Art about Art

21 March

I saw a really annoying post one day on Tumblr that said that art is meaningfull and lifechanging, but art about how art is meaningfull and life changing were lame, and that angered me to no end. I mean, how many art have you seen about creating art made you think that? Movies, Mangas, TV Shows, Comics about the wonders and hardships of creation are always so incredible and stunning and change your life, and I'm not biased because i draw for a living, everyone creates art! So im going to list a few of my personal favorite artwork about creating art that I love.

"Why do you draw Fujino?"

The first one is my most recent one, it's Look Back By Tatsuki Fujimoto, creator of Chainsaw Man and Goodbye Eri which i also recommend you check out!

Look Back is a manga turned into a 57 minute movie that follows the journey of two friends and their dedication with drawing manga. It's such a beautiful story, i read the manga befoe watching the movie and I loved both. There's a real exploration of both the joy and frustration that comes with creating art. It is semi autobiographle, both the main characters names combined (Fujino and Kyomoto) make the author's name (Fujimoto), and references the manga work he himself has done (Shark Kick is Chainsaw man). I think Fujimoto did a wonderful work comveying his emotions with creating manga as well as his motivations to continue on drawing. The manga is gorgeus, and the movie elevates the art with the musical soundtrack and wonderful voice acting. Watching this movie reminded me of how far I've come creating art, i've been drawing since I was 9 and im turning 20 this June.

"Art is quite fun. It's a language without words."

I started Blue Period in high school before the anime was annouced and loved it soo much. It tells the story of a high school student suddenly getting into painting and then dedicating his future to get into art college. Of course I heavily related to this manga as I was also peparing to get into art college, which I succeded at! BP is really good at showing the different ways people view art, from the people who make it their job, their hobby, or even the people who just observe art. Scattered along the way are plenty references to famous artwork which I find a very fun. A must read for everyone, I cannot reccomend it enough especially if you are an artist yourself. It's still on going as of today but I havent caught up with newer chapters in a while.. I should pick it back up again. Another great strengh of the manga is how fun the cast is, every character is so beautifully written with depth and emotion.

"There's a lot more to comics than meets the eye!"

This book isn't fiction like the others but its still a lovely book about comics and Scott McCloud deeply understands what makes comics comics, and he'll teach it to you too! I would call this even the bible of comics, it truly engages with comics as a medium, as well as the other books in the triology Making Comics and Reinventing Comics. If you like comics, you have to read this book and you'll love comics!

I'm sure there are many other art like these that show how beautiful and life changing art is and what it means to people, this is only a dip into the ocean. Or another more fitting metaphor. I hope you, reader, find your own favorite art to read and love.