Week THIRTEEN

Chapter 8- A word about colour

Colour is so important in the world of art... and in the world! Theres nothing like crossing paths with a friend that is bright and cheery when the day is looking bland and boring. Black and white are the best "colours" to represent this feeling. Even reading this book in black and white and then seeing hints of colour throughout this chapter was a refreshing experience! When comics in colour were first printed, bright strong primary colours were predominantly used with no single colour dominating. When McCloud said similar colours began to be used on all the superheroes in order to symbolize them in the mind of readers it reminded me of FAST FOOD.


[Images taken from google images]

Fast food stores are marketed using the predominant colours of say red, yellow, and green. Someone told me once that it was because these colours invoke certain feelings in people, in this case, hunger! Colour effects us more than we realise. Anything bland with a little colour added to it, makes it better.





This an insane video I found on youtube.. its a motion graphics reel, and has excellent use of colour interaction. I really like the aesthetic and the style of it aswell.

Week TWELVE

Chapter 7- The Six Steps

Art is so much broader than people think. I like the way McCloud describes art.

"ART, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn't grow out of either of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction!"

As I thought about it, I relised he is right! It's not everyday you think about these things, but it really does make sense. All humans wanna do is survive and reproduce. However, what do we do when we are not thinking about how to stay alive and make love? (haha) ALOT of the time, we are producing art. This reminds me of Year 12 doing TEE art an having so many people ask, "so what do you do in the art exam anyways? draw a picture and hand it in?". Umm.. no... there is alot more to art than you think. Art can be as hidden as someone listening to his ipod on the train, or tapping even tapping his foot, to being as obvious as a guy drawing on a train.

The six steps is an interesting new piece of knowledge. The sixth step is the 'surface' an where McCloud believes is the one people most appreciate easily, and is the latest 'fan favourite' even though the Ideas (step 1) and idioms (step 3) were thought up long before but never with established 'surfaces'. This reminds me of work that is inspired from someone else and made better. Obviously the credit is given to the latter, which is fair, but that original thought which made that piece great, was because of the idea which was thought up by someone else.

Week ELEVEN

Chapter 6- Show and tell

One thing that struck me in this chapter where McCloud explores the relationship between 'pictures' and 'words' was when he wrote "..modern art itself became virtually incomprehensible to the average viewer!" It reminded me of those ridiculous paintings you see sometimes selling for millions of dollars or hung up in the most prestigious art galleries, and all it is, is a giant red blob. I am still yet to discover the meaning of it all, as I'm sure there must be some explanation, or maybe I'll understand when I get there and view these art pieces in real life.

Out of all the combinations of words and pictures outlined, the one that struck my attention was in PARALLEL combinations.. where words and pictures seem to follow very different courses--without intersecting. Probably because the combination is so random, the examples are quite humerus. I find some of how words an pics interrelate in art, can also be evident in television or movies.. except the words are of course dialogs. An the PARALLEL combination may have been amusing to me because so much of the humour that is coming 'in' today is all about randomness. When random dialogue gets thrown into a scene that has nothing to do with whats just been said, is now rather hilarious.

For example in Will Farrels (semi-latest) movie titled "Semi-Pro", there is a scene in the basketball locker room after practice, where Farrel walks out then walks back in remarking something along the lines of 'if you see the squirrel (or something?) dont shoot it.. its a pet'. What is seen, what is said, and what is happening within the storyline has no relation to that random comment whatsoever, but people love it!

Week TEN

Chapter 5- Living in Line

The use of lines and word balloons etc in comics to represent emotion is a huge part of comic art. McCloud outlined all the importance of lines to express emotions very clearly and well in this chapter. In the first week or so in Xaviers drawing class I did pages of expressive lines that represented certain words, such as 'jump' or 'leap'. It was actually difficult to find lines to show the expression of that word, and exercise became harder than I thought. A lot of symbols are now used universally and so are understood world-wide and used by many artists.

It makes me think how interesting it is, that the way a symbol as simple as a line is drawn, can relate with certain ideas and feelings we have as humans. For example, imagine a line drawn lightly with a HB pencil, as opposed to a thick, heavy, sketchy drawn line. The two are both lines expressed very differently, an causing two different trains of thought. Lines are obviously used a lot within comics and cartoons to represent motion or even 'smell'. Enough about comics, what about the use of lines in the design world! Lines are awesome for a modern looking background effect! Diagonal identical lines are sheek and modern (to me), until they're overused and not so 'in' anymore i guess..



Some crappy old graphic I did ages ago to frame in a video. I.e. the video would play where the white rectangle currently sits. But how great are the lines..




(some flyer I did last year) notice the lines!


ok, so what about lines IN FASHION.
my skinny uncle once said to me in year 4, clothes with lines make you look bulkier.



he was right!

but seriously.. lines are much more than we give them credit for! They give expression and represent symbolically what we take for granted when looking at art.