18 April, 2017

Ninja Faerie

What do you think? insights welcome

Reply

7 Comments

Adelle John 18 Apr 2017

Nice idea for a new class in a MMORPG :) I like her.

Yury Yanin 19 Apr 2017

Once we were crossing a pasture together with my friend. He stepped into some sh….. substance… and said: “it is good that caws can not fly overhead!”

Do not take offence please. Hope you will understand this as one more failed rude joke, typical for stupid people of my kind. I only mean that fairies are usually imagined as helpful, kind creatures, while ninjas were nasty people ready to commit any crime on order of their bosses… They could do a lot of tricks, but fortunately couldn’t fly…

May be I shouldn’t be that serious here. I understand that the current mass culture made romantic heroes out of ninjas and many other bloody criminals of old times. Now a lot of people are trying to hide their souls from reality into that fake, simplified, irresponsible, imaginative world, prescribed to them by mass culture, where black can easily be called “white”. A lot of artists, following that crowd and competing with each other, try to slide on the surface of that world, hoping for easy art and money. I do not try to condemn them. I only say that I am not a follower, I prefer my own way. Products of primitive imagination of this kind, flooding our art premises lately, can not touch my soul. That is my trouble. Thus for me no picture of this kind can be much better or worse then many other similar ones.

I do not like this artistic style either. May be this style particularly fits that simplified, imaginative world, may be it is good for some cartoons, tattoo, for all that new primitive culture or for one of its branches, etc. I do not know. I just do not see perspectives for this style in the ART, which I like.

Certainly, all the above is a matter of my rude test only. And still, trying to understand and not to be too rude, I can not suppress a bitter feeling of sorrow for the artistic skills, efforts and high level artistic work, spent in vain… I think all that deserves deeper thoughts and other objects, resulting in a better ART.

Sorry… I tried just to express my mood and to produce an honest feedback, in hope that critical view can be more useful for art progress, then a mere compliment….

Kevin Anderson 19 Apr 2017

just the beginning of an illustration, haven't started on the backgrounds yet, but the others seem to be doing rather well,

Adelle John 19 Apr 2017

I appreciate that this piece is not for you but I have a problem with your suggesting that this style is not valid art, and the reason is more personal than my liking this art myself....it has to do with my own art which is very naive and simple, and I have been criticized for my own art by artist who do not do folkart themselves, suggesting my art was not art it was child's play....I for my part, have a hard time relating to abstract art or much of it, yet I would never openly suggest that it was not art even if I sometimes wonder about some instances of it...I would hesitate to criticize what I dont understand or appreciate. Saying only perhaps that I dont appreciate it is sufficient...without going further to say that because I dont appreciate it it is not valid or good art. And as far as faries go, orininally they were not considered good...they were considered dangerous (Read William Buttler Yeats poetry if you want a good understanding of faries). They often seduced men who ventured into the forest like woodcutters etc and those men were basically lost the faries were not good they either caused the men to become insane or the men just plain never returned. They stole children as well thus Celtic children were admonished not to go into the woods for fear of these faries..... So that being said, a combo of a ninja farie might well work but the hero would have a dangerous part of its character...it could not totally be trusted but that in itself would not keep it from being able to function as a super hero...as many of our heros both fictional and real have deep seated issues that interplay with their ability to be a hero. So I dont find this too hard to buy into myself. Sorry. But I will say that I am offering this not in total opposition to you as I really personally like your art very much and respect you highly as an artist and we have had some dialogue together...I am just offering this in support of the artist of the ninja-farie as I personally dont see an issue and I also as I said, dont believe in putting down other art genres because of my own personal tastes and ideas of what art should be.....I recognize that many people have different tastes and many art buyers have different tastes too and art that I hate personally gets sold all the time and my own art which some do not like sells pretty well. I am about to make another sale in the next day or two as one of my paintings not even finished is sold already just waiting for the paint to dry....which feels very odd. But what I am saying is, brother, to each his own and live and let live.....

Yury Yanin 20 Apr 2017

Dear Adelle,

The problem is that you partly confirm my words, speaking about fairy tales as if you live inside of them, among their imaginative heroes, while I speak about real people called ninja, who lived in Japan in old times. They were nasty people indeed, but the real history of their life, traditions, culture, martial arts seems to me more teaching and interesting then any fairy tale. I understand that the image in question is the product of artistic imagination and that in a fairy tale we can make a fantasy hero out of any living being or historic person. Nevertheless, in this particularly case the distance between reality and this picture is so great that I can not imagine a ninja as a fairy. When I try to, I have a feeling as if a life long trained professional assassin is flying over my head as a bloody butterfly. It is not pleasant and more scaring then a flying cow!

