this aesthetic

[Anonymous No.4002915]

Can anyone tell me where this Deviantart-y drawing style originated? I mean this kind of 'geek' / 'fan art' aesthetic, using these types of shapes and linework. Popular with furries and other fan-cults and fetishes.

[Anonymous No.4002918]

Here's another example. The shapes seem kind of soft-edged but with occasional hard or choppy edges too. And things usually look cute-ified. Maybe large, dewey eyes.

I think it hybridized from a lot of stuff, personally, but am wondering if there were particular fantasy illustrators or a certain game or comic that really brought the current geek art style into being.

[Anonymous No.4002929]

I feel like some aspects of this came out of Image comics and similar comic aesthetics around the 90s. And that comics then really started to look this way after that. With those button noses, etc.

But I remember suburban friends of mine, gamer-y types, just starting to draw cartoon figures in this way in the early 00s.

I think fantasy illustration also influenced it, particularly in Magic the Gathering / Wizards of the Coast and all the games that followed. Plus a lot of Blizzard / Warcraft stuff. If you look at fantasy art before that, it was that 80s Dungeons and Dragons heavy metal look. With Magic the Gathering and Warcraft things started to look a little more cartoony and cute but also with an edgy streak.

I guess elements of anime had an influence too. Just cuteness and large eyes, etc.

But I think all this is also just in the lineage of kitsch art, like those cutesy paintings and ceramic figures that grandmas have been buying since the 80s or even 70s. Pukey, cutesy looking shit, with lots of pink and purple. Almost all this illustration and fan art I'm referring to presently tends to have a purplish or pinkish tint.

But kitsch-wise, not just grandma art, but also all that large eyes 'lowbrow' shit, like in Hi Fructose magazine. Shitty goth and fan art shit with big eyed dolls and stuff. I see a bit of that influence in all this geek art.

[Anonymous No.4002931]

The main thing I don't get about this aesthetic is that I thought that fantasy geeks were into other worlds, and also macho grimdark shit, but almost all the fantasy art they themselves have made since the 00s is super cutesy and soft looking and too cartoony to be convincingly escapist as worldbuilding or depicting. It's practically indistinguishable from furry style art. Like there is a pervasive cutesy influence across nearly all the subcultures and fandoms on Deviantart.

[Anonymous No.4002933]

>>4002915
Watch Disney.

[Anonymous No.4002938]

>>4002933
Oh, duh, yeah meant to mention Disney and the direction their style went maybe around the late 90s. I guess they're an ever-constant influence on cartoon fandom / style, and the common denominator between cartoon fans, furries, etc.

[Anonymous No.4002941]

I have to say, I really like Disney and its different aesthetics up until around its supposed 'renaissance' in the 90s and it veered super hard into schlock territory. Was always mega-populist but it got so cheesy and gross suddenly.

[Anonymous No.4002947]

>>4002941
I still like what Cory Loftis does. Especially for Wildstar.

[Anonymous No.4002962]

>>4002947
I didn't mean to trash this stuff when I started this thread. I might use words like kitsch or cutesy but that's more just a matter of fact taxonomical description, but not really a value judgment. I'll admit a lot of stuff on Deviantart isn't exactly my thing, but I don't think there's anything wrong with all these people liking it. But I find a lot of popular and fan-cultural / layperson aesthetics really interesting, although I'm still getting my head around the style this thread is concerning, where I stand on it.

It's really kind of a case-by-case basis. Something can be Deviantart-y as fuck but there's something strange or compelling that doesn't go too much into the red with the schlock, or maybe does but in a cool way.

I still haven't worked out a totally articulated theory on why I will find some schlock / kitsch compelling and some not, but I think it's more instinctual and maybe not reducible to the same rules every time. And it's a moving target. I think I can just sense when a form is becoming compelling for some reason.

[Anonymous No.4002966]

Derivative of Disney, IMO.

[Anonymous No.4002970]

Look up Matt Rhodes if you like this style.

[Anonymous No.4002972]

>>4002966
I feel like there's a LOT of Disney in its DNA, although I wonder if Disney was also drawing from other concurrent developments when they started to look this way. Like in fantasy and game and comic aesthetics.

It's probably too widespread an influence to be traced to one thing or artist, but Disney are probably one of the most prominent influences.

[Anonymous No.4002973]

>>4002970
Yeah, that's definitely it, thanks.

