CARTOON HEROES

LOONTAB & NATALIE ELLIOTT

 
 
 

In a previous iteration, Olly Schubert, aka Loontab was a painter. As a student of the Hamburg University of Fine Art in the late 90s, he developed a keen interest in New York’s graffiti scene popularised by the work of Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf. Soon after, he began experimenting with animation and found himself working for a studio in LA making animated commercials. Since then, he’s produced the 3D series “Wombat City” and undertook animation work for renowned international brands like Adidas, Disney Channel and Sky TV.

 
 

The Protagonis

 

“I’ve always loved cartoons, comics and video games, from the classic Disney and Tex Avery cartoons to contemporary manga and anime,” he told Cluster. These influences are apparent in Olly’s strong focus on character design, “characters have always shown up in my work, some from imagination and others in reference to cartoons,”  he explains. His work features a roster of absurdist digital characters, made from loose abstract shapes and lines. Prioritising playfulness over perfection, his colourful creatures carry the same raw, unprecious energy as graffiti itself.

 
 
 
 

He often takes his camera for walks around town, photographing characters from local graffiti as he goes. “I’m interested in the messy ones,” he added, “at home I re-draw them, integrating them into my own illustrations/animations.” For Olly, the creative process is one of experimentation and chance, absorbing elements from disparate worlds together and remixing them to form something unique. “It’s like a musician doing samples, to me an artwork succeeds when it evokes something anarchic or surprising.”

Neighbourhood

 
 

Three Heads

 

Through Cluster, Olly hopes to bring his art to wider audiences, “I’m happy to be in the company of so many great artists,” he added. His latest project, “The Drops”, is an NFT collaboration with over 30 international artists, where each participant is invited to transform a 3D head according to their unique artistic sensibilities.

Fashion Victim

 

Cod Peace

 

Another cartoon-aficionado is Natalie Elliott, an Essex-based illustrator and recent graduate who also has her fingers in the world of animation. “I’m glad I chose illustration for my BFA,” she told Cluster, “I’ve found that it’s allowed me to explore animation styles authentically as a natural offshoot of illustration.” Influenced by cartoonists and children’s book illustrators, Natalie finds her inspiration in the work of Hergé, Quentin Blake and Bjenny Montero, as well as writers, filmmakers and the natural world.“As a child, I would copy cartoon and video game characters, and only came back to this style at university where I found realistic drawing somewhat tiresome – I’d make silly mistakes in composition without realising.” After a few rocky critiques, Natalie decided that she wanted to make people laugh on purpose, not accidentally, informing the way she created images.

 
 

Distinctively humourous, her minimal, comic-like style toys with well-established truisms. Like a good joke, she pokes fun at the status quo by making it absurd.  “I like to base my ideas in the familiar, and try and flip those assumptions on their head so I can reveal something new out of something old.” She uses this style as a shorthand for larger ideas, mixing light-hearted comic culture with sometimes scathing critiques. There’s a lot that can be said through cartoons, still or animated, and it is the place where I tend to feel most at home with my voice.

 
 

My Liege

Deliveryou

 

She starts with a pun, sketching out comic panels page by page, going over it with blue pencil and ink before removing any stray lines in Photoshop. Recently, she’d been easing herself away from computer software in favour of good, old-fashioned coloured pencils. Feeling often confined by reference photos, Natalie works largely from memory, “I have found that the most natural way of drawing for me consists of relying on memory and just allowing my hand to  follow, fixing any mistakes as I go along,” she explains, “I also find this way to be the most  enjoyable and fun, and I will usually come across unexpected answers to any  problems I encounter.”

 
 
 
 

Like many artists, Natalie found herself severed from a creative community in the aftermath of Covid-19. For her, Cluster has been a way of re-integrating herself with like-minded people. “I have found the  Zoom meetings to be very helpful,” she told us, “informative from a  practical point of view, but also great to discuss the work other people have been making.” Lately, she’s been busy illustrating a children’s book about patience and resilience, due to be published both on her website and in print sometime in the near future.

Humanry

 
 

In the world of cartoons, the unexpected reigns. Despite their differing approaches to art-making, each of these artists refuses the straight-jacket
of perfection in favour of more enduring feats; style, authenticity and most of all, play.

 
 
 

Work by both Loontab and Kelly Bailey can be viewed on the Cluster Illustration platform
and purchased through our Cluster Illustration Online Shop.

Thank you for reading,
Stephanie Gavan & Cluster Team.