4 ms·

I've always liked Far Side and I think he has his hand-drawn style pat, but the new tablet-drawn ones look... distractingly amateurish, for lack of a better wor

I've always liked Far Side and I think he has his hand-drawn style pat, but the new tablet-drawn ones look... distractingly amateurish, for lack of a better word. Exhibit A: the faces of the drivers in the "taxidermist" gag, which are all soggy blurs. I'm sure this is to some extent intentional to avoid drawing too much attention to these peripheral features, but still: https://imgur.com/a/k9ZLv5s https://imgur.com/a/k9ZLv5s That said, it's obviously a new medium for him, so I hope he keeps at it and works out what his new digital style can be.

acqq 6y ago
> I'm sure this is to some extent intentional to avoid drawing too much attention to these peripheral features Yes. The goal is the opposite of not having that blurred. If you expected something else... it's not him, it's you, expecting the hard lines over which the watercolor is applied. This is simply not that.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
  In the same image, the pedestrians up top do have crisply drawn features, which (IMHO) look much better. Maybe it's my fault for having grown up with Tintin-style ligne claire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire
  - acqq 6y ago
    > In the same image, the pedestrians up top do have crisply drawn features The are supposed to have them, in order to match the figure where the joke is. Larson jokes are in big part visual jokes: he draws intentionally so that a reader has to "look around" in the picture until he "gets it." And that is what makes the "click" and that deep "ooooh" effect. For that to function the "level of attention" has to be "manipulated". The cars in the front are allowed to be "out of focus" but the part of the picture "in focus" should not "give out" too soon the gag. So the cartoon functions correctly, the "direction" inside of the cartoon is brilliant. The cartoon is however, I admit, more "raw" than what would be expected from some kinds of products (e.g. it's not something that would end up being in an ad, for example, exactly because some people have some specific expectations). But it's the real Larson and everything is where is should be. And he also wrote that he's "just exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff."
mtts 6y ago
Part of it is because he’s painting now whereas before he was mostly drawing. You just can’t get as much detail that way. But even so, yes, this looks amateurish. Which is probably due to he fact that he no longer paints / draws for a living and because he’s just starting out in this medium.

acqq 6y ago

> I'm sure this is to some extent intentional to avoid drawing too much attention to these peripheral features Yes. The goal is the opposite of not having that blurred. If you expected something else... it's not him, it's you, expecting the hard lines over which the watercolor is applied. This is simply not that.

9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
In the same image, the pedestrians up top do have crisply drawn features, which (IMHO) look much better. Maybe it's my fault for having grown up with Tintin-style ligne claire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire
- acqq 6y ago
  > In the same image, the pedestrians up top do have crisply drawn features The are supposed to have them, in order to match the figure where the joke is. Larson jokes are in big part visual jokes: he draws intentionally so that a reader has to "look around" in the picture until he "gets it." And that is what makes the "click" and that deep "ooooh" effect. For that to function the "level of attention" has to be "manipulated". The cars in the front are allowed to be "out of focus" but the part of the picture "in focus" should not "give out" too soon the gag. So the cartoon functions correctly, the "direction" inside of the cartoon is brilliant. The cartoon is however, I admit, more "raw" than what would be expected from some kinds of products (e.g. it's not something that would end up being in an ad, for example, exactly because some people have some specific expectations). But it's the real Larson and everything is where is should be. And he also wrote that he's "just exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff."

mtts 6y ago

Part of it is because he’s painting now whereas before he was mostly drawing. You just can’t get as much detail that way. But even so, yes, this looks amateurish. Which is probably due to he fact that he no longer paints / draws for a living and because he’s just starting out in this medium.