Twenty-odd years from now, and nobody cares to comment. -MMG
“I approach illustration from the position of an aid to communicate something,” says Daniel. “That something can be more or less abstract.” An object, an idea or an emotion.
- Daniel Dociu
Excerpts from Daniel Docui's interview from ImagineFX. Something any budding artist should take into consideration. That means at least one of the half-dozen of you reading this might want to listen up for once.- As an industrial designer, Daniel is trained to see three-dimensional objects, visual and do crap to em'. This also means working with a project and overseeing its many aspects.
And this brings us to something that Daniel feels very strongly about: diversity. As an art director, it’s crucial to see the big picture. “I strongly believe that diversity is the most important quality in a team… We are a lot more different than we are similar in our ways of thinking.” And Daniel believes this should be a source of strength.
- True style is the result of all those influences that you’ve allowed to simmer over years and years,” he says. You must gather them and “distil all those fumes into something that’s representative of who you are.” The crucial thing is that it should come naturally. Affecting style in the name of cool won’t cut it with Daniel. “I think that is very shallow. I discourage that.
"You should not look for a style of your own just to be different, it should evolve over time as the result of where your true interests are.”
Example: “I’m definitely fascinated by the human figure,” he says. “But you don’t really reinvent anything. It’s just the take or the approach or angle.”
- “I think that what we perceive as talent is simply a person who has found a way to connect point A and point Z in their brain by a very convoluted path that we don’t relate to and can’t understand.”
Real talent, according to Daniel, is “effort, work and sweat.”
He thinks the regular definition is just a convenient shorthand, and backs this up with the observation that, “Talented people don’t use that excuse as much as people who lack it who say ‘I wish I had his talent’.” (Isn't that the point of this blog?? To say that I want to learn this or that?? What do you think, Void?) - However, laziness is beginning to trouble the creative industries. “Good-calibre talent is hard to find,” says Daniel. “It’s really hard to get through the hordes of people who have no business being near a pencil."
- Video games, comic books, animation – all of these are fighting a tide of graphical convergence. “The more unique or ‘far out’ your style, the more you restrict your audience,” Daniel observes.
How many of today’s artists had developed a mature style before they opened their first comic book?
- Somewhere along the line the goal ceased to be individual and became public property. It stopped being about perfecting your own style and became about who could do this style or that style the best. “I hope we are not falling into that trap,” says Daniel, adding, “Everyone says ‘yeah, diversity is good’, but I truly believe it.” Art directors should be guardians of the only weapon we have against uniformity – difference.
You berate the viewers for not commenting on your work to help you in your venture to improve, I find it so beautiful there is nothing to express, sorry. I could suggest themes for future works but I would not be paying for it, so you might feel cheated, but thank you for making me feel good.