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I Longobardi by Sergio Toppi (year unknown),
found via the 2DGalleries online gallery. |
My sustained investigation theme is "depicting people's worst days/moments in a lighthearted way".
Sergio Toppi has been a massive inspiration for me for years. He was primarily a comic artist whose illustrative works are unlike anything I've ever seen in any comic strips. As someone whose initial exploration of media outside of graphite was ink, I admire his stylization and sense of line immensely.
This particular piece (I Longobardi) calls to me because of how strong the shapes are. The bold square that makes up the figures' shoulders is only broken by the figures' heads, sword, and book. This square acts as a container of sorts, taking up 3/4 of the composition and leading our eyes to any of the extruding elements. These elements are what tell the story, a stoic tension created by the square combined with the thinly lined fragility of the expressions and the hand leading down to the book. This composition gives us the somber tone we need without extra context, which is very directly applicable to my sustained investigation.
As I mentioned before, I really admire Toppi's stylization and I always have. The proportions of the figures have been exaggerated, as Toppi often does, but it's done tastefully. The already broad shoulders are emphasized further with the triangular-ness of their robes, sleeves coming down straight. From it, the hand touching the book is nearly as large as the figure's head (maybe even bigger), without too much effort put in to make the arm look too extended forward (like it's reaching), but it doesn't feel awkward at all. The square made around the figures' torsos is solid black, no contextual background is needed. Something I've struggled with this sustained investigation is maintaining my own stylization—my personal work outside of school is always very stylized, inspired by my own experience with ink, and I've always emphasized shape and texture. For some reason, I haven't been able to translate that over to my work for school, perhaps because I'm a little worried about pushing
too stylized for AP Art. Still, I'd like to continue drawing influence from Toppi and return to my like of stylized, unique visuals for my future sustained investigation works.
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| A page from Toppi's L'Uomo del Nilo |
Something else I love about all of Toppi's work is the way he conveys texture. Possibly my favorite part of making visual art is playing around with texture (another thing that regularly shows up in my personal art that I've been afraid to put in my sustained investigation work), and Toppi shows off exactly what I love about using ink so well. To explain and for comparison with
I Longobardi, I've included another piece of Toppi's I love—
La Creazione.
I Longobardi is an incredibly detailed piece, with all sorts of hatching and half-tone-ish effects that look very meticulously but purposefully placed, bordered by the solid black square mentioned earlier. The solid black makes it a little harder to see, but if you look close enough, you notice that there's a very limited amount of line weight variation in each line. The illusion of variation comes from the density of said lines. In
La Creazione, there's evidence of Toppi using more extreme line weight variation—which can be clearly seen in the hair and in the legs of the two smaller pieces. What I like about
I Longbardi is actually the lack of variation in line weight! I think it's a really smart way to emphasize other parts of the composition. Due to technical issues, I've had to resort to straight pens in digital art sometimes, and while it's not the most favorable thing to do, it might be interesting to revisit and use as an advantage.
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| Title unknown, by Sergio Toppi. |
Ultimately though, the reason why Toppi's art means so much to me is his use of ink. As I mentioned earlier, ink was my first exploration of mediums other than graphite, and Toppi's work is really a masterful use of ink. He has used other mediums—I love how he chooses to use solid color in his comics (which can be seen in his comic L'Uomo del Nilo) and his watercolor art is also extremely beautiful. His art can be identified by clear, bold shapes and borders, high contrast, and strong and well-defined composition. This is the clearest when his art is at its bare minimum—ink. Toppi's inking techniques are unique, feeling sparse and busy at the same time. This has achieved a very specific
texture that I only recognize as 'the thing Toppi does'—the ink isn't dry or textural by itself, and it doesn't look like it bleeds or runs at all. It's his signature, basically.
Looking at his art again for this post makes me want to try inking again for a sustained investigation, or at least to do something with traditional mediums and not just digital. Repeatedly using digital puts me into a bit of a creative rut, when I think switching up the mediums I use can help me think 'outside of the box'.
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