slr2moons: a self-portrait, of me in my usual habitat: in front of my computer monitors! (Loveless Soubi)
slr2moons ([personal profile] slr2moons) wrote2008-12-18 05:30 pm
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Art rant at self turned into artistic commentary. :P

The past few days I've been doodling character designs for my original manga in bed, just before I go to sleep. Doing so has helped me realize something: my artwork is too mired in reality. I know, that sounds weird, right? Let me explain:

First and most importantly, the impracticality of long hair. (I've had looong hair--we're talking reaching past the butt--for years. I chopped it off 4 years ago and never looked back, but I know how irritating and limiting it is.) So when I'm imagining a really active and physical character, I just can't give them long hair. O.o Or bangs that hang down over faces. It looks pretty, but my practical nature is wincing in sympathy for when they have to fight someone. Yet think about anime. How many glorious swordsmen and martial artists have long hair? I can think up a dozen without even trying!! But my mind balks at drawing one myself. X|

Also, I'm too aware of gravity. When drawing, I can't just give someone anti-gravity bangs or physics-defying hair, or clothes that seem to hover around the character and look so pretty (this is one of the things I admire most about Hino Matsuri-sensei. DAMN but that woman can draw clothes!!). Nope, my characters' hair always hang close to the head (keyword: hangs), and my clothes look like they have weights attached to the bottom. No bounce or life at all.

This is incredibly irritating to me. You might think a hard basis in reality would be a good thing for an artist, right? But not so much with narrative artwork. One of the key things about character design in manga or comics is drawing characters who are easy to tell apart. This is why you see such a huge range of body types, sizes, and impractical hairstyles and colors in books and shows. Take a series with a huge cast, such as Bleach. Each character has their own distinctive look and is easily identifiable. True, Kubo-sensei is famous for his amazing talent for character design, so consider Bleach the epitome of variety. Now, compare Bleach's range of characters to those of the Akira anime. I had to watch Akira three times before I could begin to tell everyone apart. Except for the guy in the red pill jacket, every character looks the same. And when Red Pill Jacket changed his clothes? I was so completely lost. Everyone, even the female love interest, had short black hair, the same round eyes, and were all within a narrow height range. At first (and second!) glance, an army of clones!!

It took me a few years to figure out why I had such a problem keeping the cast of Akira straight, but I finally understood. This is why you have blondes and redheads and blue-haired people who are still Japanese in anime and manga. It's all about telling people apart. (Take note, anime-haters.)

But the real kicker is that some artists are good enough to pull off realistic character designs and have every character easily identifiable. The extreme example of this is Slam Dunk. A cast of over 100 men, no anti-gravity hair in the lot, and even the really big characters are realistically big. The trick is that the mangaka, Inoue-sensei, has an incredible range of facial features. Seriously. You could shave off the hair of every Slam Dunk guy, dress them all in gray sweats, and they'd still be identifiable just with facial portraits. O.o Inoue-sensei uses eye shape, noses, cheekbones, even JAWLINES to make each character distinctive. ASDFJKLUYTJSLKD *headdesk*

All right all right, so this post is rambling all over the place. Suffice it to say I realize I have a problem when it comes to being creative, and I'm going to try to rectify it. :P I'm just too uptight! Too stuck in my standard artistic box! Too deeply rooted in my Disney Classics past! (That one deserves a post of its own.) *takes a deep breath* This is manga. Reality doesn't always apply. I mean, you have characters who use magic, silly! Loosen up and play a little. It's okay to give him long pretty hair, really. It's okay for the clothes to be floaty and pretty instead of heavy and practical. Really! Relax and play a little. Really!

*wanders off, muttering thoughtfully*