SJW Art and Extremes

[One Man Bland]

I thought the same thing.

I genuinely don't think people like this are capable of creating something new. They can only create imitations of things they've seen. The art style and character design is obviously influemced by Steven Universe and shitty Tumblr Art. The premise and romance so far are play ingout exactly like any generic anime. It's as if they're unable to form ideas of their own accord.

It’s a common thing among people who start off making fan art and fanfics and then get it into their head that they’re hot shit and decide to try their hand at doing art/writing on a semi-professional level. Challenges like NanoWriMo are full of asshats who take their fanfics and change the character and place names (though occasionally not even that) and act like you’re not going to notice the suspicious number of similarities between Henry Peters and his adventures at Swagwaters School of Swords and Sorcery to that other popular franchise in the same genre.

Deep down they probably know that they’re only interested in making fan stuff - which would be fine if they could just be content staying hobbyists - or they’re so obsessed with one series/book/game that it’s their only point of reference because they refuse to branch out, but the sale of fanfics is dubious at best so they go for the next “best” thing - which to them is knock-offs.

 

[El_Cacahuate]

like vitiligo, why insist on putting body hair?

 

[wes]

I tried to search more on that webcomic but it's called "Rainbow Comic", it's so generic that 90% of my search results were some kind of color book for children. But then i found it on Tapas, same place that hosted that that life and death yaoibois comic.

I tried to searc for lgbt comics for content, here are some i found:

First: The Angry Gays. https://tapas.io/series/AngryGays

View attachment 568260

Aww yeeaa the perfect super hero group, The Angry Gays!

i think they're fighting or something i dunno it looks so bad and static. Also everyone i saw was black.

Can't wait for this to get picked up by Marvel!

The RAINBOW comic is sad because you could get much more of a feel from the pink one just from her body language instead of anime blushes.

EDIT:

like vitiligo, why insist on putting body hair?

The body hair is about rejecting societal expectations of women. Take that, patriarchy! and related sentiment.

 

[scathefire]

The body hair is about rejecting societal expectations of women. Take that, patriarchy! and related sentiment.

I hate the notion that excessive female body hair being gross is just a male-invented oppression. Sorry, no. Literally no one likes your lack of hygiene.

 

[Trilby]

Okay, so this doesn’t really matter but it’s always been a personal pet peeve of mine. There’s a difference between putting some modern sensibilities into a historical setting and just straight up writing a modern story that has a historical coat of paint for some reason. I’m pretty sure people during the 1800s wouldn’t say their parents “assumed” their gender at birth or would use the word “transition” in the context of gender. Let’s not get into the fact that the main character was watching tv at the beginning. The dialogue in this comic just seems “modern”, and not in a good way. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s a bit immersion breaking.

It just looks stupid unless they're trying to go for some askewed alternate timeline BS here.

 

[Tanti-Fanti]

Aren't you all always preaching how you wouldn't mind gays and tranny characters if they were people's ocs and not fan art and now that someone has gone and done their own characters instead of changing existing ones you all still get pissed off? Lol

I personally have no problems with the original comics. If they want to make a trans cowboy so be it, but the incosistencies in settings make it very off.

Like, the assumed gender thing wouldn't be stated as "assigned gender". Generally people take gender as a given and don't question it unless it's weird.

They don't have to be perfect, but some basic story elements could be better and improve the story.

 

[One Man Bland]

Okay, so after doing a little more digging into some of the other comics made by the same duo @LucasSomething linked, I found something kinda interesting. It seems the "Gravity Falls knockoff" thing goes a little deeper than just that one comic.

First we got Between Hay and Grass, a comic that not only has a name that screams "crappy fanfic" but has this as the premise:

A young girl named Persephone gets more than she bargained for when she and her father visit her grandfather, the proprietor of a beachside inn, for a long-term family visit. As mysterious events and unforeseen circumstances start piling up, Persephone and her friends and family realize that the stakes couldn’t be higher.

