Random thoughts 1: Just Sayin'

[tuckerkao]

I miss waking up and it not being 90 degrees already.

You'll see them again next year, or you can visit the nations locating nearby the Equator.

 

[Ryika]

The west of what?

Well, the West as in Western Art (which is mostly dominated by American Influences), as opposed to Asian Art.

Comics vs. Anime is the obvious comparison, but the same trend is found in other mediums. Americans and Europeans prefer overly large, muscular and trained characters, while Asia prefers smaller frames.

 

[Arakhor]

I miss waking up and it not being 90 degrees already.

Why on earth would you miss waking up to 30-degree heat??

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Some people are just masochists.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Why on earth would you miss waking up to 30-degree heat??

No...re-read my sentence. I miss it being not-hot when I wake up.

 

[Arakhor]

That makes more sense, but I guess Chicago does have brutal winters.

 

[schlaufuchs]

That makes more sense, but I guess Chicago does have brutal winters.

???

When I lived in California, it was hot in the day, but very cool in the mornings and evenings. Here in Chicago (at that time, at any rate) it was like 90 degrees 24h/day for a solid week. I miss my cool California mornings, is what I'm saying.

 

[Traitorfish]

Well, the West as in Western Art (which is mostly dominated by American Influences), as opposed to Asian Art.

Comics vs. Anime is the obvious comparison, but the same trend is found in other mediums. Americans and Europeans prefer overly large, muscular and trained characters, while Asia prefers smaller frames.

Humans are, very generally, seven to seven-and-a-half heads tall. Eight or more heads gives a character the impression of stature; less than seven makes them look young or child-like.

I mean, realistically, an adult man with the proportions of a nine year old boy would look incredibly strange.

 

[Ryika]

Humans are, very generally, seven to seven-and-a-half heads tall. Eight or more heads gives a character the impression of stature; less than seven makes them look young or child-like.

Yes, and you don't see those 8-head characters that often in Manga. Even Manga that focus on action and combat usually don't use 8-head-characters. Adult Son Goku from Dragon Ball started with 6 heads (with some variance toward 6 1/2 depending on the illustration), and reached a maximum of 7 heads when he transformed towards the end of the original Book Series. 7 heads are also common in most other action Manga and Anime. Interestingly enough, one of the few times where you actually see 8-head figures in mainstream Manga are the titans in Attack on Titan, figures that are intentionally made to look menacing and out of place.

For Western Super Heroes on the other hand, 8 heads is the standard. By which I of course don't mean that every character is 8 heads tall, but that it's the "buffed, middle-age male superhero" norm around which you design all other characters.

I mean, realistically, an adult man with the proportions of a nine year old boy would look incredibly strange.

That's of course an extreme example, but generally, you can do a lot with different head proportions. Vertical size is after all only one of many characteristics. Old people in particular can have really big heads, as the scale sort of reverses for characters that go beyond your middle-aged super hero.

More generally, it is perfectly possible to have an art style in which your "buffed super hero" guy is 6 heads tall and everybody else is designed around that. When it comes to having your "buffed male superhero", you can have art styles that put them anywhere around 6 - 8 1/2 heads tall and they'll still read as a "buffed male superhero", go smaller and you get dwarf-type characters, go above and you get demigods.

 

[Traitorfish]

Old people in particular can have really big heads

I don't know where you live but it sounds terrifying.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I don't know where you live but it sounds terrifying.

Shub-Niggurath has nothing on Great Old Germans.

 

[Ryika]

I don't know where you live but it sounds terrifying.

I've reread my post just to be sure, and have come to the conclusion that it should be pretty obvious that this statement was about how old people can be portrayed in art, and not about how people look in reality.

 

[Traitorfish]

I've reread my post just to be sure, and have come to the conclusion that it should be pretty obvious that this statement was about how old people can be portrayed in art, and not about how people look in reality.

You're just saying that because you don't want Outside Folk to find your terrifying secret valley of geriatric human bobble-heads.

But, no, yeah, I agree that there are a lot of ways that you can depict human bodies, and that Western draughtsmanship often finds itself in hock to the prejudices of a bunch of dead Italians. Western comics, certainly, are still held back to some extent by the fact that a lot of artists working for the Big Two basically learn to drawn two kinds of person, a bodybuilder and a swimsuit model, and just twiddle the nobs on those basic designs when drawing everybody else. But the problem there is an over-attachment to a given ideal form, it's not really an argument that they have the wrong ideal form, and the argument that a model with a lower heads-body radio can have an artistic or narrative purpose is not argument that this is the right ideal. Indeed, it's an argument against thinking in terms of ideal human forms, an argument for placing character design in service to characterisation and story. A design doesn't become better just because you inflate the skull, anymore than if you inflate the biceps or breasts. It becomes better when your design tells you who the character is and what they're about.

