Why I HATE the
post-Adventure-Time School of Animation "design".
College kids don't know a fucking thing about how to draw well with a pencil....
Here's the deal with
poorly drawn shows like Adventure Time, Uncle Grandpa, Gravity Falls, China
Illinois, Squidbillies, Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane, Clarence, Regular Show,
and Steven Universe. It's an approximation of a line. Not one placed in a
sketchbook or on computer paper by an artist, which theoretically is no
different than that Pixar or Kung Fu Panda CRAP. It's not design at all. It's
automated, autocorrected digital gobbledeegook. Not real art at all. Not pen
work, pencil work, or line quality goes into it. Books like Bone, Tank
Girl, Calvin and Hobbes, and Spawn and
many modern manga and bandes dessinee are all primarily still drawn by hand. Hand drawn art in comics and
animation has a certain textural feel to it. It doesn't feel pooped out of some
PC processor's wacom answer to penmanship.
Graphics software and
pen and ink tablets "autocorrect" mistakes without the artist even
erasing any of his or her lines himself. It's just insane! The level of
detachment an artist places between him or herself and his or her drawings.
When I see art I want
to feel something. I want to know the artist took the labor and skill to put it
there. If an artist didn't actually commit it to paper, you can usually tell by
the feel. The drawing will feel automated, anonymous, empty, lifeless and
hollow. At least have the decency to stylize some of your work and commit some
of it to paper with ink and lead. Don't just hide behind photoshop all day. I
don't care how many hours you're putting in. If you're not doing REAL Drawings,
you're not doing REAL WORK, whether you're in Japan OR Europe. Pick up a
goddamn pencil and make some good old fashioned lines happen. Don't be an
automated robot cyborg. It will show. Your drawing won't be your own. It
will be you're software's and
computer's.
