Unurthed

Nine panels from Scott McCloud’s comic book on comic books, Understanding Comics.

On the universality of a cartoon face (p31):

And thus our universal identification (p36):

A diagram of the pictorial vocabulary of comics, from reality & resemblance to language, meaning, & iconicity, and their representation on the picture plane, as ink on paper (p51):

Click image for larger version.

On our emotional response to line (p119):

Two paintings analyzed by Henry Rankin Poore in his 1967 Pictorial Composition.

“The vertical line is much more important than any other. In nature, it is the direction of gravity. It distinguishes upright man from the lower animals. It also can stand alone, while all other lines demand supports. Of two lines of equal force the vertical is the one first seen. In composition, therefore, it takes precedence.

“Start with a subject represented by a vertical line — a tree or figure. The directness, rigidity, isolation and unqualified force of such a line demands balance. If you visualize a frame or put sides on the picture, you will see why a horizontal line bisecting the vertical becomes necessary. Length and breadth must be represented, something in two dimensions started, and so the four sides of a frame are essential” (p59-60).

‘Approach to Venice’ by Joseph Mallord William Turner.

“When Giotto was asked for his conception of a perfect building, he produced a circle. When Michelangelo was asked, he designated a cross. Both are excellent bases for good architecture and good pictures. If the extremities of the Greek cross are connected by arcs, a circle will result. If the Latin cross is bounded in the same way, a kite shape, or ellipse, emerges. The two designs are in a sense similar. From the pictorial standpoint, they provide the framework by which the same space can be filled” (p58).

“The simple vertical line is monotonous. Its bi-section produces balance — and a cross is the result” (p58).

‘Pier and Ocean’ by Piet Mondrian.

Three examples of notan from Dorr Bothwell‘s Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design.

First, perceive the black shapes above as weights. Allow your attention to shift from one weight to another.

“Now consider the black shapes no longer as weights or things, but as HOLES — or NO-THINGS. You might imagine, for instance, that you are looking at a piece of solid white wood full of empty black holes. This visual exchange — the perception of a shift from things to no-things, from no-things to things — is characteristic of Notan” (p21).

Finally, perceive the composition as “a representation no longer of HOLES but of BLACK ROCKS in WHITE WATER. If and when this representation is realized, both the negative and positive spaces will no longer alternate in their existence, but will interact in an interchangeable balance. The rocks and water will become equally important, equally real. This is the creation of Notan” (p21-22).

Clay dish. Pueblo Indian work, Acoma, New Mexico.

“Working within the confines of the shape of the plate, [the Pueblo Indian craftsman] succeeded in designing a bird that would become an inseparable part of the whole or a design in which the spaces around the bird would assume a form with an exchange of positive and negative… And when this is discovered, the negative space will no longer be ’empty’, but, instead, there will be Notan” (p8).

“A variation of the Yang-Yin symbolizing the horizon with the sun rising and setting” (p7).

Two prints by William Blake from his c. 1790 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, reproduced in The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 3.

On the operation of Fire (plate 14, p166):

The ancient tradition that the world will be con
sumed in fire at the end of six thousand years
is true, as I have heard from Hell,

For the cherub with his flaming sword is
hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of
life, and when he does, the whole creation will
be consumed, and appear infinite. and holy
whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.

This will come to pass by an improvement of
sensual enjoyment.

But first the notion that man has a body
distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this
I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by
corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and me-
-dicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and
displaying the infinite which was hid,

If the doors of perception were cleansed
every thing would appear to man as it is, in-
-finite—

For man has closed himself up, till he sees
all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.

More on the ‘doors of perception’ (plate 15, p168):

A Memorable Fancy

I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the
method in which knowledge is transmitted from gene-
-ration to generation.

In the first chamber was a Dragon-Man, clear-
ing away the rubbish from a caves mouth; within, a
number of Dragons were hollowing the cave,

In the second chamber was a Viper folding round
the rock & the cave, and others adorning it with gold
silver and precious stones.

In the third chamber was an Eagle with wings
and feathers of air, he caused the inside of the cave
to be infinite, around were numbers of Eagle like
men, who built palaces in the immense cliffs.

In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire
raging around & melting the metals into living fluids.

In the fifth chamber were Unnam’d forms, which
cast the metals into the expanse,

There they were reciev’d by Men who occupied
the sixth chamber, and took the forms of books &
were arranged in libraries.

Three illustrations by Molly Bang from Picture This (1991).

