I owe Alison Bechdel big time. The cartoonist responsible for the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For and the graphic novels Fun Home and Are You My Mother? may be best known for The Bechdel Test, which she formulated to determine whether a movie is sexist or not. For a story to pass the test:

1.    It has to have at least two women in it,
2.    Who talk to each other,
3.    About something other than a man.

Some people amend the rules to require that both women have names.

David Chelsea is reading:
Manara Erotica Volume 1
by Milo Manara

Not Passing The Bechdel Test: Panel from The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes.

Even though Bechdel devised this test for movies (some notable ones that fail it: The Godfather, The Graduate, Citizen Kane and the original Star Wars Trilogy) there is no reason it can’t apply to comics; a story is a story. When I first heard about the test I mentally applied it to my own work and was embarrassed to discover that only two stories passed: my first graphic novel David Chelsea In Love, thanks to a single sequence taking up part of two pages (41 and 42 in the Reed Press edition), and the 24 Hour Comic ID, which you can read in its entirety here. I was therefore inspired to create Sandy & Mandy, a story I’m working on for Dark Horse Presents which features two named female friends who talk about everything under the sun as well as the occasional man (I couldn’t resist having a bit of fun with such a P.C. restriction- notice the convoluted way Sandy & Mandy manage to bring up men’s names without actually talking about a man).

Passing The Bechdel Test: Rough sketch for Sandy & Mandy

So hats off to you, Alison Bechdel, for opening my eyes to my own unconscious sexism. Now let me return the favor by showing you how to improve your perspective.

Alison Bechdel illustration for The New Yorker

Here is a recent New Yorker illustration in which Bechdel depicts herself multiply at work in her basement studio. It appears to be a simple one-point perspective view of the basement as seen from overhead, (a view we could only get if the upper floors were removed) but it is actually more complicated than that. It was obvious to me at first glance that the receding lines do not all meet at a single point, which in itself is not terribly surprising- cartoonists often take a loose approach to perspective- but once I began diagramming them out I noticed that the lines do roughly meet at four separate vanishing points- a different one for each side wall.

Bechdel diagammed

The method of perspective Bechdel is using is known as vanishing axis or vanishing trace perspective, and it has a long history. Lawrence Wright in his 1983 book Perspective In Perspective gives a good description:

Diagram of Vanishing Axis Perspective

“If the artist wants to show more of both side walls, he can ‘open them out’ slightly without noticeably falsifying the proportions of the room. Each side wall now has its own separate vanishing point, both being on a common horizon. This discrepancy may not be noticeable, but a further problem arises if the orthogonals (receding parallels) of the floor, if they are to meet correctly, now need a third vanishing point, and those of the ceiling a fourth one. These last two fall on a common, vertical ‘vanishing axis’ or ‘vanishing trace’. Vanishing axis perspective often occurs in medieval drawings. It is a quite acceptable formula—if that word can be applied to an arbitrary device for which few rules can be laid down—when used with discretion. It has survived as an occasional remedy for the drawbacks of normal systems of construction.”

Bechdel revised

Whether Bechdel knew about vanishing axis perspective or reinvented the method on her own, it’s a clever solution to the visual problems set by her subject. Setting up the drawing the conventional way with one vanishing point at the center of the picture would mean that the walls to the right and left would be far more foreshortened than those at the top and bottom, an effect that would be even more exaggerated if the vanishing point were placed anywhere else. Using a different vanishing point for each wall enables Bechdel to foreshorten all of them equally (It does mean that the rectangle representing the floor is a different shape than the framing rectangle representing the ceiling, but I’m sure hardly anyone notices that).

While it is pointless to criticize any drawing in vanishing axis perspective for not having all its lines meeting at a central point, that does not mean there is no room for improvement. The method requires that objects and furniture attached to each wall should share the vanishing point of that wall, and Bechdel has not done this consistently. My revision brings wayward objects into line with their particular vanishing point, and I have in a few cases tilted or redrawn the human figures to better align them with the perspective of their particular part of the room. I believe my version improves on Bechdel’s inconsistent construction without destroying the the charm of the original.

