Channel Frederator Blog

Preston Blair was perhaps best known for the character “Red”, the woman from the MGM and Tex Avery cartoons.

One of Preston Blair’s greatest accomplishments, in my opinion, is the animation book he created. Several versions of this book have been printed over the years, with the first featuring many of the characters from MGM he had animated in the past. Apparently there was a verbal go ahead to use the characters from someone who didn’t own the rights. Anyway, Preston redrew the entire book and rereleased it.

The Animation Archive has scanned several pages of the first edition of the book, which can be viewed on their website. John Kricfalusi has been doing an online animation course titled “The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course” which uses the book heavily.

If you are an animator, interested in animation, or you just like solid drawing, you should have at least one version of this book on your bookshelf, or better yet, on your drawing desk.

-Floyd Bishop