Understanding Comics (3 points)
One of the first takeaways mentioned that struck me most meaningful (as an illustrator) was the effect and impact of the icon. The separation and connection between real life and cartooning is much more than simplification, and I was very intrigued by the explanation McCloud presented. Anything and everything can be broken down into simple shapes, yet the real task is being able to translate it into a way that makes sense. I thought it was interesting how McCloud explained how we, as humans, are often unknowingly trained to see ourselves in everything (for example, seeing faces in inanimate objects connecting the idea that two equal parts with a larger shape underneath can be related to a face). A lot of times in the media I see people comparing the quality of art simply based upon how detailed it is drawn, which I think is quite unfair. I understand how someone outside of the general art world can believe this (as McCloud iterates how the art in comics takes the front and center of our attention because it takes no words and little to no time to perceive) yet I do feel like simple art has always been underappreciated in a way, regardless of personal preference in styles. To take an otherwise very detailed part of reality and convey it within a few simple strokes or lines, in my opinion, is a very handy skill, especially in the world of art. In figure class we were always starting off drawing gestures in short amounts of time, challenging our brains to only take in and draw out the most important features. Sometimes less is more, and I like how McCloud explained how we don't always need to see what’s going on in vivid detail to understand what’s happening because we've already trained our brains to interpret specific information in ways that we can fill in the gaps. I once listened to a caricature artist talk about how their method of identifying a person was to take just one trait (perhaps a prominent feature or the occupation they had) and emphasize that part the most. Now, the drawing would not only resemble them in a simple and exaggerated style but also give another identifier to portray them. Personally, I have found myself being drawn to drawn media that emphasizes shape language within their character design because I really believe it adds to this whole idea of simplification being used hand in hand for identification.
(little continuation) This isn't necessarily going off of McCloud's ideas, but another take on the "quality is based on the detail of the drawing" myth I've found. I follow an account on Twitter called "Bad Animation Takes", who basically just finds comments of poorly interpreted takes on animation and reposts them. One of the most common themes in all of them was the connection between budget and quality within animation. While I can agree that an increased budget will give you a sort of higher level of animation, what most people tend to ignore is every other aspect of the project (story, flow, character development, music, etc) In correlation to this, a higher budgeted production using a simplified style would also most likely be bashed despite whether or not the animation was still executed nicely. Just the whole "realistically drawn with a lower quality of animation" taking the lead over "simply drawn with smooth animation" is a debate I would like to see end in the near future.
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