Thanks to Wilhelm Schroeder for bringing this piece to my attention.

Got an example of iffy perspective to show? Be a whistleblower! Send an e-mail to me at davidchelsea(at)comcast(dot)net and include Perspective Police! in the subject line.

David Chelsea is reading:
My Friend Dahmer
by Derf Backderf

Vintage ink bottle:

Warhol painted soup cans, but Goya put his name on them:

Great minds think alike:

Ben’s Tessellation:

Whose successor? That’s right:

Deep Throat+Strep Throat= Streep Throat:

David Chelsea likes the look of reflections on vintage cars in black and white:

Osamu Tezuka based the design of Astro Boy on Betty Boop. I like that Betty’s DNA lives on in the animation style that eventually displaced Disney- call it Fleischer’s Revenge.

Here are three Youtube videos similar to the kind of drawing I will be showing you how to do in my demonstration and workshop tomorrow at PCC Sylvania. I can’t promise it will go this fast:

Perspective Grid Speed Drawing Demonstration

Fisheye perspective grid speed drawing demonstration

Cylindrical perspective grid speed drawing demonstration

David Chelsea is reading:
Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910-1960
by Ross Wetzsteon


David Chelsea-Artist Talk

Tuesday, May 8th 2012

11am - 12pm, Little Theatre (Discussion)

12pm - 1pm, CT 230 (Workshop)

2012 Art Beat
Portland Community College, Sylvania Campus
12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219
971-722-6111

Not my best side

I had a perfectly swell time at Stumptown Comics Fest last weekend, signing my books, passing out copies of The Survey and chatting with friends and fans. But don’t take my word for it, check out this time lapse video of Stumptown Day One. I can be seen front and center, next to the big red screen, wearing a black vest. Don’t I look like someone having a good time?

At one point on the video I leave my table for a good chunk of time. That would be the slide show and drawing demonstration I did on Saturday afternoon for an appreciative crowd in Conference Room B111. I was demonstrating how to draw using the perspective grids on the bonus disc included with my latest book Extreme Perspective! Below are some of the sketches from that demonstration, along with a few others drawn during down time at my table.

The naked woman is from a new project I’m in the early stages of, a book of perspective grids incorporating human figures. There are a lot of figure reference books out there, but all of them photograph their models in front of white seamless, which means they are of no help to an artist who wants to integrate figures into a scene with perspective. Mine will be different!

Where I'll be Tuesday

If you missed the Stumptown demonstration, you have another chance to catch my act at PCC’s Sylvania campus on Tuesday. May 8th. from 11am to 1pm as part of Art Beat Week. In fact, this will be better, because my drawing demonstration will be followed by a workshop in which you will have a chance to try out your own chops on hard copies of the very same perspective grids I use. From the catalogue:

Noted author and cartoonist David Chelsea presents a slideshow and demonstration on perspective for comic artists, using printed perspective grids he’s devised to ease the pain of drawing. “It’s kind of tedious to set up perspective diagrams for every drawing I ever do, so I created a whole series of them using a 3-D software program.” The presentation includes works spanning Chelsea’s career in commercial art, including his first 24 Hour Comic, The Harold Project , which was entirely drawn over computer-generated grids. The discussion is followed by a live drawing demonstration and workshop.

David Chelsea-Artist Talk

Tuesday, May 8th 2012

11am - 12pm, Little Theatre (Discussion)

12pm - 1pm, CT 230 (Workshop)

2012 Art Beat
Portland Community College, Sylvania Campus
12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219
971-722-6111

I had a chance to pass out copies of The Survey to attendees at Stumptown Comics Fest last weekend, and the results are somewhat surprising. I was expecting the overwhelming popularity of superhero comics to be reflected in the voting, but actually Superhero ended up in a three-way tie with Pirate and Humor for fourth place in the Genre category, behind Fantasy, Sci-Fi and History. Least-liked genre? Funny Animals.

