Throughout the chapter, McCloud details how lines can represent different emotions when drawn in different directions and styles, or when drawn together or used to form shapes. The lines become symbolic as they represent something we are familiar with, often in a much simplified form, and our minds instinctively relate these shapes
When used in combination with subjects in panel, or simply used as a background, lines can have a severe impact on the mood emanating from an artistic piece. And artists will use these reactions to line and shape to their advantage, from comic artists to those like Picasso. The way they work line can easily define their own style as they will often recreate the same sorts of lines over and over again, often saying something about their character and psyche. Let’s see some examples
‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch and ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh are two good examples. The use of expressive line was first employed by the post-impressionist and expressionist painters, these artists wanting to establish a mood with their work rather than simply replicating what they saw (As was the style for many of the part artistic movements, and which was also the reason I felt extremely bored browsing several art galleries around Europe and seeing the same thing over and over again). They aimed to make the art more subjective as McCloud points out, and wanted to the viewer to feel what they felt when creating their pieces. The bold use of flowing and warped lines in both pieces creates a sense of madness due to their unrestricted and unguided path. While Munch may have done this on purpose to express the innermost feelings of his misshapen subject, Van Gogh seems to have done this subconsciously which interestingly reflect his mental condition of the time (He did paint the piece in a mental hospital)
We even see use of line throughout the natural world and people will exploit this for creative purposes. I feel this picture (Called Gothic Lines 01taken by a Deviant Art user called Photo-Witch) demonstrates this effect well.
The long verticals and the intricacies made up from the lines are highlighted within the photo due to its portrait layout and ability to capture the entire size of the pillars. The photographer positions you to see the marvel and majesty of the buildings design through showing its structural complexity in a certain way.
My final reference is to an anime I have only started watching recently, and one I feel represents the Japanese lust for manic, psychological art sessions in their works that Andrew was talking about in Kimba the White Lion. Neon Genesis Evangelion. NGE is reguarded as one of the greatest animes of all time, partially down to the deep psychological explorations of character within it. I wish to refer to one episode in particular, episode 20, where the main character Shinji is absorbed and becomes one with the god-like machine he pilots, leading to him to conflict with his own mind and learning much about himself. When in this state, he hears voices of different character in the anime and each is represented with these different lines.
Each person in his mind is shown with a different line. They all can be seen as representing how Shinji feels toward them, for example how his father is demonstrated. It shows how Shinji is unable to feel straightly about him. Or his relationship with Asuka, it is in a decline and is not simple enough to be flat or vertical.
Also, within this mental sequence (No pun intended), numerous pieces of art are show flashing in different quality at high speed. For example, a picture of Shinji’s father would be in full colour, then sketchy, then sketchy and hastily drawn in etc. and flashed repeatedly on screen. Again, this hectic nature of line creates a mad, insane and unstable atmosphere around the sequence. The fact that Japanese director Hideaki Anno and Vincent Van Gogh have used similar techniques with line in the works and produced similar outcomes is no coincidence. We are conditioned to see this way.
By appealing to more senses, these symbols are able to make more of an impression. We see a line, find descriptive words to explain its build and thus it becomes emotively attached to these descriptions. I feel putting emotions to lines it our way of coping with the world. We constantly need to find purpose in everything, whether it’s why trees have bark to why are we here. So when we see lines arranged in a pattern that isn’t natural, we automatically assume it must be that way for a reason. And this is not a bad thing at all, it helps further us both as a species and as individuals. We are able to reflect on ourselves and see that which is not on the surface, look deeper within our minds and find out what truly makes us human. That’s the reason Xavier was trying to make us represent feelings with lines in our first class with him this year, and this is why we are looking at how linear work within Kimba the White Lion can lead to tripped out psychological sessions within lectures. And all this from just a bunch of lines? I’m starting to feel a lot like Scott McCloud, there is a hell of a lot more to comics and their lines than meets the eye.
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