Into The Spiderverse took 100% of its critically acclaimed visuals from comic books and street art and while there are obvious in-universe reasons for this it can’t be ignored that BOTH of these are traditionally seen as “lowbrow” populist art forms, here celebrated for their inherent beauty, complexity and sociopolitical importance. In this essay I will-
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Where’s the essay OP
Not a full essay but lemmie tell you. Spoilers below.
Why does Miles stop at a time-sensitive moment to paint one of Peter’s suits when he’d probably want to get going as quickly as possible? Three reasons.
One, on a character level Miles is about to go into the scariest endgame fight he’s been in the entire movie. Taking the time to make the costume his own, to take this little part of the old Spiderman’s legacy and probably get some encouraging words from Aunt May is important to pysch himself up enough to do this.
Two, suiting up for the first time is an important rite of passage in superhero comics. It represents the character deliberately taking on the role. Miles has been wearing a kid’s costume because he feels like a kid trying to take on the role of a hero. By putting on a real costume, his own costume that he designed, he is becoming his own hero.
Three, his costume is an extension of his art. He uses spray paint to alter it, and we see little drips and splatters in the costume’s design. Miles is a street artist and his spider-suit is a street artists’s creation.
Miles’s street art and his coming into his own as Spiderman are directly linked in the narrative in a way that’s too perfect to be accidental. His costume is made with spray paint. He’s bitten while painting a mural. He uses his spider-powers to put a sticker where his dad can’t find it. Jefferson doesn’t like Spiderman’s methods or Miles’s art. But in the end, he’s willing to work with both. And street art is the shared history Aaron, Jefferson and Miles all have even if they ended up on three drastically different paths.
Miles paints murals, throws stickers up on street signs, etc, both as self-expression and an expression of love for his city. It’s that same love for his home that makes him Spiderman, the city’s protector. His vigilante heroism and his illegal art are expressions of exact same thing.
And comics! This movie loves the language of comics!
It loves the humor in seeing the words float in the air around the characters! It loves stylized human figures and kirby dots and dynamic transitions! It loves the way comics tell stories (note that every time a characters is narrating their backstory in Into The Spiderverse it switches to comic format, doing highly comic-specific things like having three characters telling their stories side by side.)
Miles reads Spiderman comics in-universe and they’re what helps him understand what’s happening. How many people who worked on this movie do you think read a comic at a formative age and saw themselves in it, in some way?
Of course, if I’m going to talk about the “language” of comics or the “language” of street art I can’t ignore the fact that these two art forms have influenced each other immensely over the years, joyfully borrowing from each other at every opportunity.
Phew! Worked on client stuff tonight, some layout/design stuff for one of my art sites, and started a new painting. I am really excited about this one, guys! Then I got over-excited again and had to take a break from throwing digital paint around and color one of my lunch break ink doodles to wind down for bed.
Sometimes you just gotta draw a cute girl and not think about it too hard! Her name is Claudette and she was inspired by this adorable pic here that I saw on Lor’s tumble.
Anonymous asked:
oh god Egyptians weren't black we need to move past this, they also weren't what one would call white, don't be so afrocentric. Concerning Egyptian art and their skin color, Egyptian men used red paint to depict themselves, and used yellow paint to depict Egyptian women. They used white paint to depict Greeks and Jews. They used black paint to depict black people. Egyptians were caucasian. Not european, but caucasian (does not mean white). I mean ramesses the 2nd had red hair for god sake.
taint3edcakes answered:
LMAOOOO I’M SCREAMING. “Don’t be so afrocentric.”
I’m done.
ART: Psychedelic Paint and Poured Resin Artworks by Bruce Riley
Bruce Riley is a Chicago based artist who drips paint into paint in an endlessly layered arrangement resulting in paintings that look like underwater scenes, psychedelic visions and abstract dreamscapes.
I decided to finish the speed paint :D
The details always take forever compared to the rough speed paint. It’s like I paint 90% of the picture in 10% of the time, and then take 90% of the time adjust 10% of the picture orz
And in case you missed it in the last post, I’ll be at AX this July 2-5th in the Artist Alley at table C56-57. See you there! :D
ART: Psychedelic Paint and Poured Resin Artworks by Bruce Riley
Bruce Riley is a Chicago based artist who drips paint into paint in an endlessly layered arrangement resulting in paintings that look like underwater scenes, psychedelic visions and abstract dreamscapes.
ART: Psychedelic Paint and Poured Resin Artworks by Bruce Riley
Bruce Riley is a Chicago based artist who drips paint into paint in an endlessly layered arrangement resulting in paintings that look like underwater scenes, psychedelic visions and abstract dreamscapes.
mud-foot-deactivated20170823 asked:
anish kapoors a dude who refuses to share the worlds blackest paint. the art community got real mad (wonder why) and someone made the worlds pinkest paint which, when u bought it, u had to sign a contract saying "im not kapoor and i wont give this to him bc hes a jerkbag @ kapoor HOWS UR OWN MEDICINE TASTE HAHA". somehow he got the paint anyway.
piraterey-deactivated20170723 answered:
i love it omg this is so petty
No seriously, I’m gonna reblog this AGAIN just to say
MOTHERFUCKING POP ART, MAN
Look at this
they took STAINED GLASS, the shit you can see in churches since the motherfucking middle ages, one of the most classical art forms that exists
and made a Mcfucking HAPPY MEAL with it
FUCK
I LOVE ART
Why has it taken me my whole life until now to realize the reason that the Happy Meal box handles are shaped like that is because they are the fucking Golden arches?