David Chelsea is watching:
The Descendants
with George Clooney

Pick Hit: Fantasy

Must To Avoid: Funny Animals

Other results were more expected. Round or scalloped dialogue balloons stomped rectangular balloons as well as captions outside the panel (Sorry, Prince Valiant), and handwritten lettering beat out typeset in a standard font. A linear and stylized drawing style was favored over realistic, cartoony and silhouetted, with manga-style getting the most negative votes. Here are the full results:

Thumbs Up: Linear And Stylized

Most-liked Comic
Genre:Fantasy
Length:50+ pages (graphic novel)
Type of story: Dark and gritty
Storytelling method: Mix of captions and dialogue
Protagonist: Multiple protagonists
Conflict between: Strangers
Conflict concerning: Philosophy
Ending: Ambiguous/Bittersweet (tie)
Artwork: Black and white line with single second color/Black and white line with flat color (tie)
Panels: Wide variety of shapes with line borders
Balloons: Rounded or scalloped
Drawing style: Linear and stylized
Lettering: Handwritten
Layout: No definite number of panels
Format: Standard comics size (7 by 10 inches)

No Thanks: Manga

Least-liked Comic
Genre: Funny Animals
Length: 2-4 pages
Type of story: Slow and meditative
Storytelling method: Captions only
Protagonist: Straight male
Conflict between: Family members
Conflict concerning: Religion
Ending: Cliffhanger
Artwork: Flat gray tones only
Panels: Indefinite form with no line borders
No Balloons: Dialogue in captions
Drawing style: Manga
Lettering: Typeset in standard font
Layout: More than twelve panels on a page.
Format: Oversized (varies, but RAW magazine is typical- 10.5 by 14 inches)

That conflict over philosophy may be a hard sell, but otherwise the Most-liked example seems like a proposal I could sell to a major publisher tomorrow. The Least-liked alternative, with its slow and meditative story, conflict over religion and cliffhanger ending, may have to end up as a Kickstarter project. But don’t expect these results to be set in stone.

The crowd at Stumptown may not be typical of the comics market as a whole- the Con does have a reputation as more indie oriented than the San Diego Comics Convention or Wizard Con, and the larger publishers like Marvel and DC stay away. I expect to get more results more in line with mass taste as data comes in from the online version of The Survey, which you can take here from now until voting ends a month from now on June 3rd (US readers only, please- I’m hoping to eventually do versions for other countries as well).

Many thanks to Jason Renaud for getting The Survey online.

Photo by ocean yamada

It’s very early days on The Survey, my new project to pick the brain of the great comics buying public by polling readers on what kind of stories they most want to see, in which style, even down to details of lettering and coloring technique. Based on their answers, I will produce two stories- one, assembled from elements that respondents say they most want to see, the other featuring the qualities they least want to see. (Full disclosure: I was inspired by Komar and Melamid’s People’s Choice painting project, in which they commissioned a poll to determine what qualities people most wanted and did not want in a painting, and then created two paintings with just those qualities.) In case you missed my previous post about it, here is The Survey:

My favorite/least favorite genre of comics is:

Superhero
Western
Horror
Humor
Funny animals
Romance
Slice of life/autobio
Fantasy
Science fiction
Crime
History
War
Pirate

My favorite/least favorite length of story is:

Single page.
Two to four pages.
Five to ten pages
Ten to twenty four pages
Twenty five to fifty pages
More than fifty pages; graphic novel length.

I most like/least like stories that are:

Bright and optimistic
Dark and gritty
Silly and funny
Thrilling and action-packed
Slow and meditative
Educational
Satirical

I most like/least like stories to be told:

In captions only.
In dialogue only.
In a mix of captions and dialogue.

