Delacroix on Multiple Personalities

He is like everyone else, a compound of strange and inexplicable contrasts, and this is what the writers of novels and plays will never understand; they make their characters all of a piece. But people are not like that. There may be ten different people in one man, and sometimes all ten appear within a single hour.

—from The Journal of Eugene Delacroix

Random Quotes

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."

—Isaac Asimov

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

—anonymous

Many years ago Rudyard Kipling gave an address at McGill University in Montreal. He said one striking thing which deserves to be remembered. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said: "Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are."

—Halford E. Luccock

Contrast

I watched a German film the other day in which the lead character learns of her sisters death. The scene shows her sitting in a hospital corridor with head in hands much like the man in the left-hand image below.



What I thought interesting was that her jacket accidentally created a turtle shell-effect (right) which better communicated her feelings. It was such a small detail but one that emphasised the need for contrast to heighten emotional effects.

In the same way, if you want to communicate beauty you must show its opposite. Beauty in isolation looks average. Beauty alongside something ugly has a stronger affect because of the contrast.

Quotes from 'Working Methods' by John Lowe

The following are some interesting quotes that I collected while reading Working Methods: Comic Creators Detail Their Storytelling and Artistic Processes, by John Lowe.

The speed with which you draw something indicates the speed of that object. A big wet brushstroke moves. It's alive. A perfectly ruled line with a technical pen doesn't move. It's slow.

I did a Star Wars story on Alderaan, which didn't even have concept art for it. I panicked. I had to design Alderaan! I had to make [the design] cohesive. Durwin [Talon] said if I built everything out of a few simple shapes, it would all hold together naturally and seem organic. It worked. 

—Chris Brunner

When people do period work, they tend to draw only things made in a specific decade. If it's the thirties, they'll draw stuff that only came out in the thirties, and forget that people still drove old cars from the twenties and 1910's in the thirties.

—Kelsey Shannon