Which Art Style is “Better”: Stylised or Realistic?

over the many decades of existence manga has seen a substantial amount of different styles utilized by their artists crafting distinct visuals applying a variety of techniques and methods to approach the art of storytelling as naturalistic or as abstractical as they desire one discussion that crops up on occasion even outside of the manga community is the discourse between stylized art and realistic art even as far back as lessons taught in art classes from a young age where teachers push for realism as seen through lifelike portraits or still life but neglect stylized forms such as cartoon or anime styles there's a clear discrepancy on which style is considered more professional or even better but to answer the question of my title which art style is better stylized or realistic well the answer is both neither are inferior or superior to another in the grand schemes of artistry this video isn't here to put another style down whilst appraising another but a discussion between the correspondence of people neglecting starla's art of its skillship whilst claiming detailed art to be the best in the medium both styles serve as tools to unveil a narrative in pictorial form so why the partiality for realistic art overstylized to give a roundabout idea of what exactly stylized art and realistic art is realism is depicting the world as we see it with natural proportions and no distortions or exaggerations this can be seen through the display of textures the placement of lighting or an authentic rendition of perspective honing in on the realities of the world is what very obviously would be called realistic so only naturally stylized art opposes these rules adopting realism into a form of exaggeration and extracting elements that resembles the physical world not to be mistaken for drawing art that is fictional however an artist can draw something like a dragon which is fictional and not a realistic presence on earth but can still draw it realistically by research and references of similar creatures to create a realistic depiction of the imaginary element the topic of stylized versus realistic art is talked about within the gaming and animation communities too a large difference that separates the manga discussion on the topic however is that arguments against realistic styles in gaming and animation is due to the ways in which it ages in those mediums when realism being depicted is reliant on technology it is bound by the progression of technological advancements which makes a realistic styled 3d animation or game age as time progresses very clearly manga doesn't have that similar issue the only advancements you see in the manga industry are that of a mangaka swapping to digitally drawing their manga as opposed to pen on paper something i'll get into a little more later in the video but digitally drawing hasn't negatively aged manga in the way realism has affected animation and gaming you can definitely recognize a manga may be older due to the specific style of the decade but that's not a negative feature those manga are still just as beautiful and hold up to the manga of today's age which is arguable for realistically styled animation and gaming and to add a few disclaimers in the video there is definitely a grey area in what is considered to be stylized or realistically designed manga especially when there are manga that combine those two styles hakamet and mikuchi for instance has some of the most beautifully detailed backgrounds that breathe a sense of environmental scale but the character designs are bubbly cute and stylized completely paradoxical to its background art and there are many manga that follow suit in this contrast combination because it gives breathing room and improved visual hierarchy as opposed to making everything incredibly detailed and potentially making it lack depth or appear flat in addition some manga due to time limitations may have two or three pages that are highly detailed and the rest lacking in that detail so not all of the manga may be highly realistic realistic art definitely doesn't go by without judgment there's a perception that every realistic drawing looks the same even more so in a medium like manga where the lack of colour makes it harder to differentiate them further but a lot of mangaka will use different techniques to create a realistic optical effect a bright story has some of the most realistically rendered textile and patterning work i've seen in probably anything a lot of mangaka will forego adding too much detail to materials and clothing because staying consistent from page to page takes a massive amount of work and re-referencing yourself constantly and yet another manga that is just as realistic but for completely different reasons would be hideout by matasomi kakazaki which undoubtedly has mastered the craft of utilizing realistic contrast shadow and light making for some phenomenal spreads saying all realistic content looks similar is a farce yes there may be some that share similarities like golden kamui and vin and saga but as mentioned before where they differ would be their placement of detail on top of stunning establishing shots golden kamui will often times use realism for a comedic effect or because satoru nada just really and i mean really loves drawing big hunky men many people will justify disinterest in realistic art because they'll compare it to a photograph why draw it when you can just capture it but by that principle why run a marathon when you can drive it why read a book when there's spark notes because there's a challenge and upkeep of improving your skills for a craft by drawing realism you have to learn the principles of shape form contrast values shadow and light and a multitude of things to a convincing level and by learning these lessons you'll be able to apply them to fictional beings just like how miura perfected his skills enduring fantasy creatures in a lifelike representational vision despite those creatures thankfully being non-existent and purely imaginative with the evolution and movement of digital drawing we've also seen the application of hand-drawn elements with digital processing inya sano and shinuchi sakamoto are mangaku who take full advantage of the resources digital applications allow asano frequently uses photography he collects as visual references towards his manga and sometimes as a way of retracing by going over the image on photoshop he'll then apply his hand rendition drawing over the top of the photo before placing his characters