I most like/least like protagonists who are:

Male (straight)
Male (gay)
Boy
Female (straight)
Female (gay)
Girl
Asexual
Other
Multiple protagonists

I most like/least like conflict that is between:

Family Members
Strangers
Couples
Friends
Acquaintances
I do not like conflict

I most like/least like conflict that concerns:

Politics
Philosophy
Religion
Personal Issues
Territory
I do not like conflict

I most like/least like endings that are:

Happy
Sad
Bittersweet
Shocking
Conclusive
Cliffhangers
Ambiguous

I most like/least like pictures that have:

Black and white line drawing alone
Black and white line drawing with a single second color
Black and white line drawing with flat color
Black and white line drawing with fully-rendered color
Painted color alone.
Flat color alone.
Black and white line drawing with flat gray tones.
Black and white line drawing with fully-rendered gray tones.
Fully-rendered gray tones alone.
Flat gray tones alone.

I most like/least like figures that are:

Highly realistic with near-photographic detail.
Cartoony, exaggerated.
Linear, stylized.
Silhouetted
Manga style

I most like/least like panels that have:

A wide variety of shapes with line borders.
A wide variety of shapes without line borders
Rectangular form with line borders.
Rectangular form without line borders.
An indefinite form without borders.

I most like/least like lettering to appear:
In rectangular balloons.
In rounded or scalloped balloons.
Within the panel, not enclosed in a balloon.
Outside the panel.
In captions

I most like/least like lettering to be:

Written by hand.
Typeset in a standard font.
Typeset in a custom font.

My favorite/least favorite panel format is:

One panel to the page
Two panels to the page
Four panels to the page.
Six panels to the page.
Eight panels to the page
Nine panels to the page
Twelve panels to the page
More than twelve panels to the page.
No definite number of panels to the page.

My favorite/least favorite page format is:

Standard comic size
Magazine size
Digest size
Oversized
Square
Horizontal trade humor

The Survey made its debut as a handout at last weekend’s Stumptown Comics Fest, and I will post about those results shortly. However, for those readers who missed Stumptown, my good friend Jason Renaud has very kindly put the whole thing online. What are you waiting for? Take it now, and let your voice be heard!

One tiny restriction: please respond only if you live in the United States Of America. I’d like to keep the option open to do this multiple times for various countries. Komar and Melamid eventually did paintings for fourteen countries and one more for “The Web.”

While I could collect data from now until Doomsday, my aim is to take a snapshot of comics readers and their tastes at this particular moment in time. The Survey will therefore be taken down one month from this date, on June 3rd 2012. I will announce final results shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, in other online news, the Oregon Movies A to Z blog recently posted a Handy Guide To Top Ten Oregon Cartoonists, including legendary names like Homer Davenport, Basil Wolverton, Bill Plympton and Matt Groening. I’m number 7.

I have been too busy compiling data from The Survey to write a blog post about last weekend’s Stumptown Comics Fest, but here are some pictures I took with my Palm Pilot:

David Chelsea is reading:
Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice
by Ivan Brunetti

More Stumptown photos from:

The Official Stumptown Flickr Group

Joshin Yamada

Glenn Peters

This is a momentous blog post, for I have the honor of announcing the birth of a new art form: Immersive Comics. The parents are a bit of a May-December match: the venerable comic strip, which first appeared in newspapers over a century ago, but may be far older (Scott McCloud, for one, dates its first appearance to Ancient Egypt), and the immersive panorama, which has its roots in wide-angle photography, but only took on its modern form with the development of online photo sites in the 21st Century.

David Chelsea is watching:
Case Histories

For those of you unfamiliar with the Immersive Panorama, it is an image displayed on a computer screen which encompasses 360° of the visual field, which a viewer can scan through in all directions by scrolling with a mouse. The original image is a large photograph in a type of curvilinear perspective known as equirectangular projection (mathematically equivalent to a world map projection also called equirectangular), which is typically assembled from a number of photographs taken from a single spot using special stitching software.

