because it was cheaper for ira turek to trace photographs to create the backgrounds, bakshi and johnnie vita walked around the streets of the lower east side, washington square park, chinatown and harlem to take moody snapshots. turek inked the outlines of these photographs onto cels with a rapidograph, the technical pen preferred by crumb, giving the film's backgrounds stylized realism that had never been portrayed in animation before. after turek completed a background drawing in ink on an animation cel, the drawing would be photocopied onto watercolor paper for vita and onto animation paper for use in matching the characters to the backgrounds. when vita finished his painting, turek's original drawing, on the cel, would be placed over the watercolor, obscuring the photocopy lines on the painting. however, not every background was taken from live-action sources. the tones of the watercolor backgrounds were influenced by the "ash can style" of painters, which includes george luks and john french sloan. the film also used bent and fisheye camera perspectives in order to replicate the way the film's hippies and hoodlums viewed the city.