Hurm...
Several hours ago while I was in the workin' step, scribbling away on homework that might never be due from me...
Seamus called.
"I forgot to tell you something."
"What's that?"
"I love you."
"*giggle* I love you too, silly."
And the conversation went how conversations like that go.
Just now I leaned back in my chair, rolled my neck and shoulders and thought of that and giggled to myself a little again.
I suppose life could be worse >.>
And I have new fresh food in my fridge right next to the old good food. They're getting along. :)
Tomorrow, milk, hobo omelet, a bagel, and a sliced apple for breakfast. ^_^
In other news, here's a copy of mine defending a friend's art website's "no Manga" policy. I love Manga, I do...when it's done by professionals, Japanese, Korean, English, Russian, or Jamaican. I don't care if you draw in a Manga style, just learn how. The rant!
-------
Touche.
But to counter, there are different types of art and different types of skills required to do each type well.
If you're a contractor, you can do some fine craftsmanship in brick that moves people. A real craftsman would be hired for parks and government buildings for example versus "The Joe Bros. We know cement."
Does this mean everyone can do it? No. But, you CAN do it without being able to draw like Da Vinci.
Some artists can do details really well, others can do the whole picture but it's impressionistic or abstract. Some artists have trouble with perspective but are fantastic at rendering figures (and vice versa).
People have different strengths and weaknesses and artists are no different.
What's [i]deceptive[/i] about Manga and Anime as a style is that it's minimalist. The faces are much more generic and a few lines lighter than western-style faces which tend to be more distinct and detailed (view examples*). Scott McCloud talks about this in all of his books about comics, how Manga is more aesthetically pleasing to a viewer because the less specific a face, the more identifiable it is. To word it differently, it means the viewer identifies more with the character. They are more empathic to the character's feelings than if it's a distinct face separate from your own like in western-style art. It's not just the faces though. Some Manga have hardly any backgrounds aside from a few scratchy lines and creative use of ziptones (examples**). Others, like Katsuhiro Otomo or Kia Asamiya (examples***), do detailed renderings with both line and ziptone that read clearly while still being filled with intense detail to make the world feel real. Now, both of these styles are good, both are mastery of their Manga craft, but both are also in the hands of masters who have learned the basic principles of anatomy, perspective, composition, notan balance, graphic design, presentation, and -for crying out loud- practice.
It takes practice to do Manga well. You have to know where to put the lines so they read clearly and expertly. You have to know how to use gradations and perspective to fill in depth and render shape and mass. It's all a lie, what we artist-types do. It's all illusions, folks. You have to be a practiced magician to play this theater. And a lot of these guys (final examples ****) aren't cut out for it.
-Amelia
art student
------
* Compare the example here to the ones below. Alex Raymond, fantastic early comic artist of [i]Flash Gordon[/i].
According to Scott McCloud, this woman can only be this woman and no one else. She can't be me or you or anyone else because she is only her. Her unique face tells us so.
[url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mfram/Media/0505-UC-triangle-all.jpg]The [b]BIG[/b] Triange[/url]
An excerpt spread from [i]Understanding Comics[/i] which illustrates abstraction of the form in two planes from reality. The first is abstraction of the picture plane into it's basic forms while in other other direction, it's abstraction of the idea into words. I'm not explaining that part well, but I assure you it makes sense when Scott says it. As for Manga, because they lie in the bottom middle of the triangle, that means they are more iconic than western art (there's several stereotypical types seen in Manga from the wise old grandmother to the large gruff villain samurai. Stereotypes are seen in western art too, but not to the standard format of the East. There, it is traditional to follow the traditional format. We see this set of lines with that color scheme, and it's Rei Ayanami from [i]Evangeleon[/i]. or Eureka from [i]Eureka Seven[/i]. They're both "inhuman thing trying to be human" Mary Sue characters. This might mean this is the standard color scheme and rendering of all "inhuman thing trying to be human" Mary Sue characters in Manga and Anime. A bit of a stretch, sure, but you understand my point.
Rei.
Eureka.
**-
Naoko Takeuchi is famous for doing [i]Sailor Moon[/i] which I don't need to tell you is popular. Really look at the backgrounds, what do you see?
***-Katsuhiro Otomo's work first because I really like it.
Some of Housui Yamazaki, who has work which reminds me of Otomo.
And of course Kia Asamiya, who is amazing. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, it's all I could find on Google at midnight.
**** - Just typed "Anime" into Google.
This was the first thing to pop up:
Well, rendered. Professional. Go Google.
Just typed "Anime" into Deviant Art.
This is what first came up:
Some work by the same artist:
-this one isn't bad, but I think it's copied considering there's a few blatant swipes in her DA account.
-this one has a background! Yay! But...okay, where are we? A hill top? A mountain? Is that a tree?
If you know this artist, or you are the artist, I'm sorry. I was being objective.
----------
I apologize to all artists who have me on their friends page for having to view that.
-glych
Seamus called.
