Author: James Chiang

The One Thing

Jack Palance gives Billy Crystal some sage advice in the 1991 hit comedy City Slickers.

“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.” — Brené Brown, Writer

All of us are different; we all have different body types, different interests, different talents, different beliefs, different politics. That’s what diversity is — we’re all meant to be different. At the same time we’re all in this together, connected in ways largely unseen and unforeseen not unlike the wings of a butterfly influencing a typhoon hundreds of miles away. Therefore, how we hold ourselves accountable keeps us focused and in harmony with the universe. There is an order to things and its our choice whether we want to align ourselves with this order or take part in its obstruction or disorder. Sometimes, we need to get ourselves back on track while at other times, it’s best to just get out of the way (i.e. of doing too much and overstepping our limitations.) This is the Taoist concept known as Wu Wei (non-action or not forcing).

“Without desire there is stillness, And the world settles by itself.” — Tao Te Ching

The solution to living seems complicated but need not be. We only need to find that “one thing” — our calling — to set us straight. If we do find it and carry it out with as much effort, integrity and respect as we can, all else will pretty much fall into place. To resist our calling is to contribute to the disorder of things and muck up the universe. This leads to illness and hurt to ourselves and society, and not just by the loss of our unrealized potential.

What does resistance feel like? First, unhappiness. We feel like hell. A low-grade misery pervades everything. We’re bored, we’re restless … we feel unloved and unlovable. We’re disgusted. We hate our lives, we hate ourselves.

Unalleviated, Resistance mounts to a pitch that becomes unendurable. At this point vice kicks in. Dope, adultery, web surfing. Beyond that, Resistance becomes clinical. Depression, aggression, dysfunction. Then actual crime and physical self-destruction.” — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.

People forget that ultra-famous Pop Artist icon Andy Warhol started out first as a graphic illustrator. When it was time for him to move onward with his art, he did.

That calling, that “one thing” is our craft, our art. And I’m not referring only to the visual arts or even necessarily the creative vocations. It means every kind of craft and career be it science, economics, construction, nursing or farming. The list goes on. All have a role to play. No one craft is superior to another. None. Any significant difference among individuals and action is in the dignity by which the job is done; the respect, love and care that an individual puts into the work. That’s it. It’s that focus on attentiveness and process again. How and why we do things versus what we do. It’s about quality and not quickness, stewardship rather than ownership. It’s a free market system of process above profit while allowing for dutiful and honourable individual expression. History has proven time and again that societal systems that either puts money above people (unregulated capitalism) or suppresses individual freedom (communist totalitarianism) will both negate our humanity. Remember, work is a good thing; we’re designed to do it. But there’s much more value to work than the profits of one’s labour. Happiness lies elsewhere, beyond the accumulation of material wealth and our own self-obsession or even any specific ideology. Instead, it lies in being, creating and connecting.

… among the things that give man pleasure are relations with other human beings — conversation, eating together, singing, dancing, having children, and cooperation in work which “many hands make light.” Indeed, one of the highest pleasures is to be more or less unconscious of one’s own existence, to be absorbed in interesting sights, sounds, places and people. Conversely, one of the greatest pains is to be self-conscious, to feel unabsorbed and cut off from the community and the surrounding world.” — Alan Watts, Philosopher

Here, on this blog the focus is on the visual arts because that’s my primary interest. But the many various aspects of human civilization should be of interest to everyone. Artists should learn about the basic tenets of medicine or business just as doctors and investments managers should enlarge their exposure to the arts. This doesn’t mean that we should become scatterbrained (far from it) but that we should have a healthy interest and respect for other facets of society. Until we become more aware and more empathetic, we’ll continue to misunderstand each other, leaning instead towards division, blame and hatred. Opening our eyes so that we can experience society through our own specified craft strengthens our art which both reflects our humanity and helps to explain it — the “one thing” encompassing all things.

… to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.” — Kahlil Gibran, Philosopher/Artist

How do we know what that “one thing” is then? That’s for each of us to find out for ourselves. Sometimes — and oftentimes — we must first explore who we’re not before we can find out who we are. This is the journey. And it’s a marvelous one filled with excitement, fear, joy and suffering that’s all pretty much unpredictable. I don’t think we can have it any other way. All things, both good and bad, come attached which means we’ll need to play this game expectation-free and completely vulnerable. But that’s alright, because with vulnerability comes the courage to overcome difficulty and the discovery of real meaning. It’s ok to be scared.

Italian abstract expressionist Emilio Vedova was a self-taught artist who found himself thru his craft. He produced over 1000 paintings in his lifetime.

And, if we already know what we’re supposed to do and ain’t doing it, then we better stop screwing around and get with it.

