EXCERPT FROM "BERLIN CITY OF STONES"

This is an excerpt from a graphic novel I have rather enjoyed.
You will be able to download it from yousendit shortly. In this excerpt, there i a discussion of perspective. The discussion not only involves a "how too" but also the larger theoretical issues surrounding perspective as a method of representation.

"the observers location is what really determines the placement of a vanishing point; a drawing from life is as much about the subject as the exact position fo the artist's head and eye in relation to it."

there are three other elements of interest here. First, though the use of frames is a rigid structural system, you can see from just these three pages how the artists uses the frames to create rhythm, and order (in terms of the narration), at times creating ambiguity/simultaneity through the groupings.

Another interesting element is the hidden figure/ground relationship that is occuring accross 3 pages. This is an excellent example of the type of process we are talking about performing in the context of your research. there is a relationship/system across these three pages, which only becomes visible by the simple act of placing the pages one next to one another - hidden relationships, that is what you are looking for.

Finally what is also interesting here is the inclusion of a real woodcarving in the narrative - the wood carving is one of historic note - by Albrecht Durer and it is essentially explaining a the scientific process used to study perspective.



this is the only moment in the whole novel that the artist steps out of his established "graphic style." - thereby setting up a system of similarity and difference. In a way it is an outcast - but also by its nature of being an outcast,
its given greater relevance/hierarchy.