"I forgot to tell you something."
"What's that?"
"I love you."
"*giggle* I love you too, silly."
And the conversation went how conversations like that go.
Just now I leaned back in my chair, rolled my neck and shoulders and thought of that and giggled to myself a little again.
I suppose life could be worse >.>
And I have new fresh food in my fridge right next to the old good food. They're getting along. :)
Tomorrow, milk, hobo omelet, a bagel, and a sliced apple for breakfast. ^_^
In other news, here's a copy of mine defending a friend's art website's "no Manga" policy. I love Manga, I do...when it's done by professionals, Japanese, Korean, English, Russian, or Jamaican. I don't care if you draw in a Manga style, just learn how. The rant!
-------
Touche.
But to counter, there are different types of art and different types of skills required to do each type well.
If you're a contractor, you can do some fine craftsmanship in brick that moves people. A real craftsman would be hired for parks and government buildings for example versus "The Joe Bros. We know cement."
Does this mean everyone can do it? No. But, you CAN do it without being able to draw like Da Vinci.
Some artists can do details really well, others can do the whole picture but it's impressionistic or abstract. Some artists have trouble with perspective but are fantastic at rendering figures (and vice versa).
People have different strengths and weaknesses and artists are no different.
What's [i]deceptive[/i] about Manga and Anime as a style is that it's minimalist. The faces are much more generic and a few lines lighter than western-style faces which tend to be more distinct and detailed (view examples*). Scott McCloud talks about this in all of his books about comics, how Manga is more aesthetically pleasing to a viewer because the less specific a face, the more identifiable it is. To word it differently, it means the viewer identifies more with the character. They are more empathic to the character's feelings than if it's a distinct face separate from your own like in western-style art. It's not just the faces though. Some Manga have hardly any backgrounds aside from a few scratchy lines and creative use of ziptones (examples**). Others, like Katsuhiro Otomo or Kia Asamiya (examples***), do detailed renderings with both line and ziptone that read clearly while still being filled with intense detail to make the world feel real. Now, both of these styles are good, both are mastery of their Manga craft, but both are also in the hands of masters who have learned the basic principles of anatomy, perspective, composition, notan balance, graphic design, presentation, and -for crying out loud- practice.
It takes practice to do Manga well. You have to know where to put the lines so they read clearly and expertly. You have to know how to use gradations and perspective to fill in depth and render shape and mass. It's all a lie, what we artist-types do. It's all illusions, folks. You have to be a practiced magician to play this theater. And a lot of these guys (final examples ****) aren't cut out for it.
-Amelia
art student
------
* Compare the example here to the ones below. Alex Raymond, fantastic early comic artist of [i]Flash Gordon[/i].
According to Scott McCloud, this woman can only be this woman and no one else. She can't be me or you or anyone else because she is only her. Her unique face tells us so.
[url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mfram/Media/0505-UC-triangle-all.jpg]The [b]BIG[/b] Triange[/url]
![http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mfram/Media/0505-UC-triangle-all.jpg]The](http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mfram/Media/0505-UC-triangle-all.jpg]The){kind=link}
An excerpt spread from [i]Understanding Comics[/i] which illustrates abstraction of the form in two planes from reality. The first is abstraction of the picture plane into it's basic forms while in other other direction, it's abstraction of the idea into words. I'm not explaining that part well, but I assure you it makes sense when Scott says it. As for Manga, because they lie in the bottom middle of the triangle, that means they are more iconic than western art (there's several stereotypical types seen in Manga from the wise old grandmother to the large gruff villain samurai. Stereotypes are seen in western art too, but not to the standard format of the East. There, it is traditional to follow the traditional format. We see this set of lines with that color scheme, and it's Rei Ayanami from [i]Evangeleon[/i]. or Eureka from [i]Eureka Seven[/i]. They're both "inhuman thing trying to be human" Mary Sue characters. This might mean this is the standard color scheme and rendering of all "inhuman thing trying to be human" Mary Sue characters in Manga and Anime. A bit of a stretch, sure, but you understand my point.
Rei.
Eureka.
**-
Naoko Takeuchi is famous for doing [i]Sailor Moon[/i] which I don't need to tell you is popular. Really look at the backgrounds, what do you see?
***-Katsuhiro Otomo's work first because I really like it.
Some of Housui Yamazaki, who has work which reminds me of Otomo.
And of course Kia Asamiya, who is amazing. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, it's all I could find on Google at midnight.
**** - Just typed "Anime" into Google.
This was the first thing to pop up:
Well, rendered. Professional. Go Google.
Just typed "Anime" into Deviant Art.
This is what first came up:
Some work by the same artist:
-this one isn't bad, but I think it's copied considering there's a few blatant swipes in her DA account.
-this one has a background! Yay! But...okay, where are we? A hill top? A mountain? Is that a tree?
If you know this artist, or you are the artist, I'm sorry. I was being objective.
----------
I apologize to all artists who have me on their friends page for having to view that.
-glych