“Action expresses priorities.” — Mahatma Gandhi, Activist

Planes, Points & Pins

“An artist must have imagination. An artist who does not use his imagination is a mechanic.” — Robert Henri, Artist

Art is almost all about seeing (and then creating). Sometimes, our source of inspiration lies outside of ourselves, at other times, they come from within. But all artists must be able to see what’s there in front of them in order to portray their artistic vision with clarity and truth. And when doing figurative work, the ability to understand and use planes, points and pins within the anatomical structure makes the artist’s argument that much more convincing.

Here we’ll look at how different styles of artists make use of such concepts to empower their art:

Planes:

Frank Miller’s legendary art from his masterful Graphic Novel series Sin City.

Frank Miller is renown for his graphic brilliance and bold use of black and white. Aside from fantastic composition skills and a superb use of line and shape, what is not always evident is his absolute control of form in his creations. His dominant light and shadows wrap around the almost invisible forms, creating deceptively flat shapes that live on planes of the body and costume, giving them solidity and texture. The interplay of those angular shapes not only create depth but, more importantly, enable a jagged dance between light and shadow — clearly a metaphor for the interesting world of good and evil that is Sin City.

Rough animation drawing by Glen Keane, from Disney’s Beauty and The Beast.

Master animator Glen Keane caught the attention of the world when his Beast became the prominant creation behind the first ever animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The acting and sheer physical force of the character brought immense feeling to the screen — feeling that even the most novice of animation fans could recognize as unusually powerful. But what always makes Glen’s work so complete (among other things) is his use of planes; they add dimension and presence to his art. Although he’s working only in lines, we can see how the planes of the face, body, legs and arms all line up in a way that plants the character solidly in his own three dimensional space, making the illusion of life completely convincing.

Points:

Francisco de Goya’s Two Old Men Eating Soup is known as part of his “Black Paintings”

Goya’s work is almost always loaded with emotion and story. It was part of his brooding nature and his interest to portray human upheaval, triumph and suffering — he was a true historian of his era. A master draftsman, he controlled his brush as he would a pen, giving immense detail in his creations with the simplest of brush strokes. Here, we can see the astute usage of points — lines of direction created to guide the eye of the spectator. Sometimes, these invisible lines of action lie along the edges of a form, while at other times, they emerge from within it, each with its own role to play. All great artists and filmmakers do this; drawing attention and bringing drama to the composition by aligning forms to create movement and aim. In this particular sketch, one can argue that Goya cheated by doubling up on the finger pointing by his two subjects, although it’s more likely that the parallel imagery is intentional.

“Just Bring You” — one of many paintings done by the legendary illustrator Bernie Fuchs.

A master of composition, color and drawing, Bernie Fuchs was (and still is) an inspiration to artists worldwide. Fuchs’ carefully thought out usage of shapes, both geometric and organic, create images so beautiful it’s hard to take one’s eyes off them; they’re always wonderfully balanced yet never static or even. A strong advocate of triangulation in his work, Fuchs’ compositions constantly moves the eyes from one color, one shape or one line to another. He’s not afraid to contrast other elements too, including light and dark, as well as detailed and open spaces. They all keep you traveling from one spot to the next, giving the eye a playful yet unexpected journey in many different ways and along many different paths.

Pins:

Michelangelo’s priceless studies for the Libyan Sibyl.

There are few artists in the world who have moved the art world as much as Michelangelo Buonarroti. Both his paintings and sculptures define weight and form. His masterful understanding of the human body, in all its details both in construction and mechanics (i.e. function) bring great believability to his art. Looking closely, we see he’s totally aware of both the location and action of the joints and intersections of the body’s bones and muscles; the hips, shoulders, ears and the joints of the arms all have relationships with each other. The annotated “pins” indicate both the angle and direction by which the various body parts aim and how they align. This is something many illustrators and animators today often ignore either due to their negligence (laziness) or lack of knowledge of body construction/mechanics.

Chuck Jones’ sketch of Wile. E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.

We all love Chuck Jones for his comic genius. His work defies convention and brings real intelligence to the mere “cartoon short.” But Jones is an amazing draftsman — arguably one of the best ever to don the duties of an animator. His control of the line as well as the weight in his lines, have formed many wonderful moments of caricature and visual delight. But he, like the other masters listed above, make use of all the planar and directional elements that make his figures appear so full and solid. Here, it’s clear that nothing is ever flat nor even. His respect for the alignment of the solid structures (like the skull and hips) and various joints (like the knees and elbows) helps make everything work in harmony — a perfect marriage between design and anatomical structure (form). This is great animation posing.

Summary:

All great art obeys certain laws. When working with figures, building and using that knowledge relating to the planes, points and pins of human (or animal) anatomy can bring great power and believability to one’s work. We must see thru things and beyond the obvious.

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. — Michelangelo Buonarroti, Artist