And these as the main characters:


Next there's Love Labs, whose main characters look have some rather striking similarities:


And finally there's Fishing Lure, a typical yaoi fanfic whose main character also just so happens to be a blond, buck-toothed southern twink - albeit in a different style:

With a monster that looks like this:

Which I'm sure someone could find a similar knock-off expy for if they looked, but don't quote me on that.
EDIT: Nevermind, I think I found the """inspiration""" for it:

Also noticed that the Black Lagoon expy appears to be an axolotol, an animal every Tumblr hack loves to shove into everything, but also just so happens to appear in the same series they same to have ripped everything else off of.

It seems like all these comics are basically just recycling the same main character that they ripped off from some other show over and over again. They're like bad fanfics trying to pass themselves off as original.

 

[Permuto]

Blender.org? Conceptart.org? Pixiv?

I was referring to more of a site for a social media presence, Blender looks like a site for the software, unless there's a hidden front page for all the art. Conceptart is a ghost town, and pixiv is okay, but the language barrier makes it hard to engage with a primarily japanese audience. I'm just griping though, currently if you want to make an art presence you just need to work harder and adapt over a few sites rather than the one ultimate one I'm after.

 

[One Man Bland]

I was referring to more of a site for a social media presence, Blender looks like a site for the software, unless there's a hidden front page for all the art. Conceptart is a ghost town, and pixiv is okay, but the language barrier makes it hard to engage with a primarily japanese audience. I'm just griping though, currently if you want to make an art presence you just need to work harder and adapt over a few sites rather than the one ultimate one I'm after.

There is a community for Blender here, but it's more a forum akin to something like 11 Second Club or Conceptart.org in its glory days. Good for if you want advice on specific projects using the software, but not intended to be used for cultivating an audience or true networking.

 

[El_Cacahuate]

Next: Mal de Ojo https://tapas.io/episode/962050

This one looks pretty good artwise, it's looks cartoony and fun to watch. Only problem is that this is (apparently???) a dead serious comic about a trans sheriff living in the border between usa and mexico using hormone drugs to avoid prejudice until he falls in love with a bandit. This is the first page btw.

The disconnect between serious gender commentary and very well done cartoony art is one of the weirdest i ever seen. btw the banner on the website is two ugly cowboys licking each other surrounded by what looks like dick shaped cactus so i dont know how much nsfw it might be...

In my personal opinion, I do not like that style of drawing (it's too childish and ugly), I think it's not for an LGBT story.
And well, these people do not know how to write stories without highlighting them at all times how gay and trans are their characters

 

[Lion]

it’s either bean mouths or this as a hot trend.

 

[goatD]

View attachment 568433
"Old"comic vs "New" Comic

This person's art devolved severely.

their art went from a very recognizable artstyle, that despite its simplicity, id recognize anywhere, to a generic su artstyle clone
this is why people hate the calarts artstyle so much, not cause its bad in an of itself, but its fucking EVERYWHERE and everyones picking it up like an STD

 

[One Man Bland]

their art went from a very recognizable artstyle, that despite its simplicity, id recognize anywhere, to a generic su artstyle clone
this is why people hate the calarts artstyle so much, not cause its bad in an of itself, but its fucking EVERYWHERE and everyones picking it up like an STD

This is also why I prefer the term Artistic Inbreeding to just calling it the CalArts style: More descriptive of how the real underlying problem is everyone copying the same/similar stylistic choices off each other makes a bunch of same-face bullshit that shows increasingly more signs of internal defects the longer it proceeds.

 

[Tanti-Fanti]

This is also why I prefer the term Artistic Inbreeding to just calling it the CalArts style: More descriptive of how the real underlying problem is everyone copying the same/similar off each other makes a bunch of same-face bullshit that shows increasingly more signs of eternal defects the longer it proceeds.

That's a good way to put it really. And for the most part, it's not even unique to our generation. There have always been people who've wanted to copy off of others to get a gateway to success. Sometimes that success means they can cheat at something they don't like. Sometimes it's just to get attention. It varies really. The only reason it seems so overblown now is because we have an easier access to this art on the internet. I guarantee you creepy fetish art on da still existed beforehand, but people were forced to hide it or be shunned. Nowadays, you have a platform into you can speak into the void and people will gladly answer back. And now, you can filter what those people say as well.

