A Revelation I Had About Art and Storytelling

akitsukino 2017-04-12 21:59:44 UTC #1

If you want a clear example of how frustrated and doubtful I have been about my art recently all you have to do is look at my forum posts (don't even have to read them, just look at my titles). I have been damn near killing myself to get my art to what I can consider a presentable level. I get really critical of my art and a lot of that critical attitude spills over into how I view other people's art. I'll look at the art of other web comic artists and I'll find all kinds of problems ( "You're lacking form in the face! You call that perspective!? Where is your gesture!?"). But once I'm done judging I'll also acknowledge one important fact ; I still know what's going on. The ideas they were trying to present are usually still pretty clear. Even if the art is relatively simple, if the artist in question uses their abilities in a way that is still communicating properly it can usually be a delightful read.

When I noticed this I remembered something I'd heard from another artist I really liked. They made the case that art and drawing isn't necessarily about "making pretty pictures", it's about communication. Then I thought "If that's the case then does it matter if these artists have super good art skills as long as their ideas are coming across properly?" And that's when I came to a really big conclusion.

Maybe the most in important thing in art, especially storytelling art like comics and storyboards, isn't "pretty drawings". Maybe it's CLARITY.

Maybe this is the reason people are able to enjoy artists like Bill Waterson and Kim Jung Gi on the same level. Their art is so different but it still expresses its concepts in discernible ways.

Realizing this is kind of a big deal for me because I've been struggling with not having the most developed skills. Granted wanting clarity in your art is even more reason to learn things like composition and anatomy, but if I can still get my ideas across maybe I don't have to beat myself up so bad for not knowing them the way I'd like . Maybe having the most beautifully rendered colors and advanced perspective isn't as important as making sure I tell the story the best way I possibly can (even with a less than impressive style).

This is the podcast that made me start questioning all of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2K08gSaOC0

Now, obviously this isn't the case for all kings of art. Clarity might not be as valued in something like abstract art, but I think it really applies to stuff like comics, animation, filmmaking, etc. I think it's pretty important. It's definitely something I'm going to try to remember when I feel like my art isn't "exciting" enough. So what do you all think? Do you think there's something more important in your art than clarity ? If yes, let me know below! I'd love to hear from you.

J.Z.Castillo 2017-04-12 22:36:58 UTC #2

Wait, all I got from this post is a bunch of excuses and apologies. Yes, clarity is important in a visual medium BUT so is artistic skill. Be honest, would you spend money on things you didn't find appealing but had clarity? Absolutely not. The thing with Bill Waterson and Kim Jung Gi is that they are MASTERS at their craft. They have taken the courses, they have put in the work, and I am sure they can kill a realistic drawing with proportions and perspective because you NEED to understand and master those things BEFORE you start to develop a style and to stylize your drawings.

This is where most people fall short and why I completely hate it when people try to cover up their inefficiency with things like "oh well, at least it's clear, my art doesn't have to be good" MMMH, yeah it does. I'm not saying it has to be the most beautiful thing but it HAS to be successful within its own world. What does that mean? It means that you understand enough anatomy, enough perspective, enough composition to fuck around with all those things and make them your own. You can tell when someone is an amateur, when they just don't get it. You can always tell when someone is just not skilled enough. That is absolutely not the case with Waterson and Gi, their works are different and they break the rules but they are visually appealing because they UNDERSTAND those rules, they know how to break them, how far to go, and which ones to break. Saying artistic skill is not as important to a visual medium is like saying having tires on a car is not that important. Yeah, we know it's a car, it looks like a car, you can sit inside of it, the engine runs, but can you drive the car with no tires?

I just see a trend of growing artists, special little snowflakes, who have never been told off. I see it in school, I see it online. Maybe they have never had a professor who really busted their ass or maybe they have never had a real honest critique, maybe they just suck, I don't know, but lately all I hear is excuses. You should NEVER go into a project or approach your art so passively or making excuses for its lack of whatever-it's-lacking. You should always go into it trying to better yourself, I would say maybe even self-deprecating haha... maybe not to that extreme but definitely always critical about it. Personally I am NEVER satisfied with my work, I may be okay with it for a while but then comes a time when I have to grow. I never get into that head space of "at least this and that." NO! Never make excuses for your art, accept it for what it is, analyze it, and MAKE IT GROW.

Hodge 2017-04-12 22:47:20 UTC #3

I remember reading an interview with Kishimoto (Naruto) and Togashi (HxH) and they basically said if you really want to make comics then just do it and don't let worrying about art keep you from making comics. Your art will get better as you go on, and what really matters is that you can communicate an interesting story to your reader. I've read plenty of comics that start off with iffy art but a good story and the art improves. The only thing is it can be hard to make the commitment to do the work and make 50+ chapters of a comic in order to really get the art down or have a story that sophisticated . . . and even then you'll never be satisfied. I agree that clarity is super important when making comics since you're following a narrative. The reader needs to be able to understand what's going on. Every now and then I'll see a comic with great art but you can tell they get so absorbed in the art that they forget the message they want to convey and don't have any love for the story. Sincerity comes across, the art skills will eventually follow with practice.

