Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

A blog dedicated to the making of the first animated Christmas special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Commercials at UPA

My last post featured Sam Clayberger's color work at UPA for some of the theatrical Magoo cartoons.  Concurrent with those shorts, UPA was also producing a high volume of television commercials and in fact, that division was the only one making money for the studio. 

Due to the technology of the time, i. e. black & white TV, the spots were executed in shades of gray rather than color.  While it might appear simpler to paint in a monochromatic medium, the challenge is in making your values read crisply so items don't blend into the background.  Below are few of the thumbnails painted by Sam for some of the myriad commercials done during his time at UPA.  Vintage B & W TV ads are difficult to find so none of these have been identified as of yet.  If anyone can ID the spots these are from, please let me know.











3 comments:

Joe R. Frinzi said...

Very cool stuff! Thanks Darrell.

Sherm said...

Thanks so much Darrell -- these are beyond gorgeous and I'm so glad you posted them nice and big on your blog. The best part of your Jay Ward book is all the rough stuff you included...really shows off the humanity and individulity of these timeless cartoons.

Sam Hallmark said...

Thanks immensely for posting this material. The gray scale studies are amazing to look at! I'm really enjoying this!!!