The Evolution of Charlie Brown (And Your Own Work)
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I got to go to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California. It was wonderful and inspiring. I lucked out with my visit coinciding with the current exhibition of Peanuts Evolution The 1950s.
Artwork
The early Peanuts strips had more dynamic layouts and detailed artwork. Over the years Schulz refined the strip, simplifying the backgrounds and even shot angles so that the reader would not be distracted from the message.
The appearance of the characters changed too, Snoopy most notably. He started as a normal dog running around on 4 legs transitioning into the anthropomorphized version he is today.
Character
While there are some constants like Charlie Brown himself, characters came and went. Shermy and Violet, regulars in the strip early on, eventually fell by the wayside as new characters came along.
Many of the kids “aged up” too. Schroeder, Linus, and Sally were all babies and toddlers when they first appeared but eventually became closer in age to Charlie Brown.
The character’s personalities changed too. Early on, Charlie Brown could be a bit of a jerk. He eventually became insecure but utterly persistent in the face of defeat.
My takeaway from all this is to evolve and iterate as you go. If you wait until things are “perfect” and everything has been figured out, you’ll likely never start.
I’ll leave you with this advice Schulz gave to aspiring cartoonists: “You must not confine yourself to any particular idea. You must constantly search for the characters and ideas which will eventually lead you to your best areas of work. The characters you start to draw today may not be the same characters you will end up drawing a month or year from now. New personalities will come along which you never thought of creating.”
I made a TikTok about the museum.
Favorite Thing I Drew This Month
I like how this whole page turned out but particularly pleased with this panel of random characters. The paper planes have been unleashed at school!
Family Stuff
Thanksgiving! We took the week off and went to Yosemite for the first half of the week. I haven’t been in over 20 years. I absolutely loved it. Certainly people in the park but not too crowded. And the weather was lovely, chilly but not too cold. Though I would have been ok with a bit of snow.
The park truly is spectacular. We didn’t really have an agenda, going wherever struck our fancy. Low-key hikes that the kids could do or rather Mom and Dad could do carrying kids.
Next, we headed up towards San Francisco to have Thanksgiving with family. We went into the city making stops at Ghirardelli Square and the Cartoon Art Museum. There was an exhibit on Dave Stevens (one of my all-time favorite artists) creator of The Rocketeer. It was a treat to see his work up close in person.
We then made our way up to Santa Rosa to visit the aforementioned Charles Schulz Museum. Then a stop at the Monterey Bay Aquarium before heading home. A really nice getaway with the family and a little rest for my wrist.
Back at home, I got some art notes from my book editor on Woodland Hills along with feedback on cover ideas. I’m going to attempt to ink the cover on paper rather than the computer. Fingers crossed, I can still work competently with ink and paper. It’s been ages 🙂
Thanks for reading. See you next year!
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