About art and symbols
This semester I took an art course at my college. It has been great fun all the while and our professor gives awesome critic on all our works. I enjoyed this course the most of all my other courses (yeah, not so much into technical details of a film camera, sorry…).
In one of the courses she told us about different drawing approaches and also showed us some videos. She also talked about anime and manga which filled me with great second-hand embarrassment because of the chosen images. But what irked me the most was the fact, that my professor told us that this kind of style is in many cases based on copying ‘rules’. This annoyed me to no end. I started drawing manga and anime art way back and I have never thought about it this way.
My professor approached me after this presentation while I was doodling away on my sketchbook. I was confused as to why she approached me during a break, but she told me that she realized something about my art.
My art was a collage of symbols.
At first I don’t get what she was implying, but she took her time to tell me what she means with it. Everything can be portrayed by symbols. We have universal symbols for eyes, noses, mouths, trees, even the sun.
But most of these symbols don’t represent reality. We just have accepted them as a symbol that stands for an equivalent in reality.
Children draw with symbols. They draw symbolic eyes, arms and stubby bodies. And we still realize what they have drawn, even if there is no representation of it in reality.
She told me that my art looks like I try to patch together different symbols I picked up on my way. Here a nose, there some eyes…here some basic forms… But it lacks the overall feel of an actual representation.
And this does not imply I should draw realism. Even stylized art is based off reality. Those artist created their own symbols by looking at their surroundings, even when their final art piece looks nothing like reality.
At first I couldn’t respond much to it. But I have been thinking this through in the last couple of days. I looked through my old artworks and my newest sketches. I took my time to analyze: where did I get my influence from? Is my influence clearly visible in that art?
And yes, I found many parallels. All I did was copying symbols, modifying them for my needs. I didn’t even try to invent new ones or LOOK at reality. Sure, I got better at anatomy for looking at real bodies, but even there I skimped out and just took symbols others have created from reality.
See the blatant copying going on in this picture!
Still only copying things from other artists instead from life.
The face shows the need for references the most...
It's getting better but there are still lots of flaws and incorrect things.
It was hard realizing how I took the easy route all those years. Even character design! I just took what I liked from different artists and mashed it together. That’s not inventing new things.
You might say now that everyone gets inspired by something. And there’s nothing wrong with this! But inspiration is a different matter then modification. You can be inspired by the color choice of an artist, or by a stunning sunset or an animal. Nut you don’t have to copy that style or that interpretation of yet another inspiration source.
What I wanted to show you was that everyone should look for their own inspiration and their own representation of reality. I can’t say how thankful I am for having my professor tell me this. It was harsh at first, but it showed me the true flaws I had and still have in my art.
I wished would have known and implemented this earlier.
In one of the courses she told us about different drawing approaches and also showed us some videos. She also talked about anime and manga which filled me with great second-hand embarrassment because of the chosen images. But what irked me the most was the fact, that my professor told us that this kind of style is in many cases based on copying ‘rules’. This annoyed me to no end. I started drawing manga and anime art way back and I have never thought about it this way.
My professor approached me after this presentation while I was doodling away on my sketchbook. I was confused as to why she approached me during a break, but she told me that she realized something about my art.
My art was a collage of symbols.
At first I don’t get what she was implying, but she took her time to tell me what she means with it. Everything can be portrayed by symbols. We have universal symbols for eyes, noses, mouths, trees, even the sun.
But most of these symbols don’t represent reality. We just have accepted them as a symbol that stands for an equivalent in reality.
Children draw with symbols. They draw symbolic eyes, arms and stubby bodies. And we still realize what they have drawn, even if there is no representation of it in reality.
She told me that my art looks like I try to patch together different symbols I picked up on my way. Here a nose, there some eyes…here some basic forms… But it lacks the overall feel of an actual representation.
And this does not imply I should draw realism. Even stylized art is based off reality. Those artist created their own symbols by looking at their surroundings, even when their final art piece looks nothing like reality.
At first I couldn’t respond much to it. But I have been thinking this through in the last couple of days. I looked through my old artworks and my newest sketches. I took my time to analyze: where did I get my influence from? Is my influence clearly visible in that art?
And yes, I found many parallels. All I did was copying symbols, modifying them for my needs. I didn’t even try to invent new ones or LOOK at reality. Sure, I got better at anatomy for looking at real bodies, but even there I skimped out and just took symbols others have created from reality.
See the blatant copying going on in this picture!
Still only copying things from other artists instead from life.
The face shows the need for references the most...
It's getting better but there are still lots of flaws and incorrect things.
It was hard realizing how I took the easy route all those years. Even character design! I just took what I liked from different artists and mashed it together. That’s not inventing new things.
You might say now that everyone gets inspired by something. And there’s nothing wrong with this! But inspiration is a different matter then modification. You can be inspired by the color choice of an artist, or by a stunning sunset or an animal. Nut you don’t have to copy that style or that interpretation of yet another inspiration source.
What I wanted to show you was that everyone should look for their own inspiration and their own representation of reality. I can’t say how thankful I am for having my professor tell me this. It was harsh at first, but it showed me the true flaws I had and still have in my art.
I wished would have known and implemented this earlier.