Mangish Study 5 Kubo Miniatures
16-02-14
Bluh bluh started this up again. Got talktative so feel free to just read the actual picture since i started feeling self-important during the study sorry
Just found it interesting how Kubo draws super diminished forms and still manages to make them readable as characters. He's a bit extreme with it, i'd have liked to just draw arms/heads or legs alone to show how small they are, but that'd be a bit much on my part. Anyhow i drew complete silhouettes, and still found it interesting
Here are the notes i made as i went through it
- diminished forms don't define facial features (no nose eyes mouth e.t.c) and often leave the head not fully outlined. (A chin line here, a forehead line there maybe.). Hair seems to be used as an indicator for the tilt of the characters head. (To show if he's facing sideways, towards the camera, if he's head is under the camera...)
*** i just noticed there that the exact same symbol had been used before. He got away with it easily, i only noticed because i went over the whole chapter... so duplicating your art in a chapter can work
- A sword is little more than a simple line. Good thing that Ichigo's sword is all black. I wonder how lighter swords look as drawn by kubo in this miniature form(... must look into that)
-I realize that over time (maybe even within one chapter) it becomes obvious who is who so you can go crazy with showing the tiny forms. Ichigo has a nice flowy cape so all you've got to do is show his ridiculously long sword, some swoosh of his cloak, a spiky sh=phere for his hair and you're all set. 'Colour' everything in black. Looks like learning how to draw stick figures could help after all... there's no anatomy to speak of when you look at these things
- I like where kubo showed ichigo dodging an attack. It's an intense use of action lines to show ichigo's speed. Basically ichigo goes in this direction > then the hair will spike in this direction < . He also uses a nose line to at least show where he's looking (because otherwise he never shows facial features). Also, in the direction ichigo is dodging the lines are defined, but in the opposite direction there is nothing but the action lines. He drew both miniature forms simultaneously and they just work.
- A smart decision of Kubo's part is that you can't mistake a characters outfit. They're unique in some obvious way even without needing to shade them in black or white.
- I think it's impressive also to have your character recognizable from such small images of them. Byakuya's hair, captains outfit and generally noble poses (haha) quickly tell me who he is. Ichigo's frayed bat-like outfit and black sword tell me its him. When he's in his other form of course the big freaking sword is a dead giveaway.
*** here i spotted the symbol/pose that has been used before. Guess it's not lazy if you manage to trick the reader into forgetting.
- I want to try finding miniatures of all Bleach captains and see if I can recognize them at a glance. I'm sure Kubo has managed to make them recognizable even when they're drawn so small.
- Ichigo Flash Stepping around byakuya - too fast to see. Just isolate each image and see how in reality he hasn't drawn much, but it still ends up looking like what it should look like: Ichigo being impossibly fast and byakuya being calm
-Ichigo being attacked - Here ichigo is just a symbol fit for an alien alphabet "
- " (well something like that). However the speed lines and the attacking blast show that its him being attacked. The previous panels and pages make it too obvious whats happening. But alone without those backing facts it looks like nothing.
- Even more extreme is this scribble. Whats that? That's ichigo being pulverized by an attack. Only the backgroudn and the outline of the blast tells you that its him (and the previous pages).
- I should try doing a 'study' on explosions and smoke and stuff from Bleach, could be interesting.
- Ichigo defending an attack. Even though kubo skims on details he surprisingly puts in a lot. He drew a sandal with more detail than i expected, drawing the sole, the shape and even the string thingie or whatever its called. He also used bandages to show that an arm was an arm and where ichigo's waist was