I Am Not Sure How to Look at Art Cartoon
Painting advice for artists > Hey, "What'south up, Dr.?" Today's article deals with a very annoying trouble that crops up from time to fourth dimension in some of my students' paintings. Annoying to them, but the good news is that at that place is an easy prepare if i fully understands the problem! So today I volition talk about avoiding the "cartoon look" in your paintings. It may seem like a weird thing to write about, merely it is a await I happened upon a few times out in the field as a young painter, and I suspect that I am non the only 1 who has noticed this in their work on occasion.
Some background: I recollect going out on location sometime in the mid-'80s, finishing a field report and coming back to the studio disappointed because information technology had the appearance of a cartoon backdrop. I could most encounter Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner zipping past in my imagination! It was not something I was aiming for, to say the least. I mentioned it to i or two other artist friends who said that they sometimes experienced the aforementioned affair, but were at a loss to pinpoint the problem, let alone tell me how to fix it.
That got me thinking about how to quantify what was going on, and thereby come up up with a solution to the problem. It was important to first identify the characteristics of a cartoon and proceed from there. Most things, if you retrieve about them long plenty, will present you with very logical solutions — particularly if you don't overthink it. Fortunately, I was able to pinpoint what I was doing in my work that crossed the line into this unwanted expect. I offer some of these ideas here to those of you lot who may be facing a similar challenge.
First of all, allow me say that cartoons are just fine … if you are a cartoonist. But for an creative person who wants to produce a more painterly fine art look, it is not acceptable!
So what are the elements of a cartoon, and how does 1 avert those characteristics in a representational landscape? Let me break the problem downwards using the "Painters Tool Box of Expression."
Characteristics of a Typical Cartoon:
- Cartoon: Linear in nature. Forms outlined, stiff, staying inside the lines similar a coloring volume.
- Color: Saturated or flat, few or no gradations of temperature or color shifts.
- Value: Little or no gradation of values from night to light. Once again, values uninteresting and mostly flat.
- Edges: All the same, hard and uniform in coloring-book fashion.
- Brushwork: Apartment, no textures or interesting brushwork.
Painting Solutions
Okay, you get the thought. Having listed the characteristics that give this art course its wait, it was piece of cake to choice out the respective difficulty I was experiencing, and the solutions became clear. Every bit a matter of fact, the mere identification of the problems involved was enough to tell me what the solutions were:
- Drawing: Exist more organic, and stay away from outlining or rigid geometric forms. Stay loose and natural in appearance.
- Color: The landscape is by and large less saturated than the colors that come directly out of the tube. Also, broken colors are a lot more interesting than the apartment expect you get when painting your forms every bit though you were applying color to a wall with a roller. Milkshake things upward (warm to cool, value gradations, etc.). Don't pigment your forms equally though the Impressionists never graced the planet!
- Value: Again, gradations of value that are not uniform across each surface area of the painting. Sometimes flatness works for effect, but non everywhere!
- Edges: Here's where you can really take some fun with lost, found, and broken edge piece of work. Be expressive and less linear. Avoid the "cutout await" at all costs.
- Brushwork: Vary your brush marks, along with the thickness of unlike passages in your painting. Y'all volition be amazed at how much this component, coupled with expressive edges, can improve the overall appearance of your work and rescue information technology from the "cartoon look."
Just to epitomize, if you are familiar with the v basic areas of painting (drawing, color, value, border command, and brushwork) you volition empathize what's involved in fixing this mutual problem. Don't be agape to take a painting that has crossed into the realm of cartooning and just experiment with it while information technology is withal wet. What take you got to lose?
Is it a Lousy Painting?
Equally I tell my students, "Don't be agape to ruin a lousy painting — later on all, it was lousy to begin with!" When you lot get overly protective of your work, you wind upwardly protecting your mistakes also! Think, growth ofttimes happens on the cusp of failure, so break out of your comfort zone and starting time to fly! I propose taking earlier-and-afterward photos of your painting, then that you can immediately recognize the problem next time it happens and have a gear up solution earlier the frustration sets in. I think y'all volition be happy with how easy it is to accept a cartoon and turn it into a piece of fine art afterwards conquering this trouble a fourth dimension or ii!
It'southward also interesting to note that not all cartoons are alike. Equally I studied this subject, information technology became axiomatic that some cartoons border the split up between fine art and cartooning. As one example, I will use the Magician's Apprentice segment of Disney'south Fantasia and compare the artwork to your typical Bugs Bunny or Road Runner cartoons. When viewing the two next, it'due south easy to see that the artists at Disney were in a special class back then, or, at to the lowest degree, they had a certain freedom of expression and a mandate for greater composure. They did work with differing qualities of drawing, color, value, and edges to produce that style that was so indicative of their piece of work in those days.
Let me shut past saying that as fine artists, it's up to the states to seek excellence in the quality of our own work. While cartoons might exist satisfactory in the movie house, information technology's non what we should be striving for in our quest for quality paintings; at least, that is not what I want! The next time you feel similar your painting is mimicking the look of a cartoon and you lot don't similar it, you now know what to practise!
I promise you enjoyed reading this and that information technology may have struck a chord with some of you. "Th-th-the-that's all, folks!" —John
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Source: https://www.outdoorpainter.com/avoiding-that-cartoon-look-in-your-paintings/
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