in the scene however closer to sakamoto's usage of technology asano uses 3d programs like blender to composite shapes into his scenes or fully rendering 3d environments to use as a base for his manga sakamato uses this technique in his highly detailed manga innocent using templates of hair he had previously drawn and utilizing it across different pages but being able to manipulate it in a way where it stays consistent yet still look like a unique drawing being able to take full advantage of technology for help towards detailed manga especially in an industry that is so demanding of its creatives is pretty ingenious to see it's by combining other elements of creativity like photography and modelling which in and of itself are two skills hard to master and applying it to a medium that hopefully makes it easier on them in the long run what makes stylized art a different beast to realistic is it can often rely on knowing art rules and breaking them purposefully some think stylized art is making it simpler to abstain from having to create realistic art which again people assume is a much harder practice in reality creating stylized art can demand even more creativity and imagination from the artist figuring ways in which to present a visual message that could be seen as abstract nonsense to some there are some manga like any of shirahara komami's work that have this nice balance of semi-realism that is slathered in this uniqueness that pertains only to her stylized work for instance if you were to look at any of her double page spreads and remove the frequent shading lines that occur on every illustration it would definitely take the magic away from her art style that is so distinctive in its usage in an interview she mentioned it was an adoption of the style close to old engravings so while it is a layer of detailing to her work i'd argue it leans towards stylization rather than realism falling under decorative art as opposed to narrative art being there purely for aesthetic reasons rather than plot-driven reasons but even stylization much like realism has its variety of differences there's an over-exaggerated style with the likes of tekon kinklitz or pingpong where anatomy is slowly deformed and shaped to relay motions of actions much more hyperbolically or to exaggerate the intensity of a scene contrasting the simple loose line work on other pages children of the sea also uses more loose line work but with the usage of hatching adding much contrasting depth to an aquatic tail hasaki nukuni and the girl from the other side are complete with a perfected usage of negative space a technique that would require a lot of pre-planning and thoughts on placement and composition more so than normal as negative space can draw a reader's eye much quicker and effectively than positive space meanwhile our dreams at dusk and ran in the grey world are so substantially unique and abstractical in how they depict imaginative physics and form there's an endless list of individual ways mangakis style their art because there's no real limitation on what can be drawn to get a message across rather than relying on realism it's dependent on expressive creativity that artists are hopeful will make their work more memorable ultimately there's a lot of reasons why an artist chooses a specific style for their manga the most predominant reasoning would be preference an artist choosing a style that comes natural to them and one they may have practiced for many years honing in on their specialty and what makes their style individually their own another prime reason is mood and suitability certain styles will benefit more depending on the genre they cover or demographic they're reaching for example janji ito's work wouldn't be as successful in its presentation of body horror and existential terror if it were in the style of kiyohika azama's yatzba series or the melancholic atmosphere that girl's last tour exudes wouldn't be as fitting if it were given the highly detailed and realistic chaoticness of acute style however even if a mangako draws within a simpler style for their manga doesn't mean they aren't capable of crafting those highly detailed pieces so many consider as the epitome of artistic greatness a lot comes down to what style is suitable for the story they are telling too a style can also be decided depending on time and deadlines there have been many occasions where mangaka who draws semi-realistic work have to take breaks due to health issues clearly a linkage to the amount of hours tirelessly spent drawing those fine details or working week by week consistently for years and producing many pages of artwork this isn't to say stylized work doesn't take a lot of time or thought but there's definitely obvious evidence to suggest detailing is time-consuming giving its nature which is why some mangaka would find it preferable to go down a simpler visual design and the last verdict on style choice is skill drawing hyper-realistic artwork or distinct stylized artwork are two very different paths and for some one style may come more naturally than the other one the mangako behind one punch man and mob psycho 100 is a perfect example he talked in an interview with tokyo raymer note how he was essentially all self-taught and would draw pages upon pages of manga designs in spite of his initial lack of artistic skill because he simply loved drawing which is why his specific style still carries on even to today both stylized and realistic art serve their purposes in the manga medium manga would look drab repetitive and have a lack of creativity if only one style was permitted there's something special about recognizing an artist's work just based on seeing their distinctive style alone having their work speak for them even before dropping their name the pair of styles are homogeneous in their role being there to adapt the creativity within a mangaka's mind whether that be stylized or realistic both art styles comparably let us take a peek into the world they have created as always thank you for watching for this video i want to give a massive thank you to my patrons who helped give me a fleshed out list of manga i could use as examples in this video it helped a ton i hope you enjoyed this video and if you did if you were to hit the like button that would be much appreciated till next time

Channel: lines in motion

Views: 578,451

Keywords: manga, video essay, berserk, houseki no kuni, witch hat atelier, art, a bride's story, one punch man

Id: t2gPGrczhTQ

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2022