There's a definite art to drawing cartoon characters properly…that is to say to get them "on model" and looking like they're supposed to look. When I labored at Hanna-Barbera, I had an ongoing war with various departments there, usually with managers who'd hire the cheapest guy they could get to draw Yogi Bear for a piece of merchandise. Often, the cheapest guy didn't draw a Yogi who looked anything like Yogi but that seemed to be a minor factor, unnoticed by the guy who did the hiring.
So I love artists who can not only draw characters but get them on-target right. And I really, really love the guys who can do it and go a step beyond the model sheets — which, after all, are designed to simplify the characters down so that almost anyone in the studio can handle them. A great talent like Scott Shaw! or Scott Jeralds or Phil Ortiz or Bill Morrison…well, I shouldn't have started naming names because I'm going to omit some friends of mine and make them sore at me. Anyway, a great talent can get the characters "on model" and add extra life and expression to them beyond the norm. Another guy who's definitely in that category is Patrick Owsley, who did the covers for the DVDs of Tennessee Tuxedo and Go-Go Gophers. (Those are clickable links to buy them at Amazon if you're so inclined. By the way, note that the Go-Go Gophers DVD advertises "21 Rocky Episodes" on the front. They don't mean Rocky the Flying Squirrel. He is nowhere on this DVD and we can only wonder how many people buy it thinking he is.)
Patrick has started his own weblog so you can see some of his other fine work. I have nothing to add other than that I wish everyone who has to hire someone to draw a great cartoon character of the past would hire someone as good as Patrick or the other guys I've mentioned or should have mentioned. Because it's really painful for some of us to see our faves rendered by people who don't know what they look like.