#1390 by don't get me started » Dec 16, 2014 5:20 am
Fantastic work def, your excellent draftsmanship really does the job.
It was interesting that you said you work from a thumbnail and construct the panel from there, hinting at a certain selectivity.
I think this is connected and similar to a way of looking that I had to adopt once started to consider what I was seeing in Japanese urban and rural environments.
When I first went to Kyoto (and Nara and other 'sightseeing places') I was taken aback by how visually selective one would have to be when looking. There might be an ancient temple, exuding history and tradition, and abutting it would be a garish neon lit Karaoke place, or a corrugated iron roofed garage covered in peeling posters, or some other eyesore.
This kind of scene would raise howls of protest in 'historic' places in the UK, like Chester or York or Cotswold villages, but the gleeful mixing of ancient with utilitarian modern just happens in Japan. I learned to not 'see' the incongruous intrusion when looking.
I no longer 'see' the ever-present tangle of overhead powercables, telephone lines and other cords and cables that criss-cross any view in urban and sometimes not so urban Japan.
Not seeing what one does not want to see (in more than a purely visual sense) is a particular way of being in many aspects of life in Japan. If nobody mentions it it doesn't exist, right?
And regarding the timing of your visit, Golden week in Kyoto...you are a braver man than I...
Eagerly awaiting the next installment.