wintonkidd
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Consentacle witches in progress + Hokusai art talk
🕑 Added 2024-11-09 21:09:32 +0000 UTCThese are a smattering of unfinished things I'll be hopefully cleaning up this week, I didn't want to let things drift and go un-shared like I did last month!
I watched Look Back this week and it's suuuuuch a beautiful film, I've decided I have to seek out the rest of that director's work because I really love the sensibilities. It's got a certain amount of messiness that I find really validating since I have been trying to work up the urge to do more animation but also not get obsessed with getting everything juuuust right. I can't stop thinking about it.
That doesn't have a whole lot to do with this mess of sketches i've been making but everything gets tossed in the same soup creatively.
Speaking of creative soup, I also saw one of the GOATs in person today:
It's a part of a traveling Hokusai exhibition. I haven't looked at this many woodblock prints since I was in a Japanese Art History class in college, which was a shamefully long tie ago. It's really fun seeing these at their original scale, it's just such a humble size and yet it's been so impactful as an image. (same goes for a lot of the other prints in the show, but I was, for obvious reasons, drawn to this one.)
Here were some other highlights for me:
The kind of decadent and yet restrained detail in this sketch, there's so much to look at and the isometric perspective just makes it feel even more like an adorable miniature.
Or who could resist the luscious texture and sparse composition of these fashion-plate lookin' spreads. I remember being frustrated by how alien these compositions could feel earlier in my art life. They really care nothing for western art sensibilities and so it kinda broke my brain. Now I understand why all the impressionists were probably shook to their fucking cores seeing this for the first time.
Such an extreme level of craft being applied to something that doesn't give a shit about western art feels like breaking rules I didn't even know were rules. Like I don't know wtf is up with that gentle red gradient at the top of these pages but I love it.
Or check out the economy of these snow-laden pine branches. This was the kind of thing that was in the back of my head when drawing Ivy & Pine. I wanted to to be a little less literal, more graphic and design oriented in how I treated the backgrounds because I didn't really think lovingly rendered trees would be necessary to get people into the story.
Upon a second viewing these are way more Hokusai than I remember 😅 These background gradients are extremely Japanese print-y. Funny how often that happens without you even realizing it.
I'll leave you with this charming gal I saw in one of the books on display. thanks for reading my rambling thoughts. Don't be at all surprised if some of this stuff starts seeping into my work over the next couple months. I'm very sponge-y in that way. 😁Happy Saturday!
🌊Winton
Comments
Mandy Lovelace
could not agree more on both accounts. Time to take my old ass back to school!
ValeRipley
The book I have is called “Encyclopedia of Hokusai Sketches”, it’s in Japanese but the definitions of the sketches are also in English, you should def check it out if you can! I agree on languages being hard to keep up, especially in the case of Japanese. I still have a good basic knowledge of it, yet I wish I had the time, energy and motivation to practice it just a bit more. Ink paintings are, funnily enough, one of the things I distinctly remember studying in my Art History course, I loved them too 😄 in more recent times I stumbled across Hasui Kawase’s landscape prints and fell deeply in love with them- they’re so vibrant, yet peaceful. I need to hang a few of them in my room 💜
Winton Kidd
That tattoo sounds INCREDIBLE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 enjoy your visit to the art museum too 😁
Winton Kidd
After seeing this show I really gotta get a book with the sketches!! That was my favorite part! I wish more of my language studies stuck with me, but that stuff is hard to keep up- I took a Japanese and Chinese ink painting course that was really cool, I love a misty mountain with pine trees 😁
Winton Kidd
Yeah, I mean you CAN just buy a textbook to read through but the enthusiasm and knowledge of someone teaching a course they love is pretty great! It is really remarkable how timeless they feel, I think woodblock prints just have a very strong influence on how manga looks today, it's incredible how fine they get the lines on those prints!
蒲公英
First, mmmnh consentacles!!! Love the progress >:3 Second, omg v appreciate the art history and exhibit article this post is :3 Never learned art history formally (esp never learned art formally);it's def something I've absorbed via amateur means. Seeing your processing of the art has connected some dots w/ the bits and pieces I've absorbed (def thinking about what inspired Superflat :3). Def a case of wanting to catch whenevs a hokusai exhibit visits my city, but in the meantime I'll probs find some time to give the local asian art museum a revisit >:3 (Also ehehehe speaking of Hokusai's most legendary piece, gonna be getting a whole torso and bit of the thighs tat of an octopus creature groping my body, def with inspo from Dream of the Fisherman's Wife >:3)
ValeRipley
I too was in a Japanese art history class in university, being a graduate in JP language and culture. It’s been a looong while since then, but I guess some of that influence has stuck with me somehow after I started making art a few years ago. (I also love that red gradient at the top of those pages ❤️) I have a book with all of Hokusai’s sketches in it, but I haven’t put it to good use yet. I bookmarked a bunch of pages for future reference, tho. 😏 Also, I’m back after a whole year 😂 I definitely got a lot to catch up with!
Mandy Lovelace
I consider myself mostly self-taught. yes I took some design classes, but I didnt finish. but thats one thing I wish I had done was take some art history classes. I learned a lot outside of school, but I think I would have benefited from that. Once things settle down, I'll look into taking some courses online maybe. re: Consentacle. OK now I understand. The word itself implies that, but I didnt want to assume. I will say those woodblock prints (the one with the octopus tentacle porn) is so beautiful! but it also looks like it could have been made recently. It feels modern.
Winton Kidd
Art history courses are a really fun way to learn about history in general, I highly recommend it! My brain is kinda like a sieve so I forget all but things that are immediately relevant to my work 😅 I think your read on the red gradient is a good one. Also, it might just be there because it looks nice haha. Consentacle is just a silly internet term for consensual tentacle porn, since most tentacle porn is dubious consent at best. I think it shows in their expressions but also putting a wand in the witches hand is just there to let them be in control :)
Mandy Lovelace
A brief aside, am I the only one that doesn't know what "Consentacle" means?
Mandy Lovelace
I can't believe you actually did a Japanese Art History class! That sounds like it would have been super fun! RE: "Like I don't know wtf is up with that gentle red gradient at the top of these pages but I love it." to my eye, it looks like its a gentle hint of a background. I mean perspective background, like thats the back wall perhaps, but just a subtle hint of it. It feels like there is some depth or dimension to the characters even if everything is more clean and graphical and it doesnt have "perspective" in a traditional (western?) sense. I never took an art class. I love going to museums when I can and looking online. Can't wait to see more animation stuff!
Winton Kidd
I'm sure the will :) I also just kinda like giving some minimal bits of clothing to characters it gives them more personality I feel like
Winton Kidd
❤️ thank you Riz!! I'll keep that in mind, I think that if I can flesh it out a bit more it could work for either of those things pretty well!
Winton Kidd
Thank you! 🥰 There's always a lot of influences sitting under the surface, I used to hide them, but think I'm going to try to point them out more often!
Winton Kidd
Hehehe you work with what's available 😁
Winton Kidd
Seriously!! That print is from 1814🤯
Winton Kidd
I was sold when you said pixie cut 🥴
Catherine DeJohn
i love the lace collars, hope they stick around!
Riz
Love the art history talk and there is something about that witch in a tree that speaks to me, i kinda want it as a print, or at minimum a phone wallpaper
Anastasia
I love seeing the bits of art history and exploring your style, that's really cool!
marceline
MY SUGGESTION WAS TAKEEEN
Chantal Strong-DePauw
I LOVE their “cauldron” 🥰
NubianGoddess
Those are beautiful pieces😌. It seems there's been love for the tentacle for quite some time 😂
