How bad is this, really?
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@kathrynadebayo I like all 3 of those better than the one the author wants.
I guess it’s one of those circumstances where someone who isn’t an art director is art directing things into a corner. I personally don’t like limbs in the gutter even if you can get them to lay flat. It’s awkward when you turn the page. My kids have seen a few books like that and it becomes a joke… “look I’m breaking their arm!!! Gahhhh!” -
@demotlj said in How bad is this, really?:
I remember a photography teacher telling us never to crop people at joints
Did the instructor tell you why?
I recognize that this is essentially the same question I asked @KathrynAdebayo , but I think asking it is really important.
You get advice/rules like this quite often from instructors who, I'm sure, offer it with the best intent. They want to help you make "better" work.
But the definition of "better" is so subjective!
Throughout the history of art there have been so many "rules" that have been successfully broken that I'm not sure there are rules anymore!Rather I think there are "guides" that usually -- but not always --work.
More important is the artist's "intent". What does the artist want to say, or have the viewer feel as they look at the image. And whether or not the choices the artist makes reinforces or distracts from their intent.
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@davidhohn I love that you're pointing this out.
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@davidhohn He said that cropping a picture at the joints would make people think of amputees which would cause a visceral negative reaction. I don’t know if he’s right or not because once he said that, it stuck in my mind and now I definitely can’t see that kind of cropping without thinking of amputees. Whether it’s the fault of the cropping or the fault of the professor for planting the idea in my head, I don’t know.
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@pamela-fraley Haha, oh my! I suppose that could be a really interesting intentional element to a book (maybe origami or something, not breaking arms!!). I'm trying to take in what I'm learning from @davidhohn and not be dogmatic by saying that arms in gutters will never be an option for me after reading that.
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@pamela-fraley said in How bad is this, really?:
[...] It’s awkward when you turn the page. My kids have seen a few books like that and it becomes a joke… “look I’m breaking their arm!!! Gahhhh!”
I was just thinking that this would be an effect of putting a joint on the gutter like that.
And for the right book project it's perfect!
Of course for the wrong book project it becomes a grotesque distraction.I love identifying these effects in picture books, because I can store them away in my idea bank to pull out to achieve the effect I want. (Now I'm seriously looking for an opportunity to "animate" my illustration by carefully placing something important right on the gutter!)
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@davidhohn This has me thinking too .... flapping wings, folding paper, giant mouth opening and closing, dangerous objects breaking before they can inflict damage, fingers closing onto something in the palm of a hand... it's giving me There's A Monster At The End Of This Book vibes where the character speaks to the reader about the effect that the turning page is having on the story.
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@davidhohn, I've heard similar advice from photography instructors. I think it's because it looks awkward when you put a break at certain points in the body (and more pleasing at other points). It can also draw attention to the edge of the photo / frame instead of the subject.
So, I suppose if you were trying to create an image with dissidence, you could purposefully crop the image that way. But this would be a rare case, and an example of "you have to know the rules before you break them". Photo instructors are mainly teaching how to create beautiful images & pleasing portraits.
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@priyachaudhary That's very helpful! Thank you.
