Which Art Style is “Better”: Stylised or Realistic?

I had a teacher tell once that the biggest difference between realism and stylized is that realism has a lot of time spent rendering, and can be easily seen by non artists in the final product. Stylized art on the other hand will often have more time spent in the planning phases and it not understood as easily by the average person. Great video as always, keep up the work.

realism will always be beautiful, but personally I love when a piece of media is stylized, or has a style that’s a satisfying aesthetic. It doesn’t have a significant effect with the quality of the show (unless the visuals are so bad that it’s difficult to enjoy), but I do have to admit that I’m biased towards stylized media. This is a very interesting topic for you to cover, excited to see more videos like this one.

The "relistic art is pointless, just take a picture " have always bothered me, because art is so much more than the need to communicate an idea, they are undermining the draftsmanship the nuance it takes to create something like this

Personally, I feel "realism" has universal appeal, which is why it's so widely accepted. If it looks realistic, people will instantly accept it and not judge it as "childish". Most non-artists will see something realistic and look upon it with praise. There are those who might say "a well just take a photo" but you can't say that about something that was created from the imagination yet still achieves the "realism" realm. I know many people who hate all things "cartoon" and won't even give it the time of day, but this isn't so with realistic art...it has the ability to bridge artificially created gaps in cultures and viewpoints. Stylized art, however, has the chance to do something a little extra, it has the chance to create is own rules of what is acceptable within its own world (I always think about Luffy's mouth dropping exaggeratedly-- when this happens in a styled story like One Peice, is accepted because it follows the rules of the world, do this in a realistically drawn story and you'll just creep people out.) I feel that both have their benefits and detriments, but in the end, for manga at least, what's most important to me is how the realism or stylization effects the tone, mood and impact of the story. Some stories simply wouldn't work if made realistic, and others simply wouldn't work as well if made stylized.

My art teacher is one of the best teachers ever. When I was younger, I was often told that my drawings weren't good and that I didn't have talent just because I used to draw cartoons, so I grew up hiding my drawings and thinking that being a good artist means making realistic art. However, I never stopped drawing in a stylised mode because it made me happy, but I did tried combining both the stilised and the realistic world to get to a point where I'm finally proud of my creations, thus helping me build the confidence to show my art teacher my drawings. Since I showed them, my art got a lot more recognition. He made a whole exposition in my school, supporting my art style and my drawing techniques. He is one of the best art teachers in my opinion. Very supportive, like how all adults should be with children, especially when it comes to their hobbies.

I love all art styles, but semi realistic is the current trend for me.

Even the “realistic” paintings and drawings we make still have a distinct style that separate the creation from the reference. Some styles have more attention to detail and focus on accuracy or believability, and other styles push details to the extreme in order to show contrast or character. Both are beautiful and should be loved for their distinct differences, but make sure we are all focused on making good art that resonates with us and others, not worrying about “our style” or “their style”.

For me as a realist artist drawing stylized character hella difficult. Because it must be different to the reference, mostly drawing from imagination. Drawing realistic is just drawing from the reference. There's no need to think or imaginate anything, just follow the reference. Big respect to illustrators, cartoonist, manga artist, and more. 🙏

my personal preference definitely leans more towards stylized. In part its the fantasy lover in me - I can see real life by going outside or looking at pictures, but I tend towards aphantasia so I appreciate any visual help. It's also probably the trends of any media company that is pushing for more realistic art and discrediting anything thats stylized and/or 2D that just boils my blood and make me want to root even more for those styles. I love the freedom it gives to artists to express an emotion outside of the norm that is possible in the real world (give me blushes that spread past a characters face, give me funny poses that are not bodily possible, give me tears that look like kaleidoscopes) and allows for "mistakes" to exist comfortably without disrupting your reading experience. When it comes to the more realistic style, it is far easier to tell if something is off and can quickly fall into the uncanny. I can appreciate detailed, more realistically drawn manga but I always feel like its too much. With around 200 pages per volume, I feel it looses it purpose after a while which I rarely feel happens with other stlyes and while the art is of course important, if I spend 1 minute closely appreciating the details, the story would suffer.

