Finaled the sketched; definitely feeling better about the clifftop. And any excuse to use an ocean arch is cool with me. The color tests have turned out to be a fun way to test brushes and styles as well. That being said, these are supposed to be quick tests of mood and atmosphere and I’m spending too much time painting. I think it’s time for a break before I try daytime options, come at it with fresh eyes and lighter hands.
In looking at the color roughs, it seems readily apparent that I’m still trapped somewhere between the Hanna-Barbera era and King’s Quest IV. Twenty years ago it was kitsch, today it’s retro. It makes me happy, but there is also something about a more impressionistic take on light. Now that I’m looking at, maybe it’s time to return to Tamir.
Along with the new figures, a cartoon series was launched in 1983 as part of a savvy marketing campaign. The cartoon was made possible thanks to government deregulation during the administration of President Reagan that resulted in new rules for children’s television programming. “G.I. Joe: An All American Hero” was one of the first cartoons to benefit from these new rules, which permitted the FCC to air violent war cartoons featuring toy products as the main characters.The strategy worked. The National Coalition on Television Violence reported a 350% increase in the sale of war toys between 1982-1985 – no doubt largely due to the cross-platform success of G.I. Joe.
Levine has said that “G.I. Joe is a universal archetype of good.” It is also a metric of American culture. During the Civil Rights Movement, a heroic African-American Joe was introduced. As the space program gained momentum, an astronaut was introduced. And of course, in the 1980s when flamboyant terrorist organizations started cloning ancient world leaders and building mindless android soldiers, those were introduced as well.
~Jimmy Stamp, Now You Know the History of G.I. Joe. And Knowing Is Half The Battle