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[this will probably mutate into other posts elsewhere as well--I disseminate myself]
I realized while devouring Patricia McKillip's Ombria in Shadow that I love her fantasy novels like I love Hayao MIYAZAKI's films.
The parallels are in the worldbuilding, but not in the exquisite detail they put into it. Hayao's is primarily visual, as is her's in a way. But both really excel in drawing a place so that you are aware of it's hidden corners and that there are complexities beyond the stage.
They also are good at drawing out a single facet of our reality and looking into it, making it more major so that the whole of the world around it is reflected differently.
Oddly enough, that "facet drawn out" phrase makes me think of Rescuers Down Under, the image of the diamond they're looking for. Apparently that was a stand-out moment. The colors and contrasts were very striking.
With McKillip, having an artist with a uniquely rich vision create her covers is an asset to the experience itself of her book. With Miyazaki, his adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle (while not as perfect as Spirited Away, I think) was a way of putting his lens on a new imagination (Diana Wynne Jones') and drawing out new corners. His inventions to the story are interesting. They do not put tropes back in (like Hollywood adaptations tend to)--they add wider spins. He makes a story with pockets of darkness part of a cosmic struggle where the darkness is overwhelming.
Seeing artwork from the movie (that I've got on my own computer, have for months!) while reading it, I feel the poignancy of what he created out of that story more strongly than from the prose.
This is very roundabout, but in a way, I've been talking about two artist who can bring a new dimension to another work of art by focusing their vision.
In a way all artists do that. We not only contribute to the art lexicon we draw from it. Some more obviously than others, and at different times more completely. Kinuko Y. Craft's Elinor of Aquitane paintings (there are two!) and the ones she's done of Raine and Od and other characters' of McKillip's have a certain focus that gives them meaning beyond some of her generic faerie work, I think. Miyazaki does best drawing on his own Japanese historical roots, vividly painting a piece of Japanese culture--but also at bringing to life and color the Wizard Howl.
What will you draw on to focus your art?
Or how do your favorite artists hone their vision in?
I realized while devouring Patricia McKillip's Ombria in Shadow that I love her fantasy novels like I love Hayao MIYAZAKI's films.
The parallels are in the worldbuilding, but not in the exquisite detail they put into it. Hayao's is primarily visual, as is her's in a way. But both really excel in drawing a place so that you are aware of it's hidden corners and that there are complexities beyond the stage.
They also are good at drawing out a single facet of our reality and looking into it, making it more major so that the whole of the world around it is reflected differently.
Oddly enough, that "facet drawn out" phrase makes me think of Rescuers Down Under, the image of the diamond they're looking for. Apparently that was a stand-out moment. The colors and contrasts were very striking.
With McKillip, having an artist with a uniquely rich vision create her covers is an asset to the experience itself of her book. With Miyazaki, his adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle (while not as perfect as Spirited Away, I think) was a way of putting his lens on a new imagination (Diana Wynne Jones') and drawing out new corners. His inventions to the story are interesting. They do not put tropes back in (like Hollywood adaptations tend to)--they add wider spins. He makes a story with pockets of darkness part of a cosmic struggle where the darkness is overwhelming.
Seeing artwork from the movie (that I've got on my own computer, have for months!) while reading it, I feel the poignancy of what he created out of that story more strongly than from the prose.
This is very roundabout, but in a way, I've been talking about two artist who can bring a new dimension to another work of art by focusing their vision.
In a way all artists do that. We not only contribute to the art lexicon we draw from it. Some more obviously than others, and at different times more completely. Kinuko Y. Craft's Elinor of Aquitane paintings (there are two!) and the ones she's done of Raine and Od and other characters' of McKillip's have a certain focus that gives them meaning beyond some of her generic faerie work, I think. Miyazaki does best drawing on his own Japanese historical roots, vividly painting a piece of Japanese culture--but also at bringing to life and color the Wizard Howl.
What will you draw on to focus your art?
Or how do your favorite artists hone their vision in?
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Date: 2007-08-22 01:16 pm (UTC)From:OT is good, I like OT...
Date: 2007-08-22 02:49 pm (UTC)From:Also, for the heads up about Jim Butcher's site...I am on some other forums, but that sounds like a good one.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-23 02:15 am (UTC)From:I'm with you about the covers. I had a copy of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and the cover was so realistic looking that it bothered me. I'd much rather have an artistic interpretation, or imagine it myself.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-25 12:30 am (UTC)From:So a simple subgenre of romantic fantasy cover (which in tone would be right, but thematically all wrong) can't cover it.
I can go for a book that the same artist covered. I read Chasing Vermeer because of Brett Helquist's art, familiar from Series of Unfortunate Events. Sometimes publishers do a really good job with that--Helquist also did The Floating Island's interior art (the cover, he didn't do, was bleh) and I loved that one, too.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-25 12:48 am (UTC)From:For some reason this discussion just made me think of Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I read the novel and thought it was wonderful, then bought a version illustrated by Charles Vess and it is to die for.
I agree, Chasing Vermeer has a great cover.
Ha, so much for not judging a book by its cover.