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Description

This is a rather old style exercise back when I was trying to nail a blend between cartoony, stylized proportions, and horrific elements that would still come through as effective as though they were still being depicted realistically. It was one of the first ones I attempted and I'm not altogether happy with it, but it's fine. Thankfully I've refined things since then...mostly.

I was really inspired by stuff like Broodhollow, and some stuff from David Romera (Cinemamind) like Pine Devil and Other Lily, among others; which have a kind of cartoony/heavily-stylized look, but manage to blend in some truly horrific imagery into it as well, to really nail this feeling that I can't really describe with any kind of satisfaction. I like that there's maybe this kind of innocent expectation with a highly cartoony look, a sort of clean and wholesome expectation - and then the sort of violating quality of destroying that clean wholesome look with the sudden presence of blood, violence, body horror, monsters, etc. Reality - or a heightened form of unreality - suddenly breaking through and kind of taking the innocence of that stylized "look." It's something I'm constantly trying to nail myself, with mixed results.

I've just discovered recently as I've grown older (or maybe it's that I'm just finally being honest with myself) that while I can do realism well enough (honestly, recent exercises I've done surprised me, showing me I was better at it than I ever gave myself credit for), I just prefer this kind of stylized look. I gravitate immensely towards stuff like this, like Glen Keane, and Osamu Tezuka, but also stuff that people tend to hate on a lot for its homogeneous look (don't hate me as I say this) like the "CalArts look" that you find in stuff like Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Craig of the Creek, The Owl House, etc. I personally LOVE that look, so hate me if you want. I love it when you can take a lot of the elements and expectations of that look, which is often criticized as being overly simple or disproportionate, and if you're doing your job right, position it in such a way that it's arguably MORE effective at selling dread and horror than if it were rendered hyper-realistically. The same can be said for a lot of things outside of horror, like drama, like wonder, etc. I think it's why people gravitate towards Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films so much: they have a recognizable "look" that isn't hyper-realistic, but those stories and emotions they evoke are sometimes stronger to the viewer than if they'd been live-action. Sometimes Pixar enters that argument too, I suppose. Same thing with the most recent Legends of Zelda on Switch: I've seen so many people complain online about how they're not hyper-realistic and how Nintendo has constantly balked at the chance of making a new game in the series be as life-like as possible...but I spent probably 100s of hours in Breath of the Wild and never once wanted that, because it didn't NEED it. The charm of Zelda is often in its presentation, not some desire to replicate real-life. If anything, it heightens reality with whimsy, with its artistic direction. So when I'm trying to think in terms of depicting stuff in a horror scene, I don't necessarily feel inclined to be as realistic as possible, not when I know it's not necessarily the most important thing in selling fear to the audience.

Perhaps an even better example: horror mangaka. Everyone goes to Junji Ito anytime this comes up, and rightfully so, he's become prolific for a reason (he also seems to be a very pleasant human being, which is always a plus)...but as much as I like his stuff, I feel like mangaka like Hideshi Hino and Kazuo Umezu prove my point a little easier. Stuff like Cat-Eyed Boy, The Drifting Classroom, Hellbaby Fourteen (*shudder* freaking Chicken George, what is even TF), etc., those are all decidedly less realistic than other things in the same genre, even Ito's stuff...but some of those images alone, without context, of seeing horror creep unceremoniously into what would otherwise seem to be an art-style almost appealing to children...there's something really effective at work there. Even if the stories themselves aren't necessarily as good as the art.

Anyway. There's a peak into my psyche.

Description

This is a rather old style exercise back when I was trying to nail a blend between cartoony, stylized proportions, and horrific elements that would still come through as effective as though they were still being depicted realistically. It was one of the first ones I attempted and I'm not altogether happy with it, but it's fine. Thankfully I've refined things since then...mostly.

I was really inspired by stuff like Broodhollow, and some stuff from David Romera (Cinemamind) like Pine Devil and Other Lily, among others; which have a kind of cartoony/heavily-stylized look, but manage to blend in some truly horrific imagery into it as well, to really nail this feeling that I can't really describe with any kind of satisfaction. I like that there's maybe this kind of innocent expectation with a highly cartoony look, a sort of clean and wholesome expectation - and then the sort of violating quality of destroying that clean wholesome look with the sudden presence of blood, violence, body horror, monsters, etc. Reality - or a heightened form of unreality - suddenly breaking through and kind of taking the innocence of that stylized "look." It's something I'm constantly trying to nail myself, with mixed results.

I've just discovered recently as I've grown older (or maybe it's that I'm just finally being honest with myself) that while I can do realism well enough (honestly, recent exercises I've done surprised me, showing me I was better at it than I ever gave myself credit for), I just prefer this kind of stylized look. I gravitate immensely towards stuff like this, like Glen Keane, and Osamu Tezuka, but also stuff that people tend to hate on a lot for its homogeneous look (don't hate me as I say this) like the "CalArts look" that you find in stuff like Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Craig of the Creek, The Owl House, etc. I personally LOVE that look, so hate me if you want. I love it when you can take a lot of the elements and expectations of that look, which is often criticized as being overly simple or disproportionate, and if you're doing your job right, position it in such a way that it's arguably MORE effective at selling dread and horror than if it were rendered hyper-realistically. The same can be said for a lot of things outside of horror, like drama, like wonder, etc. I think it's why people gravitate towards Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films so much: they have a recognizable "look" that isn't hyper-realistic, but those stories and emotions they evoke are sometimes stronger to the viewer than if they'd been live-action. Sometimes Pixar enters that argument too, I suppose. Same thing with the most recent Legends of Zelda on Switch: I've seen so many people complain online about how they're not hyper-realistic and how Nintendo has constantly balked at the chance of making a new game in the series be as life-like as possible...but I spent probably 100s of hours in Breath of the Wild and never once wanted that, because it didn't NEED it. The charm of Zelda is often in its presentation, not some desire to replicate real-life. If anything, it heightens reality with whimsy, with its artistic direction. So when I'm trying to think in terms of depicting stuff in a horror scene, I don't necessarily feel inclined to be as realistic as possible, not when I know it's not necessarily the most important thing in selling fear to the audience.

Perhaps an even better example: horror mangaka. Everyone goes to Junji Ito anytime this comes up, and rightfully so, he's become prolific for a reason (he also seems to be a very pleasant human being, which is always a plus)...but as much as I like his stuff, I feel like mangaka like Hideshi Hino and Kazuo Umezu prove my point a little easier. Stuff like Cat-Eyed Boy, The Drifting Classroom, Hellbaby Fourteen (*shudder* freaking Chicken George, what is even TF), etc., those are all decidedly less realistic than other things in the same genre, even Ito's stuff...but some of those images alone, without context, of seeing horror creep unceremoniously into what would otherwise seem to be an art-style almost appealing to children...there's something really effective at work there. Even if the stories themselves aren't necessarily as good as the art.

Anyway. There's a peak into my psyche.