When he headed to New York after a stint in the Army during the last months of the war, it was with the intent of pursuing his craft as a song illustrator. In the years before World War I, Chicago was an important music-publishing center, and Natwick earned a decent living creating the cover pictures for popular songs–including, he says, the first six published songs by blues master W.C. Born and bred in a small Wisconsin town, he was trained as a serious artist–he studied at the School of the Art Institute–and was already established as an illustrator of sheet music while still in college. “We’d fill our wastebaskets with ’em.” Now, production cels are pricey items at Circle Gallery, which last week hosted a 99th birthday party for Natwick to launch its new exhibit, “The Art of Animation.”Īs Natwick recalls it, he wasn’t particularly interested in cartoon animation to begin with. “We used to throw these things away,” he says of the production cels used to create film cartoons. Today, cartoon illustration has been elevated to the status of collectible art–and no one’s more surprised than Natwick. At age 99, he has seen the art and business of film animation go through many ups and downs: from the quickie throwaway black-and-white cartoons of the silent era and the early days of sound to the elaborate full-color features of Hollywood’s “golden age” to the cheaper “limited animation” style of the television years. Magoo–the list goes on and on.Īs one of the top animation artists of the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, Natwick brought to life some of the most durable characters in cartoons. Betty Boop, Snow White, Mickey Mouse, Krazy Kat, Clarabell Cow, Woody Woodpecker, Mr.
BETTY BOOP PICTURES TO DRAW MOVIE
But in his day, Grim Natwick helped create some of the greatest stars in movie history. He’s retired now and living in Chillicothe, Missouri. Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife.Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation.
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