Chapter Nine- Pulling it all together

In this chapter McCloud tries to summarize all the main points throughout the comic. After reading this comic book it has made me really understand the effort and construction of certain forms of media; whether it be an animation, a comic book or a painting. I both agree and disagree with McCloud in some areas. You see he explains that art is cleverly constructed and I agree with that with media forms such as comics and animations, however I don’t always think this is the case of art. I think with art sometimes the pen draws the image, so to speak, not the hand so the ink just comes onto the page as it should becoming art work without a deep analysis and break down of how to construct this piece of art. I recently heard of a ten year old girl, Alexandra Nechita, who is now a world famous artist selling paintings for up to $80,000 each. I’m sure when she was that age she wasn’t planning her images, rather, she was just letting her imagination run wild.

Alexandra Nechita’s early work

The lecture we had explored “What is Virtual Reality?” I think that a virtual reality could also extend further than just the computer games we were playing with in class. It could also extend out to comics, animation and art in general. It is a virtual reality as it is a world unlike our own. In this world your limits are your imagination. Even though we can’t fly in real life, in a virtual world flying is as easy as a stroke of a pen or a click of a button. Art is so interesting because we can paint a picture of the impossible.  

This experiment of interactivity in the lecture also relates to what McCloud was saying in the last chapter. He states “all media of communications are a by-product of our sad inability to communicate directly from mind to mind”. Our lecture was putting this theory to the test. As we had our guinea pig down the front trying to navigate their way through games or complex websites we were shouting at them using a range of exaggerated hand motions trying to tell the poor person down the front just how to navigate these mediums. The person down the front couldn’t telepathically read our minds and realize what we meant instead we were trying to communicate in the best way possible what we were thinking. If you have ever had that frustration of trying to describe to someone what that person looks like, or what you wore that weekend or even directions to somewhere you would realize just how frustrating it is to communicate. We use a lot of hand actions and even draw pictures trying to paint the most accurate image in the other person’s mind. We as human beings respond.  

Just like McCloud said that pictures were a way of the past as words had replaced them, pictures are now replacing words in the form of moving pictures such as tv, movies and cartoons. It is a never ending cycle of replacement.

Even though McCloud is discussing comics most of the points he summarises apply to all forms of art, including multimedia design. Multimedia design involves lots of different aspects from all of the original forms of art. It involves design, animation, interaction and much more. Multimedia design is mainly about communicating an idea or advertising a company. Now that I have studied comics and art in more depth than I thought was possible I understand the construction process. I appreciate how some works of art can just happen, but in multimedia design there is a lot more planning for a masterpiece. You have to work based on what materials you have and you brief your client wants for you to follow. Now with the knowledge behind me I have a better understanding of how the human brain works and understands not only comics but art itself.