"Director vs Camera" is one of the ways I divide artists into types, In this post I talk about how a game made me think of this, by it's compelling story.
Triclour Lovestory is a Visual Novel I reviewed a while back, yesterday I was talking to few friends on facebook and used a scene from the game to give my point across.
Types of Artists
One way I use to type artists is dividing them on two types:
- The Director: Those who can create new things, imaginative, but not necessary able to draw them.
- The Camera: Those who can draw anything they see, but not necessary from memory or emotion.
Any great artist should be able to be both at the same time, having a good hand skills to draw what they see, and at the same time have a vivid imagination to turn their emotions to scenes.
I come up with the naming "Director" myself as the opposite type.
Violet: The Camera Artist
Violet one of the heroines, is a great artist... But until the near end of the Visual Novel she could only draw what she sees in front of her, she doesn't have imagination to come with something new.
Ashley, the protagonist is the opposite, he comes with great designs and scenes in his mind, but doesn't have the artisic skills to draw them.
In the main story, Violet shows interest in Ashley drawings even before seeing them, she tells him they met before, but he's sure that she had mistook him for someone else.
An "Empty" Win
Long ago... Ashley went to Art exhibition and when looking at some contest winner, he ignored the drawing and went to see the others. He saw girl who seemed to be bullied, and ran away with her from the bullies.
-- "Those were my father's collegues."
--- "Then why did you run with me?!"
-- "Because I wanted to ask you a question."She asked him why, unlike other people who saw the winner's picture, he ignored it.
"It's empty..."
he said.
--- "I don't understand the meaning behind it... It's just a street. Just a drawing. Look at the topic of the contest: hometown. Have you seen the other winners?"-- "All are sceneries. There's a country side. Mountain. Another city like this one... Oh, and one about planet earth."
--- "What I meant, they all have ideas, I haven't looked at all of them but I know some of them say 'I miss home.' But the first place, is empty... The one who drew it feels like a camera. It's perfect though, the judges only care about drawing ability... No wonder it won the contest."
"What about you?"
The girl asked almost immediately.
"What would you draw?"
A Vivid Imagination
Ashley was surprised by her question, he told her he's not an artist, but she insisted... She wanted to know what he (someone who didn't care about the winner) wanted to draw if he took part in the contest.
"If it were me, I'll do street view...
Rather than focusing on buildings,it's easier to draw people.
Is the artist hometown nearby?
Then it would have children going to school there, right?
Men commuting to work.If it's in the morning, there could be an old woman waling on her crutch while listening to the radio, and old man rushing to the park, and a mother riding on a bike to send her child to the kindergarten. Private cars could be driving in the corner." Ashely was so excited he couldn't stop
"If we want to use the full extent of the contest topic,
why not make a man in the center of view?
He drags his baggage behind him, he just came home from traveling...
He's tired, he may want to take a rest at the restaurant.
But he's hesitating. as he wants to get home as quickly as possible...
But... I can't draw that... I never felt homesick before."--- Tricolour LoveStory
Conclusion
I'm amazed by how much Ashley imagined from just the prompt "Hometown." I mean I sometimes do the same (just look at my fiftywords entires) but not in this depth, and I don't think I'm currently able to capture these in "one mental image" like him.
With great, amazing imagination!!
Well, that scene is their first meeting, a normal day for him... A treasured memory for her.
Violet... I should have brought her happy face picture, huh?
