snarkinfestedwaters:
captainpoopy:
eschergirls:
Victoria submitted:
Oh, J. Scott Campbell…
The usual Campbell flaws are there (endless sameface, broken spines, etc.), but I just cannot fathom what is going on with her right leg. Is it supposed to be a leg-shaped stool for her to straddle? Is Campbell trying to slip in phallic symbolism? And I really hope that’s not the toe of her right boot peeking from underneath her left ankle, because that would be altogether frightening. The colorist, Nei Ruffino, does such gorgeous work, both by coloring other artists’ lines and creating her own, much more interesting and anatomically correct figures, at least.
She’s got the butt foot thing that seems to be a growing epidemic in fairytale land and yes, one of her legs seems to have fallen off. That better be one kiss from the prince at the end.
Wow. How can you not realize the mistake in that leg? I- I just, even a kid could point out the fact that her leg isn’t even connected to her body!
Oh god that leg. Never have I been more thankful for my thunder thighs in my life.
The left leg isn’t free of criticism either! That thing seems to be connected to the very, very bottom of her pelvis. And that tiny wasp waist looks pretty freakish when matched with the attempts at a more “realistic” style.
Also, am I the only one who finds her expression rather…vacant? She’s not-quite looking at us, making it look like she’s not really smiling at anything in particular. It’s a pretty fake smile too, considering her lower lids aren’t curving at all. Very Stepford-like.
That leg is really bad, but honestly, J. Scott Campbell gets a lot of flack for a reason I just can see.
My points/rant:
-J. Scott Campbell does not draw realistic anatomy. Whether you like or hate his art, thinking it’s real means you need to take a serious look at your life. He draws cartoonishly, with realistic elements. It’s all about the cartoon style, not about matching realistic proportions. That being said, he has been draw tiny feet lately and the right leg is pretty bad in the above image. However, it’s style. Can Tumblr please learn this? Complaining about it is like complaining about anime eyes being too big or Bugs Bunny not looking like a real rabbit. Do I see complaints about that in my Dash? Nope.
-J. Scott Campbell and a lot of other artist (including me) draw from memory. Models and reference aren’t always available especially when you’re trying a specific pose, however basic or complex. When an artist does this, they tend to draw the most comfortable-to-draw symbols for the various features of the body. Adam Hughes, Terry Dodson, Amanda Conner, J. Scott Campbell, Marc Silvestri, and on, and on, and on, all have “same face” and “same features” with things drawn from their imaginations. And while expressions can be different, the face structure is the same, regardless of character. Whenever these artists draw something from reference, like Adam Hughes’ Audrey Hepurn as Catwoman or J. Scott’s Padame and Leia, you’ll see “different face”. I don’t mean this as an insult to the artists here, but rather it’s something that exists as an aspect of art from imagination. While there are artists who can draw “different face” from the mind, it’s pretty rare and surprisingly difficult. I’ve been trying to draw “different face” but I have to rely on stylizing things to making them extreme to get the differences in character.
-This is less about art, but criticism like this isn’t helpful to the artist. Instead of providing tips to the artist or ways to fix it. Instead of saying, “that right leg looks wrong, this is how to change to make it better.”
It’s, “is that a stool? Is that a huge phallis?”
I’d probably be angry at the critic if they acted like that, I mean, unless it was a friend or a certain few teachers who I know are just working in some good natured ribbing. While I’m guilty of being unhelpful in critiques of artists (fuck you Greg Land, fuck you Rob Liefeld, fuck you Hyung Tae Kim) I try to be more helpful than hurtful, because that’s the better way to aid artists.
So a criticism from men would be like this: On the image above, aside form the leg, the coloring on the face bugs me more than anything. The dullness in the eyes and smile looks like a snafu with removing lines from the pencil, but I can’t find the penciled version of this, so I can’t really say if it’s meant to be like that. But, it is something that happens when artwork is inked and/or colored. The easy fix is to add a dimple to the corner of the mouth and move the pupil of the eye to the right a few pixels.
Okay, I’m done. I have better things to do now, like eat ice cream and stare a blank piece of paper in despair while trying to get an idea out.
