As melodramatic as it sounds, it is a kind of eternal battle: the critic vs. artist. And there’s always, always a certain ideology built in depending which point of view you take. The truly gifted, unique artist vs. a stogy, close-minded, mean critic; The wise, weathered, steadfast critic vs. the deluded, self-absorbed hubris of an unoriginal/untalented/rough artist who needs their bubble burst. Sometimes people root for the artist, sometimes people root for the critic, but the ideal is somewhere in the civil middle. Although no matter how open you try to be in whatever role you take, some of that ideology is going to seep in. As an artist you’re told to always be creating and keeping at it and embrace your own vision, so it’s hard having someone step in that personal space and try to pick at it. As a critic, you have standards and reality to uphold, but in addition to trying to keep an open mind, it’s not often fun to deal with other people’s personal stuff and emotions.
And Christopher Butcher relating a case of delivering the harsh, critical truth is as sympathetic as anyone could be, but it still has those elements – the artists’ hubris, the terror of subpar-to-terrible art (with the animation portfolio links), criticism of a stylistic influence. Butcher, though, sounds like the best kind of critic you can run into though, given how much he still constructively helped the girl. And I know it’s hard to give honest criticism if it hurts, I had trouble commenting on the work of my peers in all the workshops and classes, trying to be as nice and supportive as I could.
And I think it’s also hitting close to home because I’ve also been attempting to become a professional as well, and I’ve certainly been in the positions of the girl and the portfolio kids. The portfolio horror stories make me question and fear my portfolios, and I’ve already been accepted to the schools I applied to for animation (Columbia and Vancouver Film School). I’m questioning and fearing the work I’ve already done at Columbia. Can’t be more glad I took those life drawing classes when I could at Iowa. From all the horror stories lately, I’m feeling ashamed to being influenced by anime. I’ve read enough of the kind of critic posts – ranging from brutal shadenfreude to genuinely but exasperatedly sympathetic – to try to take comments about my scrawlings with grains of salt handy (I mean, I know I am likely part of that uncritical “all-supporting fan community” he mentions). And I know I’ve got to keep things in mind (always improve; keep drawing from life; develop your own style and push yourself) and press myself to improve where I’m failing (still have issues with hands and anatomy; need more diversity and originality; better poses; backgrounds for once in my life, and how to at least make them look decent in Photoshop or wherever). It’s not easy, you gotta have thick skin to take the essential lumps, and work as hard as possible and then more. Gotta do original stuff, not the fan junk. Where does self-confidence end and entitlement/hubris begin?
Eh, I dunno. Life is hard, we are condemned to be free, and all that…
(Amusing to me, right before reading this I came across an oldish article asking why artists can be so badly negative about their own work.)
Your response is rather personal and I don’t want to comment on it too much, but I did want to talk about being embarassed to be influenced by anime. I think that’s hogwash, sir, as manga and anime encapsulate a broad artistic sepctrum. If you look at Japanese CG artists at the top of their game, most of the people in ROBOT for example, you’ll see that they’re dragging in all kinds of outside influences to improve their work. Range Murata, Yoshitoshi ABe, whomever, drawing on these guys for inspiration, as they’re so incredibly inspired to begin with, makes a lot of sense… to me. There are anime and manga guys doing brilliant, thrilling work, as good as anything in other illustrative disciplines. Like much of this I usually think it’s down to the individual artist, rather than the style.
Thanks for the comment!
Yeah, that remark was a sort of neurotic knee-jerk reaction to reading about bad portfolios and other criticisms about copping an “anime style.” I sort of worried that I might be falling into the same traps (copying; only refining a copied style) that those artists were falling into. And it probably is like you mentioned, emulating a generic “style” rather than really exploring a wide range of artists and figuring out how things work.
You’re definitely right that anime/manga does have a wide spectrum and a lot of exciting, awesome, amazing stuff – I adore those ROBOT books, and love ABe.
Hey, Vancouver Film School!
…Wish I could comment on the art, but the writing’s what I do. However…to me, the real crucial skill is discerning the difference between the person who has something valuable to tell you, and the person who doesn’t get it. They can both sound authoritative. They both say things you don’t really want to hear. But man, to hear that first person speak is really manna.
I think once you get to the point where you can tell the difference, you don’t really need skin that’s especially thick; you’re happier just doing your thing, then.
My two cents.