Immersive Panoramas have become popular on sites like Flickr. Almost all of them are photographic, but my friend Tom Lechner (whose collection of panoramas can be viewed here) has done panoramic adaptations of a number of my spherical paintings, like this one, and this one and this one.

I included an equirectangular perspective on the disc of grids which comes with my latest book Extreme Perspective! I’ve used it to create a few drawings which, once mounted on Flickr, actually work as Immersive Panoramas. Here’s one. Here’s another.

This new drawing uses the same method but adds word balloons to make the whole immersive scene into a seamless comics panel. The setting is a typical comics convention, loosely based on the Stumptown Comics Fest. Since all the dialogue is rhymed, this panel is the latest in my Anapest series.

Many of the figures come from this previous curvilinear sketch done at Stumptown a few years ago. I learned from viewing that drawing on Flickr that figures which look natural on the page can look skinny and distended the closer they are to the bottom of the picture; I therefore compressed the figures somewhat in Photoshop to compensate and left the bottom mostly empty. The top is distorted in the same way; the gray bar at the top of the picture becomes a circular plate when viewed immersively.

View the drawing big on Flickr.

View the drawing immersively.

Don’t forget! I’ll be at Stumptown this Saturday and Sunday.

Stumptown Comics Fest 2012

Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE ML King Blvd. Portland, OR 97232

Sat, Apr. 28, 2012 - Sun, Apr. 29, 2012

Sat. 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, Sun 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

David Chelsea: Extreme Perspective for Artists Drawing Demonstration

Room B111 • 1-1:45pm

Bagge: "I'll Be Back"

I’m not planning on doing anything radically different at this year’s Stumptown Comics Fest, which is happening this Saturday and Sunday here in Portland. I’ll be selling books, among them my latest, Extreme Perspective! published by Watson-Guptill, taking pictures with my Palm Pilot (like this 2008 shot of Peter Bagge, who I think will be back this year), sketching during downtime, visiting with friends, maybe taking in a panel or two. At 1 pm on Saturday I’ll be doing pretty much the same perspective presentation I did last year.

David Chelsea is reading:
The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life
by Robin Zasio


I do plan to print up some different decorated envelopes to sell. Here are a few I like:

Another new thing I plan to bring is a survey to help me decide on my next project. I would like whatever comic book or graphic novel I do next to be as popular and commercial as possible, not just because of the money, but because I respect the great comics reading public enough to give it exactly what it wants. Since I pretty much don’t have a clue what it wants (Manga with monkeys? Robot tween romance?), that’s where this survey comes in.

A great idea is worth stealing, and I fully own up to copping this one from Komar and Melamid’s People’s Choice Painting project. Here’s the survey:

Most-liked painting: USA

Least-liked painting: USA

Emulating provocateur artists Komar and Melamid, cartoonist David Chelsea is taking his cues from the great reading public in crafting his latest comics project. From 1994-1997, Komar and Melamid worked on the series, People’s Choice, whereby they created the “most wanted” and “least wanted” paintings of various countries based on the results of surveys conducted by professional polling companies. Their book, Painting by Numbers: Komar & Melamid’s Scientific Guide to Art, published in 1997, explains the statistical underpinnings of the polling process and provides the results of each country’s preferences. Doing likewise, Chelsea is polling comics readers to ask what kind of comics stories they most want to see, in which style, even down to details of lettering and coloring technique. Based on their answers, Chelsea will produce two stories- one, assembled from elements that respondents say they most want to see, the other featuring the qualities they least want to see. David Chelsea invites you to be part of the process by filling out this questionnaire.

My favorite/least favorite genre of comics is:

Superhero
Western
Horror
Humor
Funny animals
Romance
Slice of life/autobio
Fantasy
Science fiction
Crime
History
War
Pirate

My favorite/least favorite length of story is:

Single page.
Two to four pages.
Five to ten pages
Ten to twenty four pages
Twenty five to fifty pages
More than fifty pages; graphic novel length.

