Sketch Studies - "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"

Above are some sketches I did after watching the classic film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".  I got the idea to do this from a fellow artist and pal of mine.  She recently posted some cool sketches / gestures of characters from the "The Lucy Show" on her blog.  She was inspired by the work of Alex Woo, one of Pixar's story artists.  His sketches wonderfully capture movement, gesture, staging, expression, weight, etc...all great things animators should aim to do.  Like my friend, I didn't really have access to a model, and so I looked for some fun poses in this film instead.

Also, before I got to sketching people I became caught up in watching the death speech of Smiler Grogan (played by Jimmy Durante) in the opening scene.  He's only on camera for a couple minutes, and his character is supposed to be slowly dying; and yet he exhibits so many emotions in one short scene.  It's the mark of a great actor to show subtle inflections in character and still evoke the general mood of a given scene.  Gotta look for more moments like this!