Although Chuck Jones’ film credits have identified him for more than six decades as a director of Warner Bros. animated pictures, his stature as a graphic artist is little recognized by the public. In addition to the trying requirements of any director unifying story, layouts, animation, music, dialogue, etc. into a finished picture, he also has been personally instrumental in the graphic styling of his pictures. In 1940, Jones made the first true ‘stylized’ animation picture, The Dover Boys, which set the pattern for much of the animation that we see in theaters and on television today.
Dedicated as he was to animation as the new graphic medium of his time, Jones had never forgotten that drawing the things and people around him was imperative to assure new ideas as to shape and color and design. For many years, he drew and painted the human figure in search for new expression and new gesture. This study is reflected in the continuing freshness of his professional work.
Steeped in an awareness of the importance of dramatics, humor, action and rhythm in telling an animation story, he has managed to instill into his still drawings these same qualities.
Although many artists skilled in making still drawings have enriched animation, seldom has an expert in animation contributed so much to the great tradition of the still drawing. Here, caricature, an essential factor in all great art, has been exploited on a high level. Penetrating observation reveals new and daring aspects of ordinary people and their actions. Each drawing is a statement of an experience and a venture into new graphic structure. Here, content and form are balanced to insure the intrinsic value of each drawing as a work of art.