Chris Ware:
Chris Ware is a cartoonist known for his New Yorker magazines covers and is hailed as a master of the comic art form. He has contributed cartoons and many covers to the New Yorker since 1999 and his complex graphic novels tell stores that reflect on the role that memory plays in constructing identity.
Ware’s style of comic art is like no other’s. His work is usually devoid of the hatching or rendering that is found in most comics and his drawings are mostly outlines filled with colour. Linear perspective is often flattened or replaced with orthographic projection and he sidesteps atmospheric perspective in favour of utilizing colour for design and mood. His often muted colours are carefully chosen in relationship to not only to other colours on the panel, but also to the entire page as a work of design. In addition, Ware plays with the conventions of comic art page design and storytelling.
I find Chris Ware’s comics refreshing. Not only is his style unique, the content of his stories are as well. His comics are rarely funny and usually deal with themes of loneliness, isolation, regret, etc., yet his art style is beautiful and does not match. But with his New Yorker covers, they are simply beautiful. I find these two vastly different parts of his work interesting.
Artworks:
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References:
- Person. “Chris Ware – Contributors |.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, www.newyorker.com/contributors/chris-ware.
- “Chris Ware.” Art21, art21.org/artist/chris-ware/.
- Parker, AuthorCharley. Lines and Colors, linesandcolors.com/2006/02/19/chris-ware-fc-ware/.