Mari 2017-04-12 23:03:39 UTC #4

I feel like rather than just read and study the technicalities you'd benefit more from just going out and signing up for a real-life drawing course or going to a cafe and sketching everyone there like a creep. Croquis practises help with things like clarity a lot (none of that pussy 5 min croquis shit, croquis are meant to be done in 10-5 seconds).

keii4ii 2017-04-12 23:35:57 UTC #5

Well, this post comes from someone who's been told off more than enough, mostly by the OP him/herself. Considering that, it's not an excuse; it's not "fundamentals are for stuck-up losers." It's "fundamentals are important, but that doesn't mean everything I do at my current skill level is worthless."

Think of it as anorexia. Someone who's been in that hell and only just realized they can eat and still be okay -- that's important. That doesn't mean they're like "OBESITY IS AWESOME!!!"

akitsukino 2017-04-12 23:47:18 UTC #6

True... maybe I should've specified by saying that this is a revelation about my art. That thing you said about self deprecating ? That's exactly what I've been doing and it hasn't been working. I currently have over NINE sketchbooks (that's over a thousand pages) filled with nothing but figure drawings. I'll study and study and study and draw and critique and critique so much that I'll start to feel sick. I'll beat myself up when a drawing isn't as artistically sound as I think it should be. I'll research for hours ways to make it better and try out those techniques and when it seems like my drawings are still lacking I'll just feel guilty and lazy that I'm not developing at the speed I think I should, especially after all these years. There are times when my crushing desire to be a better artist gets so heavy and so self critical and detrimental that I have to stop myself and question if even like drawing anymore. Me feeling like I don't have the most developed and varied skill set as an artist is the exact thing that will stop me from even starting a project until I've at least watched 3 more hours of Proko anatomy videos and studied at least the first half of a Glenn Vilppu book. For instance, I uploaded this forum post a few weeks ago about how I felt like I was losing my soul to fundamentals.

http://forums.tapastic.com/t/you-ever-feel-like-fundamentals-got-you-down/17205

As I said I probably should've specified that this is more about my own artist develoment. My art isn't as original and unique and I'd like it be but I think I can say that I'm at a point where my art is "good" (not flashy, not unique, but at least "good"). I've studied anatomy, and I've studied perspective and while my art is not nearly as appealing now as I one day hope it will be, I'd like to think that if I feel I've got at least the bare necessities needed to tell the story I want then maybe then maybe I can focus on having really jaw dropping visuals later on down the road.

And for a little perspective, while I have studied and learned a lot since I finished it and my skills are slightly higher, here is my most recent attempt at making my own comic.

https://tapastic.com/series/Gone-to-

P.S. I actualy completely agree with about artistry being important. The type of clarity I was talking about only comes when you have a good grasp of these things.

shazzbaa 2017-04-12 23:51:17 UTC #7

I absolutely agree with this -- I've made this argument myself! I think it's also very easy to get caught up in "prettiness" that doesn't aid -- or even hurts -- clarity. You want to push yourself in directions that help what you're trying to say!

Considering the OP is the same person who posted asking how you keep valuable self-criticism instincts without tearing yourself down to the point of being unable to finish, I gotta agree with Keii4ii that this sounds like a misunderstanding. Akitsukino isn't someone who ever struck me as looking for excuses to not have to be better.

"Maybe clarity is more important than prettiness" isn't even a "I don't have to be better" statement. It's a focusing of HOW to be better, and what skills to better. Focusing on what makes your message stronger -- which is what makes the work appealing -- rather than on the superficial "perfectness."

J.Z.Castillo 2017-04-13 00:12:16 UTC #8

I didn't read the past posts, so I'm sorry if you have problems finishing work or getting mad anxiety, all my comments came from this post alone, so take them with a grain of salt

J.Z.Castillo 2017-04-13 00:19:12 UTC #9

I honestly think your comic is good enough! Start inking and coloring! It definitely looks way better than mine when I started haha. Sorry for being harsh, hopefully you took something away from my angry rant. They were not jabs directed at you but at the general situation.

akitsukino 2017-04-13 00:25:16 UTC #10

No hard feelings! And thanks for reading!

colonel_ressentiment 2017-04-13 06:48:31 UTC #11

Speaking of losing your soul to fundamentals, I'm glad someone else feels the same way. Every time I've told myself, "I'm going to LEARN clothing folds before I draw anything else", I inevitably got so bored just working on them that I quit after a few days. But if I'm learning-by-doing instead - working out clothing folds by drawing a bunch of robes for an animation, practicing expressions through a comic, organically digging up references as I need them - I both have more motivation to continue and feel more proud of the end result, because I've completed something in the process of learning. (I also take figure drawing classes, and they've been useful references, but if that was the only artistic thing I had going on I would go completely nuts.)