“Pictures are two-dimensional, whereas we live in three-dimensional space, with many more dimensions added by our passions and intelligence. When we translate or reform our multifaceted experiences into this flat, rectangular format, we play with space” (p114).

“[This] picture contains a space all its own. We exist outside the picture” (p114):

“until our eyes fix on and ‘capture’ an object inside it like prey — but the prey in turn draws us to itself inside the picture space” (p116):

“The edges and corners of the picture are the edges and corners of the picture-world” (p88).

“I find that when I cover up the red shape in [the above] picture, the space becomes much flatter. It’s only when I see the red box break out of the frame that I’m aware that the other two objects can escape it, too” (p88).

Portions of two engravings from the first illustrated edition of Milton‘s Paradise Lost, 1688: the first by P. P. Bouche; the second by Michael Burghers.

Satan (the whispering toad) tempts Eve in a dream to pluck from the tree of knowledge and so taste (b5, l67-73):

— O fruit divine,
Sweet of thy self, but much more sweet thus cropped,
Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit
For Gods, yet able to make gods of men:
And why not gods of men, since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows,
The author not impaired, but honoured more?

Whereupon Adam consoles Eve (bv, l100-113):

— But know that in the soul
Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief; among these fancy next
Her office holds; of all external things,
Which the five watchful senses represent,
She forms imaginations, airy shapes,
Which reason joining or disjoining, frames
All what we affirm or what deny, and call
Our knowledge or opinion; then retires
Into her private cell when nature rests.
Oft in her absence mimic fancy wakes
To imitate her; but misjoining shapes,
Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams,
Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.

A pen and ink drawing by Edward Gorey from The Iron Tonic, 1969.

Click image for larger version.

“A fugitive and lurid gleam | Obliquely gilds the gliding stream” (p11).

Four woodcuts from German Expressionist Woodcuts, 1994, edited by Shane Weller.

“Expressionism was in part a reaction against Impressionism‘s emphasis on atmospherics and surface appearances, and against academic painting’s rigid technique, stressing instead the emotional state of the artist and subject… creating an experience rich in drama that conveyed the inner reality of the subject matter” (pvii).

Ernst Barlach. To Joy, 1927 (p1).

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Three Paths, 1917 (p47).

Christian Rohlfs. Large Head, 1922 (p100).

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Prophetess, 1919 (p115).

Two Rothkos from Jacob Baal-Teshuva’s Rothko (2003 Taschen edition). “The aim of his life’s work was to express the essence of the universal human drama” (p17). Said Rothko, “‘Any picture which does not provide the environment in which the breath of life can be drawn does not interest me'” (p45).

Violet Stripe, 1956.

“‘Silence is so accurate,’ he said, adding that words would only ‘paralyze’ the viewer’s mind. In one conversation he said, ‘Maybe you have noticed two characteristics exist in my paintings; either the surfaces are expansive and push outward in all directions, or the surfaces contract and rush inward in all directions. Between these two poles you can find everything I want to say'” (p50).

Untitled, 1969.

“On another occasion, he announced that, ‘A painting is not about experience. It is an experience'” (p57).

Three cutouts by Kyoko Yanagisawa from Issa-Haiku: A Collection of 17-syllable Poem with Cutout-picture (Fujin-sha, 1996), with depicted haiku of Kobayashi Issa, as translated by Takahiko Sakai.

“I sincerely hope young mothers will inscribe Issa’s haiku on their children’s memory using these playing cards as an intermediary. I believe the haiku in the cards will, without fail, give them heart and soul at the turning points in their life” (p111-2).

“In the grounds of the priestless temple,
The cherry blossoms come out,
With their strength putting forth to the full” (p34).

“Now is the best season to eat buckwheat noodles
On your way to and from Zenkoji Temple in the province of Shinano,
Noted for the moon mirrored in each section of the paddy fields” (p48).

“Wild geese,
Don’t cry;
Life is the same wherever you may go” (p54).

Or, as Lewis Mackenzie translates in The Autumn Wind:

“Wild Geese, hush your cry!
Wherever you go it is the same —
The Floating World!” (p76).

A few more Issa’s, translated by Lucien Stryk in The Dumpling Field:

“Moist spring moon –
raise a finger
and it drips” (p11).

“Sundown —
Under cherry blooms
Men scurry home (p13).”

“Old pillar,
sized by
a spanworm” (p14).

“Dawn — fog
of Mt. Asama spreads
on my table” (p61).

“My thinning hair,
eulalia grass,
rustling together” (p67).

“Bright moon,
welcome to my hut —
such as it is” (p72).