telophase | (no subject)

Something I've noted while obsessively combing through three chapters of Death Note looking for reference for the doujin[1] is that - probably due to the need for visual flow and to push the reader's eyes onward, 90% of the time, L is looking towards the left, so we see the left side of his face and head. Unfortunately, due to the same aforementioned need for visual flow, I have to have L looking to the right. Which means that I'm basically making up what I think the right side of his hair looks like.

In the same vein, Light is most often seen with a camera directly at him, or from slightly above, while L is msot often seen with the camera angle directly on him or from slightly below. (I draw the opposite. God only knows why. Massive reference problems.) I'm sure that Obata-sensei is doing that deliberately, but I'll be damned if I can figure out why. When Light goes extra-special-evil, he tends to be shot from below looking up, but for the most part, downwards.

[1] I am as of yet not quite clear on what the difference between 'doujin' and 'doujinshi' is. I shall merrily continue using them at random until someone gets offended enough to let me know.

What, me look it up?? That there's crazy talk!!

Threaded | Flat

I'm 90% sure that "doujin" is just people being lazy.

Three pages in one day! I never have anything constructive to say about them, really. But the DN manga stuff is interesting. If poses follow the same rules as handwriting, L is more of a forward thinker while Light is more focused on the present. But I doubt that was Obata's intention.

The up-down might reflect the way society at large percieves them--Light is drawn from a conventional angle because he's a conventional (and by extension harmless) person. L gets the funky angles; when Light stops being conventional he gets an even more extreme angle just like L.

Of course, our doujin takes place mostly from Light's POV--I think that's why Light gets more "looking evil" shots than in the manga. "Looking evil" is his inner self, not the self that others percieve. Since he spends more time looking evil, it makes sense that you spend more time drawing him from underneath. I'm sure Light is all-powerful in his own mind too, so that ties into the bottom-up thing.

To further analyze, the point of the original fanfic was to portray an intellectual battle between the two of them; it wouldn't have been interesting if Light and L weren't (somewhat) evenly matched. But the situation gives L a huge advantage. It makes a lot of sense to downplay that advantage in the art.

I'll see if I can't come up with something constructive to say to your pencils.

I use it when being lazy.

Yeah, most people use the abbreviations of the term out of laziness and so, but it has been advised against using 'douji' and 'doujin' for it; the former (commonly used by Germans) actually means 'stupid', and the latter I forgot what it means, but I know it's supposed to be an entirely different word in Japanese too. :/

As for Light looking evil... generally shots from below or or above add to the intensity of just a facial expression alone, as does extra darker shading~ L is most often drawn with the camera angle directly at him by Obata? I suppose that may be to give his figure a calm appearance. Light is the one with all the intensity and agression brewing up, L is the opposite making it happen.

'90% of the time, L is looking towards the left, so we see the left side of his face and head.'
I've grasped it also. seems I was not the only one with such maniac behaviour. *sweatdrops*