The funny thing is as much as I complain, I don't really hate the Cal-Arts/Inbreeding artstyle. I don't even hate the overexposure. That's guaranteed with the internet.

What I REALLY don't like is the ego attached to the style and what it represents. I don't like idea that people think the style is the best thing ever and I don't like the idea it's suddenly more progressive because it ignores the fundamentals of appeal. There is an in-between. You don't have to make characters super ugly like in Clarence, or super simple and bubbly like in OK-KO! A middle ground is fine. I think Gumball and SVTFOE do have some interesting concepts and designs that they use rather well. The rest...not so much. (Gravity Falls gets a bit of a pass for me because it's mostly slice of life/supernatural (lightly) until the end.)

 

[The Silver Shroud]

ArtStation is a pretty nice place to find great professional work, but it's really really hard to build up an audience there unless you're God-tier.

 

[HY 140]

View attachment 568683 View attachment 568684
it’s either bean mouths or this as a hot trend.

the cal arts style is like AIDS, it kills everything and spreads fast

 

[IdaRita]

ArtStation is a pretty nice place to find great professional work, but it's really really hard to build up an audience there unless you're God-tier.

Artstation is really good site for professionals searching for work. For young artists - not so much. People rarely comment on pictures and treat the site more like portfolio. If you are looking for community it's a problem.

That's a good way to put it really. And for the most part, it's not even unique to our generation. There have always been people who've wanted to copy off of others to get a gateway to success. Sometimes that success means they can cheat at something they don't like. Sometimes it's just to get attention. It varies really. The only reason it seems so overblown now is because we have an easier access to this art on the internet. I guarantee you creepy fetish art on da still existed beforehand, but people were forced to hide it or be shunned. Nowadays, you have a platform into you can speak into the void and people will gladly answer back. And now, you can filter what those people say as well.

The funny thing is as much as I complain, I don't really hate the Cal-Arts/Inbreeding artstyle. I don't even hate the overexposure. That's guaranteed with the internet.

What I REALLY don't like is the ego attached to the style and what it represents. I don't like idea that people think the style is the best thing ever and I don't like the idea it's suddenly more progressive because it ignores the fundamentals of appeal. There is an in-between. You don't have to make characters super ugly like in Clarence, or super simple and bubbly like in OK-KO! A middle ground is fine. I think Gumball and SVTFOE do have some interesting concepts and designs that they use rather well. The rest...not so much. (Gravity Falls gets a bit of a pass for me because it's mostly slice of life/supernatural (lightly) until the end.)

Exactly! I couldn't agree more!
Yeah, trends always existed. And popular ones always were critisized.
My biggest problem with so-called "CalArts style" is how people react when somebody dare to say they don't like it.
For those people it's OK to mock 80s cartoons as "toy commercials". Or Hanna-Barbera and limited animation. Or early 2000s trend of fake animes. But when people make fun of "CalArts style"(because people making fun of something in the internet is so rare...) they see it as an attack on modern animation industry and use those older cartoons as strawman ("we are more progressive! We have better technology! You are blinded by nostalgia"). They demand respect for their work but often lack respect for work of others.
Not only that, some people see comments like "I wish there was more action cartoons" or "I miss more realistic drawing styles in TV animation" as an attack too.
I get that, people can be mean in the internet. Be smarter than them.

As person who never was interesting in drawing anime and used to be irritated by its popularity, I think copying it is a bit better than coping Steven Universe - in anime you have more realistic anatomy and more details and even by just coping it you learn more basic stuff.

 

[One Man Bland]

That's a good way to put it really. And for the most part, it's not even unique to our generation. There have always been people who've wanted to copy off of others to get a gateway to success. Sometimes that success means they can cheat at something they don't like. Sometimes it's just to get attention. It varies really. The only reason it seems so overblown now is because we have an easier access to this art on the internet. I guarantee you creepy fetish art on da still existed beforehand, but people were forced to hide it or be shunned. Nowadays, you have a platform into you can speak into the void and people will gladly answer back. And now, you can filter what those people say as well.

