A Comparison: Japanese Art and Vector Art

Japanese prints originated in what is now known as Tokyo. When one analyses some of the traditional Japanese prints such as ‘fig1’ we immediately notice the flatness of the image. There is a lack of realistic shading (to a certain point) but instead a heavy level of contrast in this case the black contrasting the white in the snow and the blue contrasting the pink in the sky. Depth was created by ‘forming layers’ having the main focus being the first hillside layering over the rest. One may also take note that they have also made use of ‘negative space’ in this case the sky (the top left corner) and the snow (bottom right corner).

 

 

 Fig.1

Comparing these Japanese prints to the modern age of graphic design, in this particular case comparing them to vector art. We can clearly see flatness in the image (fig 2) just like the flatness seen in the Japanese prints. Although very different both in subject matter and style we can clearly see how these Japanese prints had a big influence on today’s digital art. Although there isn’t much need for depth there is still that separation from Jim Morrison’s head to body creating the effect of layers as seen in the print. Heavy contrast is once again the basis of this image. Ironically layers were mentioned as being one of the aesthetic features in the print (fig1), in the digital software used to create this image (adobe illustrator) uses layers as a basis to create artworks.

                                       Fig .2