 

[Ryika]

You're just saying that because you don't want Outside Folk to find your terrifying secret valley of geriatric human bobble-heads.

Alright, you got me. But you better don't tell anyone, or I'll send some of them over and then they'll knock your door in with their big freak skulls.

But, no, yeah, I agree that there are a lot of ways that you can depict human bodies, and that Western draughtsmanship often finds itself in hock to the prejudices of a bunch of dead Italians. Western comics, certainly, are still held back to some extent by the fact that a lot of artists working for the Big Two basically learn to drawn two kinds of person, a bodybuilder and a swimsuit model, and just twiddle the nobs on those basic designs when drawing everybody else. But the problem there is an over-attachment to a given ideal form, it's not really an argument that they have the wrong ideal form, and the argument that a model with a lower heads-body radio can have an artistic or narrative purpose is not argument that this is the right ideal. Indeed, it's an argument against thinking in terms of ideal human forms, an argument for placing character design in service to characterisation and story. A design doesn't become better just because you inflate the skull, anymore than if you inflate the biceps or breasts. It becomes better when your design tells you who the character is and what they're about.

True, it seems like many mainstream comic book artists have unfortunately never played around with proportions and styles, and instead just copied the styles that were already present. The same is true in manga to an extend, you always have that one style of a popular series that sticks around for a few years, but in general, there seems to be more diversity in style. Although maybe it's just the amount of stuff that gets released.

But of course nothing of this changes the fact that a 6 1/2 heads standard is objectively superior to 8 heads, and everybody who thinks otherwise is just misguided.

 

[Traitorfish]

True, it seems like many mainstream comic book artists have unfortunately never played around with proportions and styles, and instead just copied the styles that were already present. The same is true in manga to an extend, you always have that one style of a popular series that sticks around for a few years, but in general, there seems to be more diversity in style. Although maybe it's just the amount of stuff that gets released.

It's worth remembering, though, that mainstream superhero comics are not where a lot of Western comics is happening these days. Marvel and DC maintain about 75-80% of the market share for monthly issues, it's true, but their share of the overall audience isn't quite so overwhelming when you count heads, they just have a loyal core fanbase that will buy a lot of comics month over month. The independent publishers sells less copies to more people, especially when when trades are taken into account, and while they may not have the pop-culture clout that superheroes have maintained largely thanks to the recent cinematic boom, they carry an ever-increasing amount of weight who care about comics.

The persistence of the spandex Adonis in Western comics is more of a commercial problem than an artistic one.

 

[Takhisis]

I don't understand how those films could make people read more comics. Most of them are badly written formulaic garbage.

 

[Ryika]

So after a day of trying to get into american battle rap, I have to say it's pretty terrible and boring compared to what Germany has to offer. Truly shameful to see how battlerap's origin country has failed to evolve and is still all about telling people that you'll murder them, but people just don't get into any details in how they'll do it. Superficial and lame, way too much respect for human dignity.

 

[tuckerkao]

I always thought of music as something that is infinite, that once you don't enjoy the stuff you heard in the weeks before, you just go to youtube and find some new music, and later on you can just go back and enjoy some of the music you heard before, but after a few weeks of drawing 8+ hours a day now, my troubles of finding new music that I enjoy, or choosing music from my library that I am in the mood of listening to, some to increase more and more.

It is a scary thought that there might come a point where you're just so "numb" to any type of music that you stop enjoying it. How would I fill that void if I ever arrive there? I have no idea.

Music is a global language that suits all verbal language speaker. People usually want to hear some new sound tracks to get excited in the same manner which you don't talk the same old stuffs except the very basic necessities everyday.

 

[Gori the Grey]

So after a day of trying to get into american battle rap, I have to say it's pretty terrible and boring compared to what Germany has to offer. Truly shameful to see how battlerap's origin country has failed to evolve and is still all about telling people that you'll murder them, but people just don't get into any details in how they'll do it. Superficial and lame, way too much respect for human dignity.

Ima kill you but somewhy you wanna know how.
What the hell, I'll oblige, first I'll bump-stock you, pow!
Then I'll chop you the way we get chops outta sow,
And then cleave you the way we get beef outta cow
Then hamburger you (get it? Hamburger you), frau.
Let me take you to school: I'll Marsyas you, ow!
And then, Amoret, I will Busirane thou.
Then bend over for Absalon's forge-heated plow.
And then, if you still have one more life (meow)
This mic dropped in your tub should take care of that now.

 

[Ryika]

Oh wow, that's... somewhat brutal. A bit at least.

New random thought:

I remember how I once worried about linking a video here right after commenting on it, that somebody might find that account and see all the horrible comments I made on videos, but now it's the other way around, and I fear that somebody on youtube might find my Civfanatics account and be appalled. Does this mean I need to step up my game in the youtube comments?