Here are some photos from a few weeks ago, again at the Huntington Cinema Arts Centre, where we managed to get cartoonist and animator Bill Plympton to hold still for a few fun and zany shots.

I've always been a fan of Plympton's, I believe since seeing his animated short Your Face in the late 1980s, for which he won an Oscar nomination. Once you've seen Bill's distinctive style, you recognize it every time you see it - whether it's in a TV commercial or on paper.

For this shot on yellow (which we planned to match his pencil), we pretty much flooded Bill with light from every direction - including dead-on, with a ringflash. The look is a bit harsh, of course, but fun, too, when your subject plays along!

On this second shot, we see Bill signing the back of the theatre's door. The door was lit by a single overhead bulb, but it wasn't bright enough to do the job well enough. So, we had one assistant hold a strobe over his head, and another behind him to create his shadow on the door. Add in a little Photoshop "illustration" effect to stick with the theme, and voila, we nabbed this in about 30 seconds, letting Bill get back to his reception in the theatre.

For the record, the marker he's using here is of the dry-erase type, something I brought along deliberately for my initial plan for this shot...getting him to sign a stall in a public toilet. I think it's safe to say that the plan as it actually happened, with the theatre's logo on the door, worked out better. Ahem.

Don't hestiate to check out Bill's website by clicking HERE - and do watch him via webcam there as he illustrates his latest film short, too cool.