Anime

[pinkyturnip]

Why is Anime not considered as art to some people?

[ninitan]

pinkyturnip

Why is Anime not considered as art to some people?

I've never seen anyone saying that anime isn't art. Care to elaborate?

[pinkyturnip]

ninitan

Ah, really?
Maybe it's just the people I know who think this way. xD;
But like in general, when you're trying out for a school or something.. People usually don't like to see Anime art in your portfollio or whatever because it's considered as 'unprofessional'.

[ninitan]

pinkyturnip

ninitan

Ah, really?
Maybe it's just the people I know who think this way. xD;
But like in general, when you're trying out for a school or something.. People usually don't like to see Anime art in your portfollio or whatever because it's considered as 'unprofessional'.

Oh that's a different thing.

When you're going to art school, they don't want to see any style in your portfolio at all. Only life drawings and things like that. It's not because they don't like anime or cartoons, it's because "realism" is the best way to evaluate a person's artistic and observational skills. With things like anime there's a lot of deformed anatomy and crazy perspective, and it's sometimes hard to tell if the artist actually knows what they're doing or if they're making mistakes. With realistic things that problem doesn't exist, because you have some very real guidelines to follow when you do it.

Once you're in art school that's all you'll be doing for the firs couple of years, too, to build a foundation. Then they'll relax and you'll be able to draw in whatever style you want. And you'll be a much better artist because you'll have all that knowledge to back you up.

Here's a thread about life drawing and why it's important.

[Ms Spook]

pinkyturnip

ninitan

Ah, really?
Maybe it's just the people I know who think this way. xD;
But like in general, when you're trying out for a school or something.. People usually don't like to see Anime art in your portfollio or whatever because it's considered as 'unprofessional'.

Because, in western countries, it isn't in demand. On top of that, people like to think they can turn in portfolios of nothing but anime and it'll be accepted.

Portfolios full of anime show lack of diversity and felxibility. Very few people want anime when they hire you.

I know my school won't accept you if you have a portfolio full of anime. razz

[ViSual HeART]

The way I've heard some art teacher's describe it is this:

Art is meant as a means of self-expression, and since most anime is a "borrowed style", you are not expressing yourself fully.
As ninitan said, most schools will relax about this eventually, but others will not. If the school has a student gallery, take a look and see what you find.

Another argument is:

Most people who draw anime haven't learned the basics and are only doing it because it's the trend or to emulate their favorite anime/manga artist. Which boils down to both lack of skill and lack of expression.

My opinion, though, is that it certainly has the potential to be art, as any style does. Then again, the definition of art itself is pretty fluid.

[Kaiser-chan]

Art school portfolio reviewers don't like cliche stylized work in general. Generic-looking comic-style art, generic fantasy stuff, generic magazine-spread celebrity pictures, etc, are all discouraged. Anime is just the one everyone mentions because it's probably the most relevant to most anime-fans.

The concern seems to be with over-hyped symbolic imaginative work that stresses the "creativity" of the artist (while adhering to very typical styles and subject matter), instead of their technical skill and their ability to do the kind of work that they'll need to actually do in school. After all, they're not going to jump into drawing anime in art school - why have them do it on their applications? The SAT's writing section doesn't ask for fanfic, because you won't be doing that in school, so it isn't representative of your skills in the area you'll use them. Think of it that way.

A lot of anime artists also draw in styles that are based heavily on visual symbols. Symbols like this would be that a nose is a > shape, heads are always turned facing, profile, or 3/4rs, hair is made up of flowing ribbons, boobs are balloons. None of these are truisms in art that is being drawn with a solid visual library to back themselves up with, but they're commonly found in people who are mentally rubber-stamping parts of their pictures because they don't understand what they're doing. They're commonly found in people who do anime art because anime lends itself easily to this for beginners, while still allowing them to retain a sense of aestheticism.

Art schools don't want someone who is just doing what's popular, what they want to, and what is easy to memorize and reproduce mindlessly. If you're really a good artist and you just happen to like drawing anime, you'll be able to submit some observational work that'll show the skills they're looking for.

[Playboy Karasu Uchiha]

It's not that people don't consider it art, it's that people learn stylization, especially over exaggerated features without understanding the anatomy and other basics and it tends to look bad and inconsistent.

Despite what some people say, you do need to know anatomy to draw nice anime and manga inspired art. Even if exaggerated and disproportional, you have to know what you are doing and about the human body to make it work. That is the problem.

Also anime just means animation, there is no set style. There are often common traits, but each artist has their own style and skill level. Some are more realistic than others.

I love anime but my first picture was bad. Why? I didn't know anatomy and the character I drew had no joints, I didn't know how to make clothing realistic, didn't know much about shading, highlighting, perspective, looked flat,etc...I am actually trying to learn that stuff now. I been working on gesture drawing and drawing random crap I see in my house lately. I need to study and practice a lot more as I have a lot to learn (though I am a hobbyist, not trying to become professional, I still want it to look good and improve), but I can see improve though compared to last year.

Most books and tutorials on anime and manga just cover the style but none of the basics mostly (though a few are getting a bit better at that and talk about the anatomy and how it should look realistically first, proportions, different fabric and how they should move and look, etc...though they still leave out a lot and hardly go in depth with the basics as that isn't the focus). People usually jump in without knowing what they are really doing.

Basically it is just a style, you should develop your own style, though it can be influenced by someone as not all artist are the same or should be the same and need a solid understanding of how things work.

I would suggest taking a class if you can, though the classes I took turn me off from drawing for awhile. All we did was copy in one class why the teacher hardly really said anything. Just mindless busy work where we weren't really learning anything. The second teacher had us draw those boxes, but he didn't talk about the vanishing point and all that really, which didn't help me with perspective. So make sure it is a good class first.

I am assuming you are talking about in general and on the forums and as a hobby since you didn't mention schools, being a professional. portfolios, etc...As for schools and stuff, it usually doesn't impress many people (though I know some good artist, though they have their own style and solid grasp of the basics), probably because people aren't really developing their skills and style when drawing or really expressing yourself through the art and looks more like a copy. They want to see what you know more than anything else first. Schools focus on making sure the student understands things properly and help them to correct mistakes.

People didn't say you can't draw anime or that it isn't real art, just that they highly recommend drawing from life first and building upon what you know before stylizing.

Just my thoughts from a hobbyist and going through the forums.

[la balena]

pinkyturnip

Ah, really?
Maybe it's just the people I know who think this way. xD;

Is that the same for other style of cartoons? non-anime

[Rainbow Sprinkle Donuts]

mainly because of the exaggerated facial expressions and the fact that it's seen as immature >.>.

[Playboy Karasu Uchiha]

I don't see how it is considered immature though. A lot of animations are aimed at an older audience and some styles are more realistic. People of all ages can enjoy it. Personally the more realistic (or shall semi-realistic) is my favorite style, but I see nothing wrong with exaggerated physical appearances long as the artist knows what they are doing to pull it off well.

Some styles are not my personal cup of tea, but doesn't mean that the artist is bad or don't know the basics and what they are doing. It really depends on the artist really.

Edit-I want to point it that it was actually inspired by Disney.

[Deudalephon]

I guess Anime seems more like an entertainment thing. That probably blurs the lines a bit, but it did root from art - so it's certainly no different.

[Neon Vash]

It is considered art. But anime is a cultural thing if you go to an art school in a western culture it wouldn't be a good thing to draw anime. an on that point why would you want to just draw anime why not just learn other styles draw more diverse. Anime is really only acceptable in eastern countries because its part of there culture.