Calm and Composed

[darth_mongoose]

The interesting thing about drawing, and simultaneously the most wonderful and the most frustrating thing, is that there is always something new to learn. There's no point at which a person can go 'oh well, now I know ALL OF ART' and be from thereon a level 100 artist with 255 in all their stats and no possibility of being any better. It's

Comments

[destraudo]

There is certainly a lot to take in. Thanks so much for posting your thoughts. In particular i never thought about the facing moving with and facing moving against points. They apply just as much to illustration as comics.

[darth_mongoose]

Glad you find it interesting!

An illustration can be perceived differently depending on which way your native language reads. Hokusai's great wave off Kanagawa, for instance, has extra impact for a Japanese person because the wave is coming 'toward' them, while for us, it's less of an intimidating feeling image because we move across the image 'with' the wave!

[theorah]

....

I agree ;_; I have so much to learn!!
Right now my studying point is creating more observational backgrounds and thinking more about using shadows/light to add depth to them. I'm trying to figure out how to create backgrounds that can be cartoonish like my style but still give enough depth that you feel immersed in the world.

Great points on composition! I tend to use most of the latter ones listed, the more emotional ones, but I never considered before the first few points, I'm going to have to apply those, I think they'll make a big difference!

[darth_mongoose]

Ahh backgrounds can be really hard for an emotion-focused artist. I think Bryan Lee O'Malley's backgrounds are great (except book 6 of Scott Pilgrim, which uses a different artist with a much finer, more detailed style which in my opinion, doesn't work well).
Maybe if you exaggerate the shapes of the background to emphasise the personality of the place as you do with people, that'll look good? I think the appeal of your style is in how you depict everything so subjectively, so I feel like backgrounds ought to be the same to match your character work. A friendly place should be inviting curves and coziness, while an unpleasant one should be looming shadows or cold hard angles perhaps? Basically draw from observation but caricature the surroundings.

[theorah]

Sorry for the late reply! Thanks for the advice, thats a really good idea! I'm certainly going to try out these things, experiment ahoy! :D

[theorah]

Oh yeah! And I agree, Brad Bird is awesome, by far my favourite animation director. Cant wait to see how his live action film turns out, his animations are like a perfect observation of characters.

[darth_mongoose]

Yeah, I first discovered him thanks to a book called 'acting for animators' and ever since I've really been aware of how good he is at finding the heart of a scene!

[theorah]

That sounds like a really good book! I had no idea he'd written any thing, I think I'll have to get a hold of that, animation books always prove to be so useful for comic artists too! :D

[darth_mongoose]

I love that 'to mongoose' is a verb hahaha. Well, I hope it's useful! ^_^