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beccastareyesRecently, I've been trying to change my art style. I'll come back to that later.
People seem to like to stick things into neat little boxes. Like art. You go onto a site like DevART and you get nice little groups. There are the 'traditional artists' -- peopel who probably could get into galleries and stuff. There are the 'fantasy/sci-fi/space artists' -- people who probably work in similar ways to the traditional artists, but chose different subjects. There are a few other gorups, like comic artists and photographers, and digital artists...
Then there are the anime artists. I have heard the rant about anime artists before. I can summarize the points:
1) The talented ones should move onto 'real' art (read: one of the first two categories)
2) They have no originality.
3) They are insane Japanophiles who will not admit Western art (especially animation/comics) has any merit.
Now, I am ambivalent towards this attitude. Partially because all of these things do have basis in fact. Anyone who tries to draw the human form (animators, comic artists, still artists, etc.) should know a bit about how to do so realistically -- it helps a lot with posing and expression. And there ARE artists who slavishly copy original art to produce fanart and anime artists who go into the 'If it isn't from Japan, it's crap' spiel.
i think a lot of the problem is some anime artists, especially novices, do not try to develop their own style. When I went to the inking workshop at AnimeIowa last year, the instructor shared this story. He taught a manga-drawing course at his local community college and the overall goal was to design a manga-style character of your very own. One session, he got a rather 'special' student. This person loved to draw Cloud. He was very good at drawing Cloud. In fact, he didn't really want to draw something that wasn't Cloud -- the instructor seriously thought this guy expected to move to Japan and make a living drawing Cloud Strife. The instructor talked and talked to this guy and eventually this guy turned in his final project -- an original character that lookefd a lot like... you guessed it. Cloud.
This is an extreme case, but there ARE artists out there who seem content to mimic a professional mangaka's style. And there are times when this is cool. But, I think that artists who limit themselves to mimicing a professional's style are doing just that... limiting themselves. I suppose it is no coincidence that many of my favorite fanartists do not try to duplicate Araizumi-sensei or Hirano-sensei or Watase-sensei, but instead try to do their own Xellos or Integra Hellsing.
Which brings me back to myself. I started out mimicing a number of different styles. Then I moved on to my own anime-derived style. Now, after several posts where I had to defend anime webcartoonists and artists by saying that many of us draw this way because we like to, and not because we are elistist Japanophiles or catching a trend, I have decided to take a long, hard lok at my art and try experimenting. Because, there ARE good things about the Western cartoon styles as well. And, I think I do need to improve -- well, I always think that.
People seem to like to stick things into neat little boxes. Like art. You go onto a site like DevART and you get nice little groups. There are the 'traditional artists' -- peopel who probably could get into galleries and stuff. There are the 'fantasy/sci-fi/space artists' -- people who probably work in similar ways to the traditional artists, but chose different subjects. There are a few other gorups, like comic artists and photographers, and digital artists...
Then there are the anime artists. I have heard the rant about anime artists before. I can summarize the points:
1) The talented ones should move onto 'real' art (read: one of the first two categories)
2) They have no originality.
3) They are insane Japanophiles who will not admit Western art (especially animation/comics) has any merit.
Now, I am ambivalent towards this attitude. Partially because all of these things do have basis in fact. Anyone who tries to draw the human form (animators, comic artists, still artists, etc.) should know a bit about how to do so realistically -- it helps a lot with posing and expression. And there ARE artists who slavishly copy original art to produce fanart and anime artists who go into the 'If it isn't from Japan, it's crap' spiel.
i think a lot of the problem is some anime artists, especially novices, do not try to develop their own style. When I went to the inking workshop at AnimeIowa last year, the instructor shared this story. He taught a manga-drawing course at his local community college and the overall goal was to design a manga-style character of your very own. One session, he got a rather 'special' student. This person loved to draw Cloud. He was very good at drawing Cloud. In fact, he didn't really want to draw something that wasn't Cloud -- the instructor seriously thought this guy expected to move to Japan and make a living drawing Cloud Strife. The instructor talked and talked to this guy and eventually this guy turned in his final project -- an original character that lookefd a lot like... you guessed it. Cloud.
This is an extreme case, but there ARE artists out there who seem content to mimic a professional mangaka's style. And there are times when this is cool. But, I think that artists who limit themselves to mimicing a professional's style are doing just that... limiting themselves. I suppose it is no coincidence that many of my favorite fanartists do not try to duplicate Araizumi-sensei or Hirano-sensei or Watase-sensei, but instead try to do their own Xellos or Integra Hellsing.
Which brings me back to myself. I started out mimicing a number of different styles. Then I moved on to my own anime-derived style. Now, after several posts where I had to defend anime webcartoonists and artists by saying that many of us draw this way because we like to, and not because we are elistist Japanophiles or catching a trend, I have decided to take a long, hard lok at my art and try experimenting. Because, there ARE good things about the Western cartoon styles as well. And, I think I do need to improve -- well, I always think that.
