Wherever you go, unless you go to Japan or Asian country, Anime will be looked down upon. whether it's just Anime, or Anime drawing style(Manga) or just anything related to anime.
But what I'm going to talk about in this post, is the deviance of anime style in the eye of westerners and western artists(mostly, and I'm not saying that all of them look down on anime art, but many do so).
I started to notice this problem when I started to attend university. I do not consider it a big problem, but I don't really feel comfortable when someone look down on anything I do ( since I draw in anime/manga style.) months ago, we had to draw a still life for our drawing class, Alhamdulle-Allah, my drawing was turning out quite well. My teacher noticed that I was doing pretty well so he approached me and asked whether I drew in regular basis or something, and I told him, "I try to draw everyday, I like to draw in anime style." just after I told him that, I felt like his face changed (not in a positive way) so, I just stopped talking after saying that sentence.
Not only that, but I get that negative vibe from some students as well. So I try not to talk about drawing with others unless I thought a person might not give me that vibe.
But since I have online friends from all over the world, I know that this problem is not only here, but it's rather spread. I have found blog posts about people with the same problem. (1-2)
People usually think that manga and anime style is just some people who just copy the Japanese animation and think of it as art, they think that each anime is the same and the style is just a copy of another. (But what if it was a copy? people actually learn many things from copying other works, it can also be called "inspiration", you can always copy but you can never claim that the piece you did is original. Artists back in Florence has been copying Roman architecture and monuments. why? because nothing produced is original, everything is a copy of a copy, of another copy.)
But what did they know? how can they say that all anime style is the same? [see picture below]
Why do some realism/drawing artists/professors think anime art is the 'lazy' style? why is it deviant to them? I seriously cannot comprehend that. I draw anime style, and I know what a person has to do to become better at drawing. First they should learn the anatomy (of almost everything, and how things work and function) and every professional anime artist practice anatomy, very much. Just like any kind of artist. Anime art requires hard work as much as any other form of art. It's certainly not lazy.
The Examples(pictures) above is mostly taken from anime series, but how about I show you anime art with a message and meaning to it?
Yuumei, is an anime artist who tries to convey messages and spread awareness through her art. Such as global warming, divorce, and many other subjects.
To conclude this post, I want to ask once again, why is anime art style considered deviant to many other artists? is it because the stereotype of anime style is the shiny-big-eyed-huge-forehead-cute-girls characters? or is it because it doesn't carry a meaning(which I should consider invalid, seeing Yuumei's art) or is it because people think it doesn't require hard work? does it do any harm to the society(I think not, just in some cases which is individual's fault, not the style) or is it because it's stylized and not realistic? (if that's the case, then why is Picasso considered one of the most well-known artist though his art was not very realistic?) But in the end, everyone has their own definition of 'Art' but they do not have to look down on certain styles with no good reason.
actually, anime is quite looked down upon in Japan, unless you're hanging out with otaku(which many Japanese people consider to be bad).
ReplyDeleteand yeah, I agree with everything you said, drawing anime styled art is not just about huge googly eyes and abnormal hair, good anime artists put a lot of efforts into their pictures, and lots of them are actually highly detailed and quite realistic. Really, the only thing that's unrealistic about anime style is the facial feature and hair, but there's a reason why they draw them like that.
a couple weeks ago I was discussing anime drawing style with a friend of mine(who actually *used* to be a bigger otaku than I am), when I realised how much she looked down on their style after she stopped watching anime. She disagreed with every single positive thing I said about the style, saying how they are anatomically incorrect and stuff, since she's been learning realism style since she was young, and saying how you don't need to put in any time and effort into it. but heck! It usually take me one to three weeks to finish a complicated picture! Now, I don't know how long it take for her to draw a painting, but three weeks is definitely not short either!