Stylized Simplicity

okay, nothing to show today, prolly isn't going to be a daily blog anyway, but eh, what're'ya gonna do?  So I'm looking at different cartoons today and I'm realizing more and more that the way to draw them is getting more and more simplistic and stylized and they're all conforming into that odd flat, cookie cutter type model, granted I'm trying to figure out and learn that style, but it's just odd to see so many cartoons adopting a certain style.

I remember back in the day, shows like Capt. Planet, Jem, Thundercats, He-Man, Voltron, TMNT... all these shows had characters that were unique to their show but they all at least attempted to make the human figure look like the human figure, but now, the human figure has been degraded to the simplist of wavy and straight lines.

Danny Phantom, Fairly Odd Parents, Total Drama Island/Action/World Tour, Phineas and Ferb... all these shows and more are the new stylized human figure, drawing so that the characters look human, but keeping it simple and I suppose, for a lack of a better word, streamlined... everything is so damn... angular and simplistic and although it looks like it's difficult to draw, lo and behold, once you understand what they're doing there, it's rather easy to imitate.

Don't get me wrong though, I think the style is pretty cool, but I also enjoy the old way of drawing, where the figure reseambled a human figure instead of outward facing calves and straight lines from crotch to foot... there were occasionally more curves for the inside of the legs... the waist used to be more than a straight V line up to the shoulders and the heads used to be human heads, now the heads are lumpy, square and apple shaped, the hair used to flow, now the hair conforms to an extension of the head itself.

However, it's still an awesome stylized drawing... they all are.  I myself am practicing to expand on my knowledge base and to enhance what I can do now.  I look to most of these shows for inspiration because although the style is odd, it's still sound.  I look at how they constructed body types and how the arms go with the shoulders and it makes me realize how I can adopt that style into my own and it improves my working knowledge of how to connect all the dots, and that makes for a good style, regardless of the simplicity.