Anime Drawings

[mastergohan]

does the first one happen to be card captors? Reminds me of it..they all look good, better than what I could do.

[Chems]

I dont know, I'll have to ask.

[jessart]

What is he submitting the portfolio for (what degree)?

[Chems]

To do Graphic Design I think. I might be wrong, I will get him to sign up this evening. How many marks out of 5 stars are we giving him then?

[smackbringer]

These are copies, maybe with some variances thrown in for good measure. Don't mean to be harsh, but I ran an anime drawing website for a few years and I would screen for plagarism. When I see 3 different pictures, in 3 different styles from the same person and they all have that look to them. (Note: 3 different girls with 3 different style eyes) You know, professional level composition and details marred by obvious lack of anatomical knowledge (look at the hand holding the money). Inconsistencies give way to a forgery. I mean its cute, but its hard to get into college art programs with original stuff, let alone copies like this. Tell your friend that doing these, are a fantastic learning exercise but in the end are worthless as examples of that person's art.I'll give my opinion when I see some original art.

[Chems]

I think, personally, that say copying isnt really a big deal at all, I mean look at us who do 3D, we just copy real life objects a lot of the time. We show skill in replicating them in 3d. Hes showing skill in replicating another 2D artwork. I doubt hes copied it, even if he has, Ive sat next to him an watched him just create weird creatures on the fly, so his portfolio should have a range. But I doubt strongly if the people on a Graphic Design (I think thats what hes doing) would know as much about Animie as you. (Hopefully)

I'll ask see if where he got the idea.

[smackbringer]

When you make something from real life, like say modeling a porche in 3D, you're taking an existing object that is real and tangible and making choices in how it is represented and put on paper/computer. Thats real art there, thats what DaVinci did with the mona lisa. However, when you copy someone elses line art, its like a lie. You're copying someone elses interpretation and not making the choices for yourself. The bigger danger comes when you do that and don't give credit to the original artist. That's outright plagarism. And artists can and will be expelled from universities for that if found out. I'm not doubting that your friend has done original art but I'm not seeing it here. I see the most "hand" of your friend in the second piece but I doubt its totally original. All I'm saying, is its fine for your friend to do this for fun, but keep these "copies" as far away from his portfolio as possible. If I can spot inconsistencies like this, I can bet many professional art teachers might be able to as well.

[Darksuit]

I would leave these as far away from a Graphic design Portfolio as possible. If for no other reason than they demonstrate a lack of understanding of the principles of design.

Line, Weight, Gravity, Movement, etc...

As a graphic designer I would only put those peices in a portfolio in shown application, ie.. TOC, Page layout, Web page layout, with some really dynamic type action going on. And even then it would only be to show a close up of a particular element.

If he has strong pieces, high detail bugs and or other creatures, those might be far an away better choices.

Quality is always better than Quanity when the folio is conserned.

--------------------------
I do have degrees in both Design and Animation. =)

[smackbringer]

I couldn't agree more with darksuit. I went for a job interview a bit ago and really hadn't updated my portfolio and had just anime related game art in it. Needless to say, I didn't get the job. Not that I cared because I'm already employed, but all anime dosen't constitute a good portfolio unless you're applying for a job/school that specifically does that sort of thing. Might float better in Japan but here in the US/UK, that kind of thing isn't welcome. AND with the new influx of anime coming out and at least the rising popularity of anime in the states, many colleges will instantly weed you out if they see anime art. It isn't fair, but thats the current state of things. Trust me, I'm an anime style artist with a degree in computer art. If I had to go through school again, I would have put additional focus on realism and anatomy, which I feel I'm lacking now.

If your friend is applying for a graphic design program, he definitely should have some stuff that looked like it came from a budding graphic designer. Advertisement layout, posters, and concept art would all be good to have in a portfolio for that degree.

[jessart]

Anime is a great style, but many instutions want to see more original arwork. If all you have is anime on your portfolio, you are really pigeon holeing yourself to one genre, and that's not what employers/admissions want to see. Anyone can pick up a how to draw manga book, you need to show you know more than that. They want to see variety, that you are more than a one trick pony. I would say an anime piece or 2 is ok (as long as they are high quality), but you will need a lot more to supplement it, especially if the degree you are going for is not related to the anime genre at all.

