I forgot - if there's one publication that reflects "most people," it's the Times Style section.
That's why I could totally relate to their "If you can't afford a $4m penthouse on the UWS, move into a $2m brownstone in Park Slope!" feature in the real estate section a few weeks ago.
That said, I'm pretty sure our nanny does make more than me because she's paid under the table by 2 families. But she also works 12 hours a day taking care of 3 kids under 5, so I'm pretty sure she deserves to get paid more than me.
So some idiot in my neighborhood is putting out squirrel poison. Several dogs have already died from eating it.
WTF? Does this person have no common sense? Or just doesn't care?
Crazy squirrel-phobic bastard....
I forgot - if there's one publication that reflects "most people," it's the Times Style section.
Blargh!
What a fraught topic. I won't preach to the choir, but, yikes!
My art teacher showed us some of his work yesterday. This was my third class with him, and I had no idea of his style or talent or anything, and I was just blown away. Because what I do is an attempt at literal, and probably the poorer for it. I don't feel like I'm expressive, and I don't feel that I have a style.
His is boom! Style. Not anatomically correct, but the diversions were all purposeful, and with impact. And the amount of form conveyed with his lines, and the expressiveness, and the diverse things he pulled together to say what he was saying...
I just draw a picture of the thing in front of me. I'm only just coming to the bit of exercising discretion about what to include and what not to include.
It was really depressing.
I know it's supposed to be inspiring, but I don't know how to be inspired. I don't know how to get the metaphorical stuff out of me, and I don't know how to put it into a picture.
But yesterday he told me to decide on a focal point. Pick somewhere in the picture to draw the eye, and use some sort of method to make sure the viewer's attention kept coming back there. Now, I'll do that when I'm taking a picture, deliberately, through choices made with focus and composition. But I rarely do it in drawing, where I theoretically have so much more control.
And half the ways he told me to do it sounded scary and like they'd definitely mess up the picture, but I stuck my tongue out and picked a focal point, and worked it, and 20 minutes later he came back and said "Is that your focal point?" And, lo, it was. So...something took.
Maybe next time I'll work out what's a *good* focal point, and what are good ways to create focal points, but...baby steps.
My friend Dave Nelson (from my Fantagraphics days) had a dynamic drawing style, so expressive. He was all about having the drawing be almost the record of his sparring match with the paper with his charcoal. (He was a kickboxer too.) His style was a lot like what you'd imagine Bill Sienkiewicz's pencils might look like.
With Jaime Hernandez I'm always aware of both the fluidity and the weight of his line. With somebody like Crumb his cross-hatching can seem exactly like his personality - sort of obsessive and cranky, neurotic and raw.
I remember when Bill Sienkiewicz first took over on New Mutants. I hated him. He was ruining everything. No one looked like anyone anymore. No one looked like
anything
anymore. It was awful.
I have no idea how long it took for him to become one of my favourite artists. But when it hit, it hit hard.
Problem is, I'm still highly literal when it comes to my own stuff. I still don't see any option other than drawing what I see. My warmup work is technically more energetic--the pencil barely comes off the paper, and it's all about carving the shape and the anatomy out of the white space, but I could never make one of those into a finished piece, much less a likeness, which Bill clearly can.
I just can't process when emotion says "I know what you see--I know that the neck is such and such a proportion of the width of the head, but this time, make it narrower." That just makes no sense to my pencil.
I can get as far as choice of techniques and media (although I'm limited), and I can see the impact of choices of palette, (though since I don't work in colour it's less relevant to me), but not actual form. Don't know how to make that step.
Looking good, Brooklyn! Wish I could visit, Tom.
Don't know how to make that step.
In my experience, style in any medium derives from mastery. After a certain level of high competence you have the confidence to let more of your shit hang out.
Though that's not always true - some people have distinctive style right out of the gate. The way they sing or write or draw or play is just always an extension of their personality.
Cash and I were talking on FB the other day about a new book out on creativity by a writer from Wired who looks at all the neurological studies to get at how the brain achieves insight and breakthrough.
The part of your brain that processes jokes and metaphors is also where you get sudden leap "Aha!" moments. Making connections that aren't linear but intuit the bigger pattern.
There was also a lot about shutting off the impulse control part of your brain. The part that says, "Don't do that!" They did a lot of studies on improv comics and jazz musicians and discussed the notion of Getting Out Of Your Head (which is a specific warm up exercise that comics do at Second City).