I believe each style has its appeal, realism can look bad if not done properly, and the same goes to stylized art. For me, the best examples would be one piece (the manga), it is heavily stylized, but the artist knows how to use his media and with style, accomplishes a level of fluidity and story telling that is hard to find in this media. Meanwhile we have series like vagabond, in wich the appeal comes from the expression, the sumiê and the way the lines convey emotion by themselves. The same can be seen in a series like Berserk, the best panels aren't (always) the most realistic ones, but the ones with the most expression on it, like the moments of rage of guts and the nightmare-ish creatures and locations the manga presents. One thing important however, is that, in any style (realistic or stylized) one thing's really important and is always the difference between an artwork that tells a story and succeeds, from one that doesn't: it is the composition, that's the biggest point for me, visual clarity and balance is the biggest thing for me, the appeal of the series I mentioned wouldn't matter if the composition wasn't used to it's best.

One of my favorite things about Houseki no Kuni's art style is that Ichikawa has basically made "notan" the manga. "Notan" being a Japanese term for light/dark harmony. Notan is essentially a method by which Japanese artists can build up paintings--by reducing details and focusing chiefly on light and dark tones with amazing composition. So many times reading her manga I've been so impressed with her ability that I've considered if I could get prints framed lol.

Anything this woman say I would immediately agree without hesitation.

theres a mangaka called Takeshi Obata who is really amazing at both, so its always fun to see which direction his next project will go

can i just say that i LOVE the thumbnail- land of the lustrous has my favorite style ever 😭😭 and the editing in the video is astonishing!

“...when you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face, you see it as the face of another . But when you enter the world of the cartoon , you see yourself.” ― Scott McCloud,

I love realistic art, and when i use to do stylized art, i got a lot of commissions and likes. Ppl where only interested in my art when it was stylized. But when I started doing semirealism and realism it went silent. I kept going tho because i liked it. I put a lot more work into my art, but people dont care about the work u put into your art, they care about the outcome. And I actually noticed how other realism artist dont get a lot of love for their art even if its really good. And when i see realistic art posted on popular reposting accounts, the comments have a lot of hate in them, like “why would you put so much work in that” “people have too much time on their hands” just take a picture” i dont understand why ppl hate it. the art community is a pretty chill and supportive community, it’s usually non artist. People Gravitate towards stylized/ cartoon artwork. And thats the kind of jobs that are usually available. Its kinda stressful because i want to be an artist but dont know what path there really is to take and still make a good amount of money without changing the art style to fit what other ppl like.

I'm kinda confused on the whole video because all the "realistic" art is also stylized on some level. Maybe some are more subtle but they push each of the fundamentals of art in a certain direction for appeal. Also I think Berserk, especially the creature design and art, kind of matches the same feel of old engravings from the witch hat atelier style but in a different way.

I’m not going to lie, I’m one of those people who’s often said, “Just take a picture” in regards to hyper-realistic art. The strange thing though is that I’ve never NOT enjoyed such art. I absolutely love Gantz, Vagabond, and Green Blood (also by Masusumi Kakizaki) BECAUSE they’re so incredibly realistic. I was actually surprised you said there are people who say realistic stuff all looks the same. None of the manga I just named look alike at all despite being fiercely on the realistic side. Also, you made a really interesting point about Berserk, with Miura realistically rendering things that don’t actually exist. I think “realistic” art in my mind meant just drawing stuff that I saw everyday, which bored me as an idea. Kinda weird considering I’ve read Berserk myself, but… guess I needed somebody else to connect the dots for me. Also, I like how you used Houseki no Kuni and Vagabond for the thumbnail as the two ends of the spectrum. Great video

I think itd be interesting to also discuss a similar topic in webtoons! Personally I favor stylised works more than realistic. It lets me immerse myself into the world that the mangaka has created. I appreciate the work it takes for both but realism sometimes doesn't allow me to immerse myself as much if that makes sense 🤔

One thing I love about your channel is how you choose to pick apart a fresh set of under-talked topics. Especially "how" the story is told and the narrative structure, not only "what" is told. The form is as important as the story itself for me. I look forward to more!