Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Retro - good or not?

Every time I look at what people are collecting as inspiration on blogs and other collective sites directed to illustrators and animators - I see "retro".
By retro - I mean art that is derivative of a style from 20 plus years ago. I am pretty certain this is what everyone means by "retro".
This tendency is both great and enjoyable - to me - looking at the works from my old adults viewpoint.
But also poses a question to me.
I would wonder.
Is this serving the audience(s) it is directed towards? Is this enriching? Is this call back to a visual vocabulary of the past more than just reviving an old visual language (or I should say and old visual slang- something timely in its day but eventually just anachronistic) that may or may not have hit home even when it was current. I feel that there truly is a lot of rich legacy in that old vocabulary. Lots to share. But then again maybe there is a more modern and effective way to communicate the same ideas (richness) with a visual vocabulary that is "now".
Everything we see in the form of illustration, art and the like has some derivation. Comes from some inspriration and some tested technique. Tapping in to some lovely technique can make for lovely art. But the more I am presented with georgeous technique, the more I yearn for substance (that should be) behind the technique.
Taking the inspiration and shaping it into a new look - a new vocabulary is a challenge.
A challenge I would want to direct at myself.

Monday, November 12, 2012

IF: tree

The view from up in a tree is always eye opening.

Created with the 2003 Mac version of Expression3 and Photoshop(fast color tinting)