Covers
Added 2023-04-16 19:04:44 +0000 UTCHere's some more Mel Crawford art. I love this guy.
I like him because his stuff looks so funky. He doesn't shade things like the other cartoon painters. His paintings are designed for pure visual stimulation and readability; they aren't trying to make any realistic lighting sense.
These Rootie Kazootie covers are from the 1950s.
His drawings and compositions are amazing too and he could work in many styles.
His cartoon paintings got a little more streamlined and less textured in the 1960s but still are very appealing.
Another thing I really like about him is his unique color styling. He puts colors next to each other that seem like they shouldn't work, but they do.
He even sometimes paints cartoon characters the wrong colors like the grey Snagglepuss above. (He should be a pinkish purple as in his own cartoons although he started out being brown in the Quick Draw McGraw cartoons.)
Wrong colors are a bonus to me - like prizes in cereal. They bring richness and variety to the characters.
More on Mel Crawford.
