Cubism

Before studying art history I never would have expected former artistic
stages or methods to have influenced the artwork that I indulge in
today. "Comic book art is so modern, so highly detailed in its anatomy,
and so dynamic! Nothing like it has been done before!" so claimed my
youthful self. Rather than pointing out the obvious greek and roman
statues with idealistic figures that today's art strives to emulate, I'd
like to look at cubism. Yes, the wacky and abstract style of cubism.
This had an immense influence on how our beloved muscle-bounce cartoons
heroes are designed. What cubism introduced to artists is the method of
pulling a subject apart and seeing each piece as a geometric unit. As an
artist I can tell you that after all the designing and composition is
decided on for an illustration, the next most important part of creating
a drawing worth remembering is to see anatomy first as geometric pieces
and then "humanize" them or add detail to portray muscles, bones, etc.

Cubism is one of the least understood art styles I have
come across when talking with non-artistic friends. Many claim it's
visually busy and unorganized, to say the least. They don't see much
beauty or purpose in it. While I have formerly attempted to explain that
it's a "new way of seeing things", I can now suggest its gift of
enjoying each individual shape, curve and section as a separate identity
rather than having it all blend together into one subject.



Painting by Popova http://tars.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/cubism.html

Drawing by http://luthien13.deviantart.com/