Termite Terrace

MEDIUM: Hand-Painted Limited Edition Cel
EDITION SIZE: 500
SIZE: 37” x 15”
SKU: WB1049

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Termite Terrace ~ Once upon a time, there was a place where both magic and history were made. A new artform was in its genesis, and Termite Terrace was its Eden. Under the supervision of producer and larger-than life personality Leon Schlesinger, seminal animation talents with names such as Avery, Blanc, Clampett, Freleng, Jones, Maltese and McKimson gathered to help invent the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies irreverent style that we’ve all grown to love.

In “Termite Terrace,” artist extraordinaire Kirk Mueller gathered together eleven of the most loved Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters to reenact the zany antics of the original Termite Terrace: Elmer works on script revisions while Bugs, Porky and Yosemite Sam flip through a sequence of drawings. Daffy casually animates as Sylvester and Tweety prepare inked cels for Granny to paint. Pierre Termite “sharpens” a pencil, Wile E. Coyote lays the cels on a background and photographs the cartoon, and Sniffles brings a Racing Forum to The Boss (Leon Schlesinger, silhouetted in his office window). Artist Kirk Mueller’s conception of Termite Terrace includes more modern versions of the characters (as well as Wile E. Coyote, who wasn’t “born” until after Termite Terrace) in order to pay a more uniform homage to the era and all of the important players in it.

ABOUT THE MEDIUM: This limited edition cel began as a master inking of Kirk Mueller’s drawing, which was then silk-screened onto an acetate sheet (or “cel”) along with the Warner Bros. seal. Each cel was then expertly hand-painted on the reverse side. The original background by Hector Martinez was reproduced using a four-color lithography process on acid-free paper. In the final step of production, the edition number was hand-inked on each cel in an edition size of 500.