On the subject of this thread, I think I'm simultaneously less and more lenient than you - let me explain. When I'm reading someone else's work, clarity is still a close second to quality for me, because I find it hard to enjoy the nuances of a novel that's clear but stylistically drab (... which is why I fight with friends about Brandon Sanderson's stuff all the time), or artwork that's barely functional and lacks nuance. But despite not enjoying it personally, I absolutely believe writers and artists should make and show their stories with whatever skill level they have, and the only responsibility they have is to keep trying to improve as they're doing it. I get the tendency towards self-criticism and "I can't honestly inflict this on other people", but as long as I've created a story I enjoy, tried as much as possible to push my skills doing it, and have been as honest as I can about its flaws, I can tell that voice "bug off, this was for me and I'm okay with it."

(If other people also love it it's icing on the cake. If they hate it? If they don't let me know, I won't care, and if they do let me know, they're probably an asshole. So...)

I'll conclude in saying your art definitely already has enough clarity (and detail, honestly, I really like your expressions) to express the story you want to tell even without words. Cleaning it up/inking/shading always helps, but you certainly have enough to start with!

JKNNKL 2017-04-13 08:45:23 UTC #12

uhhhhhh actually i agree completely with akitsukino if i analyse all the manga reading experiences i've had in the past. sorry @author of otokowarishimasu but it's one of my favorite comics of all time and i'm pretty sure they're fundamentals aren't quite there yet (weird ass anatomy and perspective and stuff) but i enjoyed reading it so much i've reread it like thrice. The point of comics is to tell a story in a fun and entertaining way and entertaining things don't necessarily have to beautiful. Maybe to some people fine art "has" to be beautiful (though you can argue against that) because you're staring at it for a while and appreciating its tiny details and stuff. but think about it realistically, in comics, even if every panel is a beautiful rennasaince worthy masterpiece probably not a lot of people will care because they'll look at each panel for like max two to three seconds. Comics are usually pretty fast paced, almost like animation, and you're not gonna pause to stare at a single frame of animation to check for fundamental errors. Unless the error is super jarring and distracting from the mood of the comic, I think they're fine, and continually working on a comic will eventually correct the errors by practice. althought i think an exception is comics/scenes that are very emotionally heavy, because the biggest turn off for me when reading comics is when it's a heavy scene and all i can think about is how the anatomy looks funny. But if your comic isn't very emotional and is relatively light hearted i think most readers don't really give a shit about fundamental errors unless they themselves are artists haha.

DMBrigman 2017-04-13 15:40:30 UTC #13

I think you have to put yourself in the mindset of a reader. All they care about is the story at the end of the day; that means art that doesn't take them out of the story, and art that makes it clear what is going on. We and fellow artists are always way tougher on art than the general public. Trust me, to someone who can't draw, anything you do is crazy awesome and amazing.

A pain point for me, is that the reality of reading comics means that most people glance at an image as they read through the words, so all that effort you put into isn't necessarily noticed. Your main "job" as an artist is to make the story clear enough to people who are glancing over it. While your art doesn't have to be perfect, you have to have enough skill to not distract with poor anatomy, sparse backgrounds, flat lineart, etc.

I know you have been feeling bad about your own work, but really most people don't notice! I have worked as an art director and my whole job was to pick apart people's work, and I can tell you that when I read comics I rarely notice "errors". Unless there are major issues I just enjoy the story, as most people do.

If you want to make comics, then make comics, that will make you better at making comics. I feel like you are stressing yourself out way more than you really should be about making art.

GesuGesu 2017-04-18 04:33:22 UTC #14

Nine.... isn't a lot if you've been drawing for a year or more;;; There isn't a set number requirement to get better, but many people I know have gone through at least twenty sketchbooks in the 3-4 years I've known them.

Sometimes the best way to improve is to just draw without thinking too hard about it. Eventually you'll reach a point where you will be happy with yourself. I don't develop my art skills as fast as my (younger) friends, but I let it happen.

dojo 2017-04-18 12:14:26 UTC #15

I absolutely agree that clarity is the most important thing in comics. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and advice from more veteran webcomic creators and this seems to be the number one thing that comes up frequently. Yes, pretty art can help, yes, knowing all the fundamentals can help, but they don't mean crap if you're just painting a beautiful picture that does nothing to guide the eye or help readability.

I remember when I was in college and still on deviantArt, one of the artists I followed who did these beautiful illustrations decided one day they wanted to make a comic. The comic still had the same gorgeous art, but it was SO hard to read because the artist was still approaching their panels the same way they would a single illustration. You couldn't tell what was going on in the story, the illustrations didn't guide you through the page, and you hardly even noticed there were speech balloons there in the first place because they were done just as artistically as everything else. The art was still good, and if you took each panel out of the page and set them up separately, each illustration still did it's job but as a comic? There was zero clarity. I wish I could still remember the artists name so I could take a look again, but it's likely it's not even up anymore since this had to have been back in 2007 or 2008, and I'm pretty certain the artist only ended up finishing a couple pages.

It definitely isn't an excuse to stop trying to improve the art, but readability has, and always will be, the most important thing in comics. If you don't have that, readers won't stick around, or care, about what's going on. Cuz unless you're doing some avant guarde psychedelic comic where you're intentionally making it as hard to read as possible, you're PROBABLY going to want your readers to be able to follow your story. And lately that's honestly been what the majority of my own energy for improvement is being put into.