The Act of Creation
As theorized by
Scott McCloud in
Understanding Comics
...The creation of any work in any medium will always follow a certain path.
A path consisting of six steps.
- Idea/Purpose
- Form
- Idiom
- Structure
- Craft
- Surface
First: The
impulses, the ideas, the
emotions, the
philosphies, the purposes of the work...the work's "
content."
Second: The
form it will take...Will it be a book? A chalk drawing? A chair? A song? A sculpture? A pot holder? A
comic book?
Third: The "school" of
art, the
vocabulary of styles or gestures or subject matter, the
genre that the work belongs to... Maybe a genre of its own.
Fourth: Putting it all together...what to
include, what to
leave out... how to arrange, how to compose the work.
Fifth: Constructing the
work, applying skills, practical knowledge, invention,
problem solving, getting the "job" done.
Sixth:
Production values, finishing, the aspects most apparent on first
superficial exposure to the work.
In all the arts it's the surface that people appreciate most easily, like an apple chosen for its shiny skin...
But often if we bite into that shiny new apple--
(crunch!)
Hollow.
...And now, the biggest question of all: Does this artist want to say something about life through his art or does he want to say something about art itself?
And...
"Do I have anything to say at all?"