Sometimes a character in a comic is drawn so it's face has realistic qualities. For maybe a panel or two, the character looks half real. They look like a portrait of a real person instead of just a cartoon.

I've noticed this several times in Death Note. The artist doesn't use shading on the face very much, but just by positioning the facial features in the right spot, the character becomes realistic.

I was wondering if anyone else noticed this in different comics, and if there are other elements to the trick that I'm missing.

thats just simple rendering skills. its actually quite easy.

It's a common device in japanese manga. Characters also become super-deformed (giant heads, tiny bodies, simplified features) for comedic effect sometimes.

You mean faces that have proper human proportions instead of dinner plate eyes and thumbtack mouths?
Or...:

I hate that picture Skullbie.

Anyways, yeah, I've seen that realistic thing before. Like UsedBooks said, some manga's (and even cartoons I see) use super realism for comedic purposes (to show drama or something).

Skullbie
You mean faces that have proper human proportions instead of dinner plate eyes and thumbtack mouths?
Or...:

jesus christ thats fucking creepy

The only thing that can possibly make that picture more creepy would be if someone takes a shotgun and blows that thing's brains out.

Aw, come on... It's some silly woman in a body stocking and a mask... more like a helmet really. And sometimes they're guys. It's freaky at first until you just see it as a dumb costume like any other... instead of a full size horrible manga person COME TO LIFE TO STEAL OUR SOULS!!!!!
GET IT AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! O_o

oops... had a relapse there.

--------------
I love the way the \y mix it up with styles in Manga. I wish I was brave and skilled enough to do chibi and all the rest of that stuff in my own art. Man, you can get stuck in conventional ruts... That's why I tried that collab thing I'm doing, to force myself to work with other artist's styles. Still not as cool as the way the mix it up in mango though. -_-

ozoneocean
It's some silly woman

you get one more guess...

Skullbie

ozoneocean
It's some silly woman

you get one more guess...

some really proportioned manikin?...


FUCK IS THAT YOU? IS THAT WHAT YER SAYING BY THAT WEIRD MANGA PIC YOU POSTED UNDER IT?WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!?!

Skullbie
you get one more guess...

I think you missed this:

ozoneocean
And sometimes they're guys

;)

If these thingd didn't cost you an arm and a leg (and both kidneys, if you want want well done stuff in matching color), I'd probably try that out of curiosity.

*notices everyone is staring at him*


What? :)

I think we're digressing from the original subject.
So Metalbender, I think I know what you're talking about-- You can get a semi-realistic but slightly cartoony look by simplifying the shading, (only shade the darkest areas.) As always, using photos and anatomy books for a reference is great for practice.
Maybe I'm missing something but perhaps this thread should be in Tips and Tricks.

Metalbender92
Sometimes a character in a comic is drawn so it's face has realistic qualities. For maybe a panel or two, the character looks half real. They look like a portrait of a real person instead of just a cartoon.

I've noticed this several times in Death Note. The artist doesn't use shading on the face very much, but just by positioning the facial features in the right spot, the character becomes realistic.

I was wondering if anyone else noticed this in different comics, and if there are other elements to the trick that I'm missing.

You said it yourself. "just by positioning the facial features in the right spot, the character becomes realistic." Its not really a trick, its just good portraiture. I'm willing to bank that in the overwhelming majority of these instances, a photo reference is used, too.

Once you start getting the basic elements in the right place, your brain, from a lifetime of visual experience, will fill in the rest and interpret it as "realistic." Pretty amazing really that your brain can take even just dots and a line :) and make a face out of it. Scott McCloud wrote a brilliant chapter (at least) about it in Understanding Comics, which... if you haven't read it.. you should!

I know! I know! It's easy. Just make the eyes smaller. That's how Deathnote does it.

I will say that I wish more comics (particularly western comics) would avoid the over-rendered, super realistic, airbrushed coloring effects. Yes, it makes the comic look picturesque, but it completely ruins the line art and it looks stiff. It works for fully painting comics like Kingdom Come because the colorist also does the lineart but when comics exchange hands the colorist airbrushes these gaudy, messy shades which ruin everything.

This is why I don't like photo-comics where the "artist" takes real photos and traces over them or just uses edited pictures. The art in comics are like words in a book and a picture speaks a thousand words. The more detailed the picture, the less your mind has to wonder. This might seem counter-intuitive to the fact that comics are supposed to draw you in, but when you look at a photograph all your mind sees is a still shot but when you look at a drawn comic you see a still picture in motion.

Eh, McCloud explained this better than I can.

Metalbender92, so far as I know, the 'trick' to this technique is to place eyes, ears, and nose in their correct spatial relationships to one another. I generally do it by accident and force of habit due to a lifetime of trying to master portraiture.

My artistic problem is the exact opposite. I have to struggle to keep my stuff looking amusingly cartoony rather than disturbingly realistic.

angry_black_guy
I will say that I wish more comics (particularly western comics) would avoid the over-rendered, super realistic, airbrushed coloring effects. Yes, it makes the comic look picturesque, but it completely ruins the line art and it looks stiff. It works for fully painting comics like Kingdom Come because the colorist also does the lineart but when comics exchange hands the colorist airbrushes these gaudy, messy shades which ruin everything.

This is why I don't like photo-comics where the "artist" takes real photos and traces over them or just uses edited pictures. The art in comics are like words in a book and a picture speaks a thousand words. The more detailed the picture, the less your mind has to wonder. This might seem counter-intuitive to the fact that comics are supposed to draw you in, but when you look at a photograph all your mind sees is a still shot but when you look at a drawn comic you see a still picture in motion.

Eh, McCloud explained this better than I can.

Scott McCloud indeed has a lot of great things to say about this in Understanding Comics (brilliant).

The jist of it is that that the more abstract from reality an image becomes, the more the viewer puts themselves into it, and fills in the blanks-- the more involved they become.

Scott even suggests that you can use more realistic images within the more, eh, "cartoony" context to get certain effects. He sites manga as doing a particularly good job at this. One really good example he gave was where a sword is shown as an object in great detail in contrast to a more a less detailed, more cartoonesque figure. But, when in use, the sword drops the level of detail to that of the figure, effectively becoming one with the figure.

Another good one is the level of detail in the villains vs. that of the heroes.

I can't really do it justice, but its really mind blowingly interesting stuff. I read and re-read it often (and still can't absorb it all). Totally recommended.

You have to understand, thoguh, that Obata Takeshi (death note illustrator) is AMAZING (as is Ohba Tsugumi,the author of that story). The way Obata can merge the "manga style" with a more "realistic" approach is one of the most beautiful comic styles I've ever seen.