Bob Doucette’s Journey: From Animator to Gallery Artist

From Cartoonland to Toboland by Bob Doucette

When I started transitioning from animation to full time gallery painter, I was considering the infinite possibilities of subjects to paint. Wisely, an old friend of mine recommended that I approach painting the same way I approached animation since it was what I knew well.

I started to think back on the beginning of Animaniacs when we were developing that show at Warner Bros. Animation. The first stage I was asked to work on was creating a font for the show – there were three possible names, Toonatics, Looniacs or Animaniacs. I made a painting of concentric circles, like the kind Porky Pig popped out of at the end of every Looney Toon cartoon, to say “That’s all Folks!” Then I went through many fonts to lay on top; my brilliant boss Tom Ruegger liked very bold and easy to read fonts so that made it easy.

Next, he asked me to come up with some ideas for a logo. I put my mind to thinking about the idea of these three characters that had been locked away for many years in the Warner Bros. vault and chose to have them spring out of the official WB logo. It was irreverent and it parodied serious corporate logos like the Animaniacs parodied pop-culture.

This led me to thinking, I need a “show” name for my art. My email at the time started with tobo (as in “to Bob”) and I thought that it had a nice ring. So, I chose the name Toboland and then I sat down and started to write a manifesto, the equivalent of a “show bible” for a cartoon. My manifesto was long and rambling but it made me think of what I wanted to achieve and what I did not want to do. I wanted to create a world that was not always logical, sometimes surreal, and one where the clothing style could come from any period with characters that would be prone to exaggeration.

My favorite artist at the time was Fernando Botero, the Columbian painter and sculptor, and I liked how his work was easily identifiable. His paintings and sculptures are known for their volumetric bodies and his consistent taste in color. My goal would be to create a world that was easily identifiable and filled with distinctive characters.

Now that I knew my world, I needed to populate it. I went through a series of ideas, some that stuck and some that fizzled out. What is amazing is how your audience decides for you what works and what doesn’t. Two characters from the beginning have had a big and equal draw from my audience.

The first was Alfred P. Death, a reluctant reaper. His middle name, Prufrock, comes from a poem by T.S. Elliot called “The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock,” about an ineffectual man who asked the world “do I dare disturb the universe?” Who can’t relate to that? It was my quote in my high school yearbook. Alfred is plagued with self-doubt and reluctance to just get to work. The first time he appeared in one of my paintings was “Death Takes a Holiday” where Alfred hits the road in his whimsical vehicle to run away from his responsibilities. For some reason, people like old Al and his insistent sidekick Taxis, the Raven. Because Death and Taxis are inevitable, I guess.

My second most popular character I created is Musette. She is an avatar for me who is styled to look like my rendition of an OG Barbie doll, (back when they had attitude.) I use Musette to comment on the world and be my proxy for how I see things. We are often afraid to let the true us out in the world, so creating an avatar with attitude can protect us and to allow us to frankly muse on things.

So that’s a little bit of background on how I came up with Toboland: the art of Bob Doucette, I hope you enjoyed the stories.

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