The most peaceful animal on the planet
В то в время как фандом баттхертил из-за хипстерской челки Билли, Художник-кун разбирался, что же не так с рисовкой в Юных Мстюнях.
...drzwi-do-szafy:
Disclamation that I feel is needed at the very beginning of this text - it’s nothing personal. No, wait, it is personal, as in this is my personal opinion that everyone can agree to disagree. But it’s nothing personal as in ‘against other artist’. It just happened that I own both issues of YA, I could’ve taken them and analyse them in relative calm without any hurry. I’ve also taken time with this specific story, because I bloody enjoy it a lot.
I took those comics, analysed them and drew conclusions so I can 1) get over those things I don’t like and just enjoy the book, 2) learn from it, so I don’t make same mistakes, 3) write an analytic text about comics for a contest (but the contest’s in Polish, so you probably don’t care).
That being said, I’m not going to talk about the story of YA, only the art. keep that in mind.
So, first of all, why do I like Jamie McKelvie’s (and assistant’s?) art in Young Avengers.
That’s why. Those are first two pages from a Point One prelude to the main story and, well, just WOW. Detailed, but not overwhelming backgrounds. Faces- all slightly different, but within a set style, so no same-face syndrome here. Bodies- everyone is different and recognizable and how they move! Loki is a kid and Miss America’s tights. Ok, her tights make for reason number 4,5 and 6, and probably 7. And 8. Number 9 is designs and love for any kind of details that make his art stylised but realistic.
Then all the solicitations went viral, there were some really cool interviews how both Gillen and McKelvie work great together (jealous!), how much thought they put into designing the issues as a whole, a sсript and art. Hopes went even higher, first issue saw the light of day and… the shine wore off for me.
Don’t get me wrong- I like the story, I’m going to be buying the issues in the foreseeable future, I can see the thought they put into making of this book. Except, it really doesn’t work for me.
But let’s start from the beginning.
I decided that I don’t like the faces after all. Yes, they are quite realistic, expressions nicely done, but they fall a bit out of “style” and straight into “mannierisms”. First of all McKelvie has tendency to draw a lot of lines on the faces. It’s to define the planes of the head, especially around the nose and eyes. Which is fine when we talk about a character over 30. Those are teen-something-agers and usually adding lines ages the character quite a lot.
Look how younger Kate looks here, while brain still understands the drawing and fills the shapes of her nose.
In fact in majority of cases those lines look more like painted on the skin and better effect could be achieved by adding shades in appropriate places. Or simple shaping planes with colouring slightly differently. Like here, where I added third shade for ‘Light’.
Which nicely brings me to another things that puts me off, actually it’s a pet peeve of mine and this is the first thing I notice whether I want or not. The play of lights and shadows through whole comic and the inconsistencies. I don’t want to blame anyone for this, but let me show you what I mean exactly.
1) weird black solid shadows where there should be no solid shadows in that shape. This just looks off. this shadow they might’ve had if they were like 30 meters above, in a very strong spotlight.
2) shadows don’t fit the light source. My guess is that inked shadows are drawn by McKelvie, not by the colourist, Wilson. Anyway, here’s a window on the left and Loki casts shadow… on the left. Well, he’s a trickster, he might be doing it just to fuck with people. Or the theory about parallel universe was just proven right. Which would be interesting mind-fuckery, because nobody would look for clues like that. Well played.
3) Actually this panel is perfectly showing what I’m talking about here. A mish - mash of wrongly placed shadows, badly distributed lights, lacking shadows, too deep shadows… And general lack of atmosphere in this room. It’s bare - it’s what I call Polish soap opera syndrome- rooms are so synthetic and bare, lacking in personal touch and trinkets that they looking like a painful set of a cheap soap opera.
4) this one again ignores the light source, but I give it to colourist, it doesn’t matter, colours are great. Also this was brought to you by letter T, for tights
5) What I mentioned previously about the general atmosphere and inconsistencies in shadows. What’s the difference between those panels? About 12 hours. On the left we have issue 2, time’s around noon, middle of the day. On the right- issue 1, middle of the night or at least very late evening. I can’t see that difference. For some reason the kitchen widows were ignored in the favour of the lamp, that’s on in both examples.
In issue 1 it’s definitely the doing of the colourist- the shadows were added by him, but in issue two the inked shadows indicate the light source as a lamp.
Here’s rough guess to the layout of the kitchen. there are [two windows], I suppose, no blinds, it’s sunny day- the sunlight should be enough, but we don’t get to see anything indicating the sun exists.
So unimportant detail, why do I even mention it? Well, if you think about it in realms of storytelling in comics… You can’t really time the time in comics. It’s relative and based on perception of tiny detail- like the lighting or the length of speech bubbles. In this case 12 hours are between those two examples, yet you can’t really feel it. The issue 2 might be as well about a family getting up early around 4 a.m. to catch a plane. Sucks to be them.