The funny thing is as much as I complain, I don't really hate the Cal-Arts/Inbreeding artstyle. I don't even hate the overexposure. That's guaranteed with the internet.

What I REALLY don't like is the ego attached to the style and what it represents. I don't like idea that people think the style is the best thing ever and I don't like the idea it's suddenly more progressive because it ignores the fundamentals of appeal. There is an in-between. You don't have to make characters super ugly like in Clarence, or super simple and bubbly like in OK-KO! A middle ground is fine. I think Gumball and SVTFOE do have some interesting concepts and designs that they use rather well. The rest...not so much. (Gravity Falls gets a bit of a pass for me because it's mostly slice of life/supernatural (lightly) until the end.)

The other thing about it is that it’s so easily replicable that it’s easy to identify the ones who use it that also aren’t brushing up on their fundamentals or practicing life drawing every once in a while. Even some of the people at the professional studio level seem to be committing this artistic sin, and the end result seems to be that they aren’t capable in drawing any other way. Hence you see the same exact style across nearly every competing animation studio, or shit like Thundercats and the Powepuff reboot where it’s clear they either struggled imitating the original style or gave up trying and turned it into the style they were comfortable with.

Sure, there were similar pitfalls when the anime imitators were big, but with how that style works the popular imitators at least had to look at a few references once in a blue moon or make up for it with better coloring and ink work. And it was never so bad that it was able to inflict the professional level the way it has now.

 

[DatBepisTho]

More Blaxwell, starring tumbr nose and SU lips.

If not for those, this would be a cute picture of a pre fuck-up magician.

 

[Tanti-Fanti]

Artstation is really good site for professionals searching for work. For young artists - not so much. People rarely comment on pictures and treat the site more like portfolio. If you are looking for community it's a problem.

Exactly! I couldn't agree more!
Yeah, trends always existed. And popular ones always were critisized.
My biggest problem with so-called "CalArts style" is how people react when somebody dare to say they don't like it.
For those people it's OK to mock 80s cartoons as "toy commercials". Or Hanna-Barbera and limited animation. Or early 2000s trend of fake animes. But when people make fun of "CalArts style"(because people making fun of something in the internet is so rare...) they see it as an attack on modern animation industry and use those older cartoons as strawman ("we are more progressive! We have better technology! You are blinded by nostalgia"). They demand respect for their work but often lack respect for work of others.
Not only that, some people see comments like "I wish there was more action cartoons" or "I miss more realistic drawing styles in TV animation" as an attack too.
I get that, people can be mean in the internet. Be smarter than them.

As person who never was interesting in drawing anime and used to be irritated by its popularity, I think copying it is a bit better than coping Steven Universe - in anime you have more realistic anatomy and more details and even by just coping it you learn more basic stuff.

Sure, there were similar pitfalls when the anime imitators were big, but with how that style works the popular imitators at least had to look at a few references once in a blue moon or make up for it with better coloring and ink work. And it was never so bad that it was able to inflict the professional level the way it has now.

Getting back on track (thanks for the cleanup)

I completely agree. I'd honestly take mid 2000's shitty animu any day over this new type of art style. You can argue that anime has some sort of base skill you can learn from. Even with shitty bases on da you could get something out of them.

Nowadays you can't even do that with this style because there is literally nothing to get from it unless you combine certain elements with other elements. That's why shows like Gumball work and shows like OH-KO don't work as well. The characters in OH-KO are literally circles and sticks. It's not even arms for them, it's just a line. The bare minimum. In shows like Gumball, people honest to god put work into making sure the elementts combined are framed well. So nothing looks too out of place and makes the overall cast look distinct.

Damn, I kind of wish the shitty animu 2000's art was back. At least it had something going for it and from what I saw at the time, people had fun with it. Here, everyone's art looks so stiff, because the constraints of what you are allowed to draw according to "SJWs" are so strict. One wrong move and you're basically blacklisted.