Art Critic: the skull in the corner is artfully placed on the periphery of vision to symbolise the omnipresence of death, important thematically to the artist’s conception of life and mortality.
Actual Artist: aw shit, I got all this negative space, guess I’ll stick a skull there that looks pretty rad.
Several
years ago, I worked as a director for an art gallery/broker. We had a number of
people come in with different artwork looking for appraisals. Some turned out
to be fairly valuable, most did not. This is one of those times.
Client:
I have a painting and I would like to find out how
much it is worth.
Me: No problem, I can definitely help you with that.
The
client hands me the “painting” and I immediately recognize it as a cheap print
of a semi-famous artist.
Me: I’m sorry to tell you this, but this isn’t actually a painting, it’s
a print. And, because it isn’t signed or a limited edition, it isn’t really
valuable.
Client:
How do you know?
I was
a little miffed that I had to explain that I was experience and knew what I was
talking about, but hoping that they simply wanted to be educated.
Me: First, there is no texture from the paint. Second, it is on
cardboard which no painter would ever do because it isn’t a quality substrate.
But, most of all, (I hold up a magnifying glass to the print) do you see those
dots?
Client:
Yes.
Me: Those dots are created from the printing process.
Client:
I don’t believe you. This has been in my family for
a long time and I know it’s worth a lot of money!
Me: Well, I’ve given you the facts. If you think I’m wrong, feel free to
take it somewhere else to get it appraised.
Client:
I will because you are ridiculous and obviously
don’t know what you’re talking about!
They
left, refusing to believe that their “painting” was no more than a cheap print
that you could buy at a garage sale for a buck.
bruce wayne maintains a presence on all conspiracy theory boards with the screen name BruceWayneIsTheBatman and all his posts have titles like “BRUCE WAINE IS BAT-MAN INDISPUTABLE PROOF” and it’s just a picture of Bruce Wayne from the back next to a picture of Batman from behind and they both have the contours of their butt drawn on in a shitty MSPaint red line (note: Bruce is in a suit and Batman has a cape, neither of their butts are clearly discernible) and the quote “THE BUTTS MATCH!!! THE FACTS DON’T LIE!!!!!” and he makes at least three of these posts a day, and “Bruce Wayne is the Batman” becomes a meme a la “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer” and he gets asked about it on a talk show and he laughs uproariously at the idea and Stephen Colbert just HAPPENS to have a batman mask under the desk and they do a bit together where Bruce Wayne puts on the mask and walks around saying things like “excuse me, bank robbers, can I perhaps offer you some money to stop you robbing this bank?” and “I say, cease and desist your criminal behavior or I’ll have my butler ask you to leave” and the audience is LOSING THEIR MINDS laughing at the idea of this pampered rich guy taking on the Joker on a bi-weekly basis and then anyone who suggests “Bruce Wayne is Batman” in earnest gets met with mocking “oh man do the butts match” comments
callout post to my storyboard prof for calling caterpillars ugly in her book
That alien and caterpillar = cutest things I’ve seen today Those big eyed mammals? = I wouldn’t trust ‘em for a SECOND
This is so rude.
this reminds me of when my animation teacher started talking about ‘inherently female’ face-construction and he;s mostly a cool dude but i stg I was just screaming silently starin’ at him
Can whichever @badcharacterdesign mod originally posted this tell this professor that the bug on the right is the cutest and most personality-filled thing in that diagram and that they should feel bad for calling it ugly?
And, I wonder how much of this professor’s sort of bad/wrong thinking is pervasive enough in the industry to be why so many character designs end up so much blandern when finalized by higher-ups or taken through several series iterations…
“
And, I wonder how much of this professor’s sort of bad/wrong thinking is pervasive enough in the industry ”
Extremely. Animation and design school is absolutely polluted with a “MORE HUMAN = MORE CUTE” mentality and it is exactly how we end up with many of the most abhorrent nightmares showcased by badcharacterdesign. There were even people at Pixar who tried to give Wall-E a mouth and a nose because that’s how they were taught.
This issue even spills out of the animation/art world and into robotics. The reason someone even coined the concept of the “uncanny valley” is because the people designing androids were often under the same clueless “MAKE IT MORE HUMAN” thinking and had to be told with a psychological study and a diagram that, no, making it more human is actually really creepy and people actually identify very well with totally nonhuman faces.