But I agree. Those are things that only a nerd like myself would care about. Sure thing. Those are minor discomforts compared to the storytelling. When it’s regular 2x6 grid or any variation of thereof, it’s cool. Problem starts with experimental pages like this one. How should I read it?
Well, maybe I should group it into vertical parts and read it top-down? there are gutters indicating it’s the correct way. Like this:
No, doesn’t really work.
So maybe like this, just page by page, especially when there’s this big gorge in the middle swiftly separating both pages.
Still doesn’t make much sense and seems way too complicated.
I actually figured it put when I scanned both pages and set them together. I should’ve read them horizontal, in three parts. There are even coloured lines to guide you through it. I really didn’t see them when I read the issue… But it work- three separate events in same moment in time ending with almost touching last panels strengthening the beat of the last moment.
Wanna know how I read it the first time? like this.
And then I realised I missed 2 panel in the left corner- sorry Theodore!
Exactly same thing happened when I tried to read the splash page with the Skrull fight. Only today I realised that Mar-Vell smashed his window and Kate magiced the ship dashboard into a flight simulator.I made me realise that shattered perpendicular grid isn’t really working with scenes that are supposed to be dynamic. as the only thing that actually stuck is the typography.
And finally what I dislike the most- the short cut of using 3D programs and the laziness that follows it. Let me explain- the model used for this building was simple- few blocks, cubes and such. Nobody took effort to reference how actual manor would look like. The roofs, the gutters, even chimneys. The details that make it look believable, if not realistic. This looks flat and made of wooden blocks.
I’m not going to say that using Sketchup is wrong. God no. I use 3d programs to ease my way too! Except what you need to do is to use skills and common sense to make those renders something more than just flat representation of well placed focus points.
To show exactly what I have in mind- I’ll leave this rendering of the Mansion by Samnee to compare. It’s crooked, perspective is off, but it looks real and alive. There is difference in styles, yes, but the biggest difference is in knowledge how this thing works. Let’s ignore the lack or abundance of details on the façades. Look again at the picture above- even the inking with constant width makes the drawing look flatter.
So in conclusion- those are the reasons I don’t enjoy art in Young Avengers. After Point One, where I can see that a lot of effort was put to make it the best of the best, and just show off and sell the idea to the readers, I don’t enjoy it half as much. For now this quote from the first issue pretty much sums up my thoughts.
Забавно, ведь некоторые претензии к светотеням появились еще в декабре, когда выложили первые превьюшки. Но про них благополучно забыли. Конечно, гораздо веселее ругать авторов за то, что они сделали любимцев фандома too gay.
...drzwi-do-szafy:
Disclamation that I feel is needed at the very beginning of this text - it’s nothing personal. No, wait, it is personal, as in this is my personal opinion that everyone can agree to disagree. But it’s nothing personal as in ‘against other artist’. It just happened that I own both issues of YA, I could’ve taken them and analyse them in relative calm without any hurry. I’ve also taken time with this specific story, because I bloody enjoy it a lot.
I took those comics, analysed them and drew conclusions so I can 1) get over those things I don’t like and just enjoy the book, 2) learn from it, so I don’t make same mistakes, 3) write an analytic text about comics for a contest (but the contest’s in Polish, so you probably don’t care).
That being said, I’m not going to talk about the story of YA, only the art. keep that in mind.
So, first of all, why do I like Jamie McKelvie’s (and assistant’s?) art in Young Avengers.
That’s why. Those are first two pages from a Point One prelude to the main story and, well, just WOW. Detailed, but not overwhelming backgrounds. Faces- all slightly different, but within a set style, so no same-face syndrome here. Bodies- everyone is different and recognizable and how they move! Loki is a kid and Miss America’s tights. Ok, her tights make for reason number 4,5 and 6, and probably 7. And 8. Number 9 is designs and love for any kind of details that make his art stylised but realistic.
Then all the solicitations went viral, there were some really cool interviews how both Gillen and McKelvie work great together (jealous!), how much thought they put into designing the issues as a whole, a sсript and art. Hopes went even higher, first issue saw the light of day and… the shine wore off for me.
Don’t get me wrong- I like the story, I’m going to be buying the issues in the foreseeable future, I can see the thought they put into making of this book. Except, it really doesn’t work for me.
But let’s start from the beginning.
I decided that I don’t like the faces after all. Yes, they are quite realistic, expressions nicely done, but they fall a bit out of “style” and straight into “mannierisms”. First of all McKelvie has tendency to draw a lot of lines on the faces. It’s to define the planes of the head, especially around the nose and eyes. Which is fine when we talk about a character over 30. Those are teen-something-agers and usually adding lines ages the character quite a lot.
Look how younger Kate looks here, while brain still understands the drawing and fills the shapes of her nose.
In fact in majority of cases those lines look more like painted on the skin and better effect could be achieved by adding shades in appropriate places. Or simple shaping planes with colouring slightly differently. Like here, where I added third shade for ‘Light’.