[Anonymous No.4002974]

>>4002966
I'd distinguish it from the Pixar end of things, though, which is more its own look. Maybe a few common features though.

[Anonymous No.4002976]

>>4002929
There's also a few features I'd compare to Norman Rockwell. Not so much the form but the corny, cutesy, sentimental tone. And the splashes of purple and pink make me think of cutesy household stuff like Thomas Kinkade.

I really do think there's just a much larger logic of layperson artwork and kitsch. I also think of street portraits, there are aspects to those that these newer Deviantartworks recall.

I remember George Lucas was planning to make a large art museum for a while... I think maybe in Chicago or St. Louis?... for what he calls 'narrative art'... meaning basically this stuff... an umbrella term for stuff ranging from Norman Rockwell to concept art for Star Wars to 'epic' adventure / scifi / fantasy illustration. All of which is completely anathema in the fine art world, held in total contempt alongside Kinkade and Robert Wyland. I think it all stretches across this area of fan art, geek art, fetish art... and that basically everyone in these subcultures... Deviantart, this board, game and adventure illustration, in turn strongly dislike the fine arts world.

[Anonymous No.4002977]

>>4002972
It can largely be traced to Milt Kahl's work on 60s Disney features like 101 Dalmations and Sword and the Stone. Look at how they drew characters before and after that and after. They still more or less use that style today.

[Anonymous No.4002978]

red nose

[Anonymous No.4002979]

>>4002977
Whoa, good point. This is the more specific, scholarly answer I was hoping for. I was kind of subconsciously making that Sword and the Stone connection, the way the chins looked etc.

When I was saying a lot of this newer style has a certain form and linework, I mean specifically a lot in the way the chins and hands and eyes look. You're right, something definitely started there.

[Anonymous No.4002982]

>>4002979
Or Robin Hood especially. Pic related.

And I was making that pervasive furry connection with this aesthetic. Come to think of it, furry obsession seems to particularly start with this era of Disney, for some, and the style of depiction for a lot of personalized characters bear that influence.

[Anonymous No.4002983]

>>4002982
for some *reason

[Anonymous No.4002988]

>>4002982
So furries are a bunch of degenerates who refuse to grow up, is what you're saying

[Anonymous No.4002995]

>>4002988
Don't try to put words in my mouth. I don't like the word degenerate, it's moronic.

I'm wondering about different styles, without much value judgment. I think a pervasive style in fan art arguably probably originates in this 60s Disney period. Kind of a balance between certain expressive, exaggerated aspects and a more detailed, organic approach. Plus maybe a successful integration of anthropomorphism into whatever character that probably had an impact on a lot of viewers. People often refer for instance to how effectively pretty Maid Marianne is in the Robin Hood movie.

[Anonymous No.4003001]

>>4002915
>where

it's literally the western drawing style, seek the answers in yourself

[Anonymous No.4003003]

>>4003001
It is now, definitely. It just looks more this way than it used to. Compared, for instance, to how cartoons or homemade drawings might have looked in the 70s or 80s. I can see how some 60s Disney was an early precursor but most western animation and cartooning didn't have this Deviantart look until maybe some time in the 00s.

[Anonymous No.4003009]

>>4003003
Like maybe not it's more of a Western-anime hybrid. Not extremely anime but the cuteness seems a little more heightened now. And I realize that anime way back was originally influenced by Disney / Western animation so I guess again so much is based in Disney.

[Anonymous No.4003026]

>>4003009
Looking back over past Disney animation features, I can see aspects of this new style already a bit in the 90s, but arrived at its current look more around the early 00s: Treasure Planet, Emperor's New Groove, etc.

And then in 2010 stuff like Tangled and Rapunzle is somewhere between the Pixar look and this look.

[Anonymous No.4003317]

>>4002915
>>4003009
It's a mix of Disney and weeb eurocomics. I was trying to figure out the special sauce to old Tumblr style and that's mostly what it is. Throw in some animation school washouts and a game of chinese telephone where one bad artist copies other bad artists and you get this sickening melange of tropes.

There's something else in there I haven't been able to identify, like a webcomic influence but I can't figure out what it is or where it came from. I've always assumed it was just secondhand weeb from the French.

[Anonymous No.4003338]

>>4002915
>>4002918
Both of these scream Disney. Are you blind?

[Anonymous No.4003349]

>>4002915
Imagine being skilled enough to make discernable art but stupid enough to fall for the tumblr nose meme. Got damn, this is legitimately worse than just drawing anime characters.