Another cause of our misunderstanding has a more technical nature and lies in the traditions of Russian translators. In Russian or foreign fairy tales they use the word fairy (in Russian it sounds as “feja”) only for purely positive, flawless personages. If she makes any evil or half evil doings she is usually called “vedma” (a soft variant of English witch). “Vedma” can be a funny, attractive figure, but she is never called “feja”. Seems this Russian tradition still influences my attitudes too much, so thank you for your corrective note in this instance.

I never said that this art, style and image are not valid. I only said that all that lies too far from my current artistic interests. That is why I can not judge here and this image “is not better or worse for me then any other similar one”. I supposed that this style can fit cartoons, tattoo… I can add that it can be absolutely good as an illustration for a fairy tale book… However, my main thought was another. I noticed that the author of that image Kevin Anderson spent a lot of artistic labor for this artwork and showed artistic talent, which I do not have. Envious or not, but I made a supposition, that he could produce a greater masterpiece if he had taken another object and tried to express a more profound thought. Why not?

Certainly, it is my test and opinion only and my supposition, which we can not verify yet.

Adelle John 21 Apr 2017

I think it is good to branch out of your own niche sometimes Yannin, like you said, he might try other art or content, but it may be that he is really wanting to be a cartoon type artist...That is not what I would want to be but like I said to each his own. I like to play fantasy computer games...I dont do that kind of art though. I moslty do my Judaic Folk Art. I wish I could do better painterly art but I am legally blind, something maybe most of you dont know. I am legally blind and that does influence the type of art I paint. I cannot do real realistic painting I just can't see well enough. As it is I do the detail which I do with closed eyes...does that seem funny to you.... well it is true. I cant see well enough to do it almost and so I first look very intently by squinting at what it is I want to do, and I place my brush in place and then I close my eyes to make the brushstroke as if I try to follow it I mess it up...so when I close my eyes I do it from memory and I dont usually mess it up. It is maybe helped by years of practiced hand/eye coordination from playing serious and hard computer games. So I wish I could try other forms of painting and I do still grow as an artist trying differnent techniques but it is difficult when you are poor sighted. I find it amusing calling myself a "blind artist...." but it has its drawbacks.

I want to further comment to Kevin about the second illustration. I offer this as construction criticism trying to be helpful not trying to tear down. All in all I like the second illustration quite well but I cannot see it very well and welcome perhaps some other better sighted artists to comment likewise to see if it is just me being blind or if there really exists a problem in its visibility. I personally would like to see just a tad more color and I know the style calls for restraint in usage of color but perhaps just a tad more would not jeopardize style but make it a better more easilly viewed illustration. I would not use red as the red in the blood would be compromized then. I would not use the same color as the wings as that would be too much of that color. I think I might try a light gray or silver in the body or a least a good part of the body and I think that might make her a bit easier to pick out. If you are willing to try it. I recognoze the style calls for very careful use of color but I think you could use a bit more to your advantage and not sacrifice the style. Good luck, Hmm I looked at her again and I take back what I said..I think gray or silver wont work too much black and white....You might try a bright color that is slightly faded or a pastel or any color of your choice for her armour. A very bright white might do too. And I think she might benefit from a tad bit of pastel flesh color in her face to make it more visible and like perhaps purplish pupils in her eyes would be appealing. You might try some or all of this just for the sake of trying, you certainly dont need to commit to it but trying it might help you find a totally better look or it may not work, one never knows til one does try isnt that the way it is? ADelle

Yury Yanin 22 Apr 2017

Adelle... it is really funny... I try never speak about that, just a few persons know... I am also almost blind. I hope not too many people will read this, and you will keep my secret too - I do not like people to know and to discuss that. However, it is also one of the reasons why I look for my own art ways and styles in some certain sections of digital art. The funny side of our discussion is evident: two old, almost blind persons are burning the remains of their eyes, typing too many words for the discussion over the artwork of a talented artist, who has a very good vision and works in the field, unavailable for the other two!!! Sorry, I am giving up this thread here.

Reply