Sorry for the late reply, I had my army physical which kept me busy over the last two days, I made my first reply around 4 am and golly, it shows. I'll try to clarify a lot of the things I meant to say in the first post.
Dr. Phileas Fragg wrote:
I don't agree that it's "still pretty much just a straight, horizontal pose at the end of the day". I reiterate that there is much more movement implied in Josh's drawing. I also suggested you were at least partially excusing Katie from artistic fundamentals because of her style
First of, I didn't excuse Katie from any artistic fundamentals, I don't think her pose (and thus, in a wider sense, the whole composition) was too rigid and constrained, you might've missed it as I regarded the composition as a whole.
About Josh's punting pose, the pose itself does not imply motion, the drawn trail of the leg does - the pose itself, though exaggerated, is balanced, symmetric and balanced (the negative shape is what matters here, look at the legs) which is always undesirable if you want to suggest movement or action.
That's one of my griefs with it, Water's post nicely leads me to the other major issue I have with Josh's suggestion:
Water wrote:
Ungeheuer wrote:
... the arms pull down his kicking pose and it's still pretty much just a straight, horizontal pose at the end of the day
I really really should have nothing to add to this arguement, because I'm nowhere close to being a visual artist. But have you ever seen someone punt something? Not only do they bring their leg upwards to kick, but they bring their arms holding the object-to-be-punted swiftly downwards, to add to the force of the kick. It makes perfect sense that in Josh's drawing, Katie's arms are by her side. In fact, it even adds to the momentum when you really think about it.
And on that note, you should watch your run-on sentences, Unge. :awesome
His pose is exaggerated, but it doesn't add anything to the composition, it's different from Katie's, but not necessarily better. There's another difference - in Josh's drawing Katie looks like she's made of rubber, there's not a hint of angular lines inherit to Katie's style. His solution, apart form being kinda lackadaisical (God I love that word) isn't necessarily applicable to Katie's style.
As for the run-on sentences, 4 am, etc.
Doctor Cello wrote:
So geometric characters can't have lines of action, huh?
I never claimed that, I merely said curved lines of action (as seen on the Tom&Jerry guide page Josh posted, which I explicitly referred to in my initial post) aren't the be-all-end-all solution for all styles.
Doctor Cello wrote:
Note that Josh never said anything about "swooshy" lines in his lectar. A line of action does not have to be super curvy, but it needs to be able to help tell the story and/or joke. The problem with Katie's drawing is that since her pose is so rigid, it makes the kicking of the puppy rather dull-looking, and that can't be because SHE'S KICKING A FREAKIN' PUPPY D:
Yes. Does that make Josh's poses any better? Nope and that was my point, I agree with Josh in theory, I disagree with his execution as I A) don't think his composition is dramatically better B) he advertised stuff drawn in his style that would only work like this in his style as "better", something that goes against the grain for me, no matter who does it.