When questioned about his creative processes, Ware also suggested a greater flexibility in his work has been a feature of recent projects. “Trust yourself and follow your instincts”, he advised, describing this as “much better than trying to impose structure”. He encouraged the audience to listen to a “gut level reaction” when working creatively. Questions from the floor delved more deeply into how and why Ware has adopted his trademark spare, but highly detailed style. Ware credited this to the realization that, when it comes to comics, “pictures are intended to be read” and recognizing the difference between “handwriting” and “typeset” led him to try to erase the reader’s awareness of an intermediary personality communicating with them by adopting a more “typeset” style of art. This enables the reader to forget about the mediating personality in the same way that printed books are more accessible than handwritten documents because you forget about the page itself and become absorbed in the ideas. Ware called this “seeing and not seeing”, a desirable goal in his comics. When asked how building objects forms part of his aesthetic, Ware said that there seems to be a “little component missing in comics” which building may alleviate, particularly when he is “attempting to get at a model of an idea in his mind”. This “missing component”, of course, may have bearing upon why Building Stories does indeed involve the act of building on the part of the reader.
Chris Ware on honesty, texture, and the creative process. [via Bleeding Cool]
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