[ajay1589]

anime is just too simplified(in most cases) to show skill in anatomy and is so popular(because of its low skill level)that i think most colleges aren't impressed with anime drawings...

i spent 6 weeks taking a precollege art course at cmu and i saw that most of the time the anime was less interesting to the proffesors than other styles

[smackbringer]

I really can't say that I agree with, "anime is popular to draw because of the low skill level". That is totally false. Some of the more basic and childish styles are easier to replicate, but if you study the styles closely, theres a lot more riding on each line. Its way harder than you think and I've seen more than one professional american comic artist try their hand at it and fail miserably. There is much depth to simplicity sometimes but to do so requires a much higher skill level than you would think.

If you would like to see what a high level pro anime artist can do, take a look at some of the works of Masamune Shirow, most notibly in his Intron Depot books.

http://www.idorudepot.de/shirow/data/rebirthjan.jpg

www.ex.org/4.1/34-book_ introndepot2.html

[JMcWilliams]

I think, personally, that say copying isnt really a big deal at all, I mean look at us who do 3D, we just copy real life objects a lot of the time. We show skill in replicating them in 3d. Hes showing skill in replicating another 2D artwork. (Hopefully)

I'll ask see if where he got the idea.

Thats not comparable at all.

My advice is to try and find your own style.

[ajay1589]

I really can't say that I agree with, "anime is popular to draw because of the low skill level". That is totally false. Some of the more basic and childish styles are easier to replicate, but if you study the styles closely, theres a lot more riding on each line. Its way harder than you think and I've seen more than one professional american comic artist try their hand at it and fail miserably. There is much depth to simplicity sometimes but to do so requires a much higher skill level than you would think.

If you would like to see what a high level pro anime artist can do, take a look at some of the works of Masamune Shirow, most notibly in his Intron Depot books.

http://www.idorudepot.de/shirow/data/rebirthjan.jpg

www.ex.org/4.1/34-book_ introndepot2.html

i know there are great examples of high quality anime...but that particular example you posted does not show a true anime style in my opinion. THe body, eyes, mouth, and hair are simplified while complex armor is added on. The artist used a simply anime body to build his armor onto

[AlbertArt]

Can you guys talk about originality, or the lack there of, in these Anime inspired artworks? I'd rather see lifedrawings if I were looking over portfolios for an Art school.

[smackbringer]

i know there are great examples of high quality anime...but that particular example you posted does not show a true anime style in my opinion. THe body, eyes, mouth, and hair are simplified while complex armor is added on. The artist used a simply anime body to build his armor onto


Masamune shirow, which I previewed, is about as anime as you can get. You might have heard of ghost in the shell and appleseed. He did both. Stuff dates back to the late 80's. You might have a preconcieved notion that all anime has to look like pokemon to be anime. Try looking around, you'll find excellent examples like ninja scroll and cowboy bebop that really push the envelope artwise. I'll repeat. Anime is not just pokemon. And Japanese artists do not simply add non anime things to anime style artwork. It's all within the cannon of the style. There is flexibility there. The example I found isn't his best piece, its just what I could dig up quickly from google images.

But I digress, back to the original topic. Based on the examples that I've seen, I would do my best to beef up my portfolio with human anatomy and whatnot. Just have him bust his butt and get a traditional portfolio together. Once he's in, he can draw what he wants to.

[phunky_nick]

Hi there,

as it's previously been mentioned in the thread, I'd seriously throttle back on including Anime in any kind ot university portfolio..
unless of course it's being used as a style to communicate *exceedingly* original ideas.
Anime's as popular i think as it's ever been, and thus has become even more a self-referencing cliché..

What Any tutor or interviewer will look for in a prospective graphics student is their "Critical Awareness" - which essentially means how aware the student ( even employee ) is of current trends and fashions within the relevant sphere of design.

If it's a pure graphic design course, the interviewee i think would be far better :

A - analysing unique working practises used by established designers and design houses.. Now.. when i was interviewing for university, people like David Car5on and Peter Saville were the buzz names, and magazines like Emigré were worthy mentions.. associations like The Designers' republic were very prominent in graphic design circles.. Researching current success stories, and working out how they relate to more common or garden design briefs..

B - Taking simple design ideas, and treating them in such a way that they have a spin - for example, an excercise we did at college, was to take century-old proverbs, and re-interpret them, visually with modern spin..

C - learn good fundamental design practises in typesetting, page layout, leading, kerning, image reading, and above all, Good, effective, visual communication and problem solving - that, after all, is the name of the game. As a designer, you're primarily a problem solver, Rarely is a pretty picture the solution to a graphics problem.

hope this is relevant.. maybe even useful..


Nick.

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