Comics Chapters 7+8

In Chapter 7 of Understanding Comics, McCloud references the very broad definition of art and outlines the "six steps" in which artists follow in order to create. The steps include: idea/purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft, and surface. McCloud further explains how art serves various purposes depending on the intentions of the artist as well as the environment in which it is created. Depending on what they emphasize, artists may fall under different categories. For example, artists who choose to foucs more on idea and purpose can be said to be more of "pioneers and revolutionaries" of art, who often go against the grain. Those who would rather pay attention to idiom and structure are considered to be "storytellers" who attempt to convey a message through their specific medium. Similar to Duchamp and Cage, McCloud also believes that the definition for art is a very broad one and in his own words reduces it down to, "any human activity which doesn't grow out of either of our species' two basic instincts: survival and reproduction." By using this definition, comics are justified as a true art form despite the many critics who choose not to recognize them as such. In Chapter 8, McCloud explains the importance of color, especially in regards to its development within the comic world. He describes how many artists including Kandinsky and Seurat use color to evoke specific emotions from a piece because it is often the first thing that many observers respond to. Sometimes comics and color do not always work well together. Even whenever I find myself drawing I have found that I rarely use color. For some reason and maybe in many ways like McCloud, I feel that color has been used to represent other sources, such as video games and computer programs, and so it takes away from the other aesthetic aspects of a painting or drawing. Color is used more often than not for entertainment purposes, however, it retains the ability to draw readers into the panels of each comic strip and understand what feelings are being represented.