Charles M Jones, popularly known as Chuck Jones (1912 to 2002) was a legendary animation director who created some of the most memorable cartoon animated shorts of all time.
He showed a keen interest in drawing from childhood with the active encouragement of his parents. Due to his father’s frequent changing of businesses, there was plenty of good quality stationary available and Jones and his siblings would make good use of them. Jones was especially fond of drawing cats discovering early on that each cat had its own personality.
He would later drop out of school and join Chouinard Art Institute and during his education worked as a part time janitor. He got his first job in animation at the Ub Iwerks Studio as a cel washer. He would later take up the roles of cel-painter and an in-betweener.
In 1933 he would take up the job of assistant animator with Leon Schlesinger Productions where he was assigned to work with Tex Avery who helped Jones flower into an excellent animator and later a Director. Jones would go on to create some memorable shorts with characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Poky Pig and most memorable of all Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
Jones was the master of quick sketch and would capture the essence of the pose and expression of his characters in a few lines. Here is his famous advice to young artists:
“All of you have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone.” His biography “Chuck Amuck” is a must read for upcoming artists. For more about Chuck Jones do visit https://chuckjones.com.