I most like/least like stories that are:

Bright and optimistic
Dark and gritty
Silly and funny
Thrilling and action-packed
Slow and meditative
Educational
Satirical

I most like/least like stories to be told:

In captions only.
In dialogue only.
In a mix of captions and dialogue.

I most like/least like protagonists who are:

Male (straight)
Male (gay)
Boy
Female (straight)
Female (gay)
Girl
Asexual
Other
Multiple protagonists

I most like/least like conflict that is between:

Family Members
Strangers
Couples
Friends
Acquaintances
I do not like conflict

I most like/least like conflict that concerns:

Politics
Philosophy
Religion
Personal Issues
Territory
I do not like conflict

I most like/least like endings that are:

Happy
Sad
Bittersweet
Shocking
Conclusive
Cliffhangers
Ambiguous

I most like/least like pictures that have:

Black and white line drawing alone
Black and white line drawing with a single second color
Black and white line drawing with flat color
Black and white line drawing with fully-rendered color
Painted color alone.
Flat color alone.
Black and white line drawing with flat gray tones.
Black and white line drawing with fully-rendered gray tones.
Fully-rendered gray tones alone.
Flat gray tones alone.

I most like/least like figures that are:

Highly realistic with near-photographic detail.
Cartoony, exaggerated.
Linear, stylized.
Silhouetted
Manga style

I most like/least like panels that have:

A wide variety of shapes with line borders.
A wide variety of shapes without line borders
Rectangular form with line borders.
Rectangular form without  line borders.
An indefinite form without borders.

I most like/least like lettering to appear:
In rectangular balloons.
In rounded or scalloped balloons.
Within the panel, not enclosed in a balloon.
Outside the panel.
In captions

I most like/least like lettering to be:

Written by hand.
Typeset in a standard font.
Typeset in a custom font.

My favorite/least favorite panel format is:

One panel to the page
Two panels to the page
Four panels to the page.
Six panels to the page.
Eight panels to the page
Nine panels to the page
Twelve panels to the page
More than twelve panels to the page.
No definite number of panels to the page.

My favorite/least favorite page format is:

Standard comic size
Magazine size
Digest size
Oversized
Square
Horizontal trade humor

I’m doing things slightly differently from Komar And Melamid. They got their data by hiring a professional polling firm. That’s a little beyond my means right now, so I’m just going to print up copies of the survey and invite anyone who stops by my table to fill them out. The data I collect on what comics readers say they want will shape a proposal which I will eventually submit to publishers. (Actually two proposals, but I won’t be surprised if publishers pass on the project comics readers say they DON’T want. There’s always Kickstarter). Of course, the minority of Stumptown visitors who are motivated to stop by my table may not be entirely typical of the larger comics public. Eventually I’d like to get the questionnaire in shops and online, but it’s a start.

Well, actually the survey lS online, in this very blog post. If any followers of this blog want to send me their answers to the questionnaire by e-mail, just click the CONTACT link at the far right under my picture (One tiny restriction: please respond only if you live in the United States Of America. I’d like to keep the option open to do this multiple times for various countries. Komar and Melamid eventually did paintings for fourteen countries and one more for “The Web.”).

By the way, here are some questions I’m NOT asking:

I most like/least like stories that feature:

Popular licensed characters I’ve been reading about all my life.
Unfamiliar characters I’ve never heard of.

I would most like/least like to read a story drawn by:

Jim Lee
Frank Miller
John Buscema
Todd McFarlane
George Pérez
John Romita Sr
Walt Simonson
David Chelsea

Stumptown Comics Fest 2012

Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE ML King Blvd. Portland, OR 97232

Sat, Apr. 28, 2012 - Sun, Apr. 29, 2012

Sat. 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, Sun 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

David Chelsea: Extreme Perspective for Artists Drawing Demonstration

Room B111 • 1-1:45pm

Komar & Melamid: The Most Wanted Paintings on the Web