A piece I just finished for King Magazine. From top left, clockwise, we've got Dwight Howard, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant.When I finish up a drawing, I usually rotate it (in Photoshop) a few times and examine it from different angles. I did it with this one. It's a way for me to see and appreciate the drawing in a sorta fresh light, after having just stared at it for 10 hours or so. Photoshop also lets you flip the image to a mirror vesion. Conversely, this does not aid in appreciation, this makes the drawing, specifically the faces, look monstrous and distorted (so I don't do it often, but I did it this time (I get curious)). Does this happen to anyone else? I really don't know what to make of this effect. It happens pretty much every time. I can't tell if it's just the shock that makes it look weird, or if a real defect is being revealed...
9 comments:
Charles Burns mirror-flops all of his pencils (by putting the reverse side against a light box)and then copies it with pencil and inks the flipped version. He does that for EVERYTHING. Shit!
I do the same thing, and am of the belief it does reveal the flaws. especially with caricatures because your mind just wants it to look right. I also find explaining this to non artists always sounds pretencious or flighty but it's true none the less. Great caricatures by the way.
I really don't like to think about it that hard, it can be very intimidating.
Seems like when you flop it, it only affects the head-on portraits. The 3/4 profiles look pretty much the same, but the asymmetry of the head-on ones is emphasized.
The head on stuff does get it worse, but the 3/4 definitely gets it too.
I'll have to experiment with correcting the flaws and seeing if it improves the likeness or worsens it.
And also: I believe what you say Rob, about the mind wanting the likeness to exist. Is it just the artist's mind playing that trick though? Does the viewer ever do the same mental correcting of the image? If so, when? why?...
It's weird how much power (unconscious) we have over our own perceptions.
We do it (or are supposed to do it) in animation all the time. It's the fastest way to see if your structure is solid and consistent.
I guess everyone naturally favors one side, and since everything is favored evenly it's not really noticeable...until you flop it. Then you get see all of the places that are off.
If i'm being a good designer I'll draw in blue and then flop. Make my corrections on the reverse in red, and then flip it over to the correct size and tie it all down with pencil.
But then again, i'm pretty lazy.
As a "viewer" of this Olympics piece, I have to say that nothing looked weird nor jumped out at me as asymmetrical when I first looked at it. Nor did I think, "Tom concentrates on the left side of the face". So I think the viewer is probably lazier than the artist anyway, and most would never notice this stuff.
Although, rather than laziness, it could maybe be described as an unconscious willingness to pick up the artist's slack a little bit.
Also, about this piece: The Kobe caricature is the only one that is pretty much unaffected for me either way. This one, for whatever reason, as I was drawing it, got broken down more (in my mind) to 3D geometrical shapes. The others were more like: draw an oval and put the features in it. Which was easier, but more superficial. I guess the lack of mental involvement is what's showing when I flip it.
don't be too hard on yourself tom,even photo's do that. I'm working on a piece of animation of a well known trademarked character in a logo. I just checked the horizontal flip of my keyframe and it looked retarded, so i flipped the actual logo, and it also looked retarded, but i never noticed it until i flipped it. I think we tune out asymmetry automatically 'cause it's in every face. The other thing is because of the way your drawing hand is attached to your body it's easy to pull the drawing in a curve. I try to flip shit alot so that I can train my eye to see what it'll look like without doing it, 'cause asymmetry is important. Love the blog man, y'all some talented herpichs.
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