[Anonymous No.4003350]

>>4003349
post your work.
let me guess. you won't.

[Anonymous No.4003352]

>>4002915
>Where did this DeviantArty style originate from???!
>Doesn't consider DeviantArt as a possible origin

[Anonymous No.4003353]

>>4003350
from July 4th >>3999993
I suck (for now) but I'm not a delusional pussy either.

[Anonymous No.4003362]

>>4003349
Being able to create "discernable art" is mostly just a matter of practice and drawing a lot.
Leftists feel very comfortable in western society, so they have no problem with this.

[Anonymous No.4003366]

>>4003353
Soul. But try doing longer strokes anon.

[Anonymous No.4003382]

>>4003366
>grinding a literal anime screenshot
>soul

[Anonymous No.4003383]

>>4003382
Stay mad

[Anonymous No.4003827]

>>4003349
>tumblr nose
Yeah, that's a good word for that. I hate that way of drawing noses. Hard to place exactly what sense it gives off but it it seems to be associated with all the worst visual cultures right now.

[Anonymous No.4003831]

>>4003317
Good post.

>Throw in some animation school washouts and a game of chinese telephone where one bad artist copies other bad artists and you get this sickening melange of tropes.

Yeah that's a good way to describe this. It's not exactly something you can necessarily trace to specific artists as if this is some discerning, strategic style but rather just one a bunch of laypeople copying off each other and it resulting in this. Hence a lot of features and aesthetic choices in it that you can relate to past kitsch homemade paintings as well.

[Anonymous No.4003836]

>>4003352
Deviantart definitely has corralled and consolidated the look a lot, but as other anons have mentioned, you see it a lot among weeb and queer amateur comic artists on Tumblr too.

[Anonymous No.4003852]

>>4003317
>There's something else in there I haven't been able to identify, like a webcomic influence

Yeah, exactly. Like all the different influences I tried to trace earlier in the thread... I feel there is another recognizable element in it that I can't put my finger on, but maybe it's the webcomic thing. You definitely see it in that culture. Although where did that style originate? Because it's different in approach from the world of underground 'comix', all that weird random stuff hipster stuff that influenced a lot of Adult Swim cartoons. One might maybe mention the recently-described 'CalArts' style of cartooning like Steven Universe, but that has like one foot in the Adult Swim / underground comix look and its other foot in this weeb-y Deviantart Tumblr queer webcomics look, and is too recent to be an influence but is rather another product / mutation arriving after this other stuff.

[Anonymous No.4003884]

>>4002915
What's with these kinds of cartoonists / drawers and always giving a male character a soulpatch?

[Anonymous No.4003929]

>>4003353
You have the balls to show your art. At least something. But with that (lack of) skill I suggest you to stop bashing better artists than you.

[Anonymous No.4004449]

>no one's mentioned Balto
The style is slightly overdetailed Balto

[Anonymous No.4005382]

>>4004449
Are you suggesting it's an outdated dreamworks ripoff aesthetic? You might be right.

[Anonymous No.4005396]

we have no idea

...

?!

[Anonymous No.4005575]

>>4005396
Lol that image is so clueless.

[Anonymous No.4006717]

>>4005382
Y-yeah? Probably?
Was this post an insult? This feels like it was meant like an insult

[Anonymous No.4006733]

>>4002915
It's literally a mashup of Disney and anime

[Anonymous No.4006737]

>>4005396
>abstract expressionism chaotic good
I know who made this meme

[Anonymous No.4006759]

>>4002915
>geek
Faux geek is more accurate.
Big Bang Theory aesthetic.
Tumblrborn.

[Anonymous No.4006767]

>>4005396
>abstract expressionism
>not evil
Fake and gay

[Anonymous No.4006942]

>>4002915
It's the direct result of starting off learning anime (colorful big eyes, sharp stylistic hair, angular features like nose/chin) and then trying to un-learn anime by changing those individual features to fit your newfound "style". I know this because I've seen it come out of my own art when I was a beginner trying to add realistic features to my anime drawings. It doesn't work, it never will and there is a slight arrogance in frankenstein-ing a bunch of a bullshit together without any consideration of aesthetics. It's the visual equivalent of hipster fusion-food.

[Anonymous No.4006947]

>>4005396
switch chaotic good with lawful evil and you have yourself a real picture