Which nicely brings me to another things that puts me off, actually it’s a pet peeve of mine and this is the first thing I notice whether I want or not. The play of lights and shadows through whole comic and the inconsistencies. I don’t want to blame anyone for this, but let me show you what I mean exactly.
1) weird black solid shadows where there should be no solid shadows in that shape. This just looks off. this shadow they might’ve had if they were like 30 meters above, in a very strong spotlight.
2) shadows don’t fit the light source. My guess is that inked shadows are drawn by McKelvie, not by the colourist, Wilson. Anyway, here’s a window on the left and Loki casts shadow… on the left. Well, he’s a trickster, he might be doing it just to fuck with people. Or the theory about parallel universe was just proven right. Which would be interesting mind-fuckery, because nobody would look for clues like that. Well played.
3) Actually this panel is perfectly showing what I’m talking about here. A mish - mash of wrongly placed shadows, badly distributed lights, lacking shadows, too deep shadows… And general lack of atmosphere in this room. It’s bare - it’s what I call Polish soap opera syndrome- rooms are so synthetic and bare, lacking in personal touch and trinkets that they looking like a painful set of a cheap soap opera.
4) this one again ignores the light source, but I give it to colourist, it doesn’t matter, colours are great. Also this was brought to you by letter T, for tights
5) What I mentioned previously about the general atmosphere and inconsistencies in shadows. What’s the difference between those panels? About 12 hours. On the left we have issue 2, time’s around noon, middle of the day. On the right- issue 1, middle of the night or at least very late evening. I can’t see that difference. For some reason the kitchen widows were ignored in the favour of the lamp, that’s on in both examples.
In issue 1 it’s definitely the doing of the colourist- the shadows were added by him, but in issue two the inked shadows indicate the light source as a lamp.
Here’s rough guess to the layout of the kitchen. there are [two windows], I suppose, no blinds, it’s sunny day- the sunlight should be enough, but we don’t get to see anything indicating the sun exists.
So unimportant detail, why do I even mention it? Well, if you think about it in realms of storytelling in comics… You can’t really time the time in comics. It’s relative and based on perception of tiny detail- like the lighting or the length of speech bubbles. In this case 12 hours are between those two examples, yet you can’t really feel it. The issue 2 might be as well about a family getting up early around 4 a.m. to catch a plane. Sucks to be them.
But I agree. Those are things that only a nerd like myself would care about. Sure thing. Those are minor discomforts compared to the storytelling. When it’s regular 2x6 grid or any variation of thereof, it’s cool. Problem starts with experimental pages like this one. How should I read it?
Well, maybe I should group it into vertical parts and read it top-down? there are gutters indicating it’s the correct way. Like this:
No, doesn’t really work.
So maybe like this, just page by page, especially when there’s this big gorge in the middle swiftly separating both pages.
Still doesn’t make much sense and seems way too complicated.
I actually figured it put when I scanned both pages and set them together. I should’ve read them horizontal, in three parts. There are even coloured lines to guide you through it. I really didn’t see them when I read the issue… But it work- three separate events in same moment in time ending with almost touching last panels strengthening the beat of the last moment.
Wanna know how I read it the first time? like this.
And then I realised I missed 2 panel in the left corner- sorry Theodore!
Exactly same thing happened when I tried to read the splash page with the Skrull fight. Only today I realised that Mar-Vell smashed his window and Kate magiced the ship dashboard into a flight simulator.I made me realise that shattered perpendicular grid isn’t really working with scenes that are supposed to be dynamic. as the only thing that actually stuck is the typography.
And finally what I dislike the most- the short cut of using 3D programs and the laziness that follows it. Let me explain- the model used for this building was simple- few blocks, cubes and such. Nobody took effort to reference how actual manor would look like. The roofs, the gutters, even chimneys. The details that make it look believable, if not realistic. This looks flat and made of wooden blocks.
I’m not going to say that using Sketchup is wrong. God no. I use 3d programs to ease my way too! Except what you need to do is to use skills and common sense to make those renders something more than just flat representation of well placed focus points.
To show exactly what I have in mind- I’ll leave this rendering of the Mansion by Samnee to compare. It’s crooked, perspective is off, but it looks real and alive. There is difference in styles, yes, but the biggest difference is in knowledge how this thing works. Let’s ignore the lack or abundance of details on the façades. Look again at the picture above- even the inking with constant width makes the drawing look flatter.
So in conclusion- those are the reasons I don’t enjoy art in Young Avengers. After Point One, where I can see that a lot of effort was put to make it the best of the best, and just show off and sell the idea to the readers, I don’t enjoy it half as much. For now this quote from the first issue pretty much sums up my thoughts.
Забавно, ведь некоторые претензии к светотеням появились еще в декабре, когда выложили первые превьюшки. Но про них благополучно забыли. Конечно, гораздо веселее ругать авторов за то, что они сделали любимцев фандома too gay.
@темы: Marvel, Young Avengers, копипаста, комиксы