A Picture Paints a thousand words

[Wifetheif]

Art and writing are two separate things of course but we all can learn from great art consider:
A panel from "Flash Gordon" by Alexander Raymond. Here we see Dale Arden for the first time since being captured by Ming the Merciless. Notice how provocatively he has dressed her. There is much more going on, however. Dale's defeated position and her inability to look her abductor in the eye, combined with Ming's shit eating grin demonstrate to astute readers, that Ming knows EXACTLY what is under Dale's dress. The shame is palpable. He, no doubt, had her strip off and dress in his presence. As they say, "It is good to be king!"

Only the best writers could express what happened between captor and captive so succinctly as Raymond does in afew brush strokes. Especially when you consider that he planted this blatant image surreptitiously in millions of Sunday papers! Less certainly is more is a good dictum for a writer. Still it would take dozens of words at a minimum to have the same impact with words. I keep this picture handy and ask myself how few words do I need to express this scenario. Then I try to write it. The exercise really hones my skills.
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cheesecake

 

[intim8]

It is true that a picture paints a thousand words, but my problem is it takes me 1500 words to paint a picture.

 

[TadOverdon]

My dad had trade paperbacks of comic and pulp art by Alex Raymond, Gray Morrow and others. I learned what "pointillism" was from reading the captions in the Virgil Finlay book. I'm told I met Freas but I don't remember doing so.

Much later I discovered that Wally Wood of MAD fame did some pretty raunchy comics on the side.

 

[KeithD]

Well, yes, but this site is about expressing it in words.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Art and writing are two separate things of course but we all can learn from great art consider:
A panel from "Flash Gordon" by Alexander Raymond. Here we see Dale Arden for the first time since being captured by Ming the Merciless. Notice how provocatively he has dressed her. There is much more going on, however. Dale's defeated position and her inability to look her abductor in the eye, combined with Ming's shit eating grin demonstrate to astute readers, that Ming knows EXACTLY what is under Dale's dress. The shame is palpable. He, no doubt, had her strip off and dress in his presence. As they say, "It is good to be king!"

Only the best writers could express what happened between captor and captive so succinctly as Raymond does in afew brush strokes. Especially when you consider that he planted this blatant image surreptitiously in millions of Sunday papers! Less certainly is more is a good dictum for a writer. Still it would take dozens of words at a minimum to have the same impact with words. I keep this picture handy and ask myself how few words do I need to express this scenario. Then I try to write it. The exercise really hones my skills.
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cheesecake



View attachment 2327102

But words are so much prettier

 

[MelissaBaby]

Words are cheaper than paint.

 

[ronde]

I think the two talents, art and writing, are the same. They just use different mediums. My wife is an artist and can "see" what she's drawing or painting as she's doing it. She can't describe what she's done in any way that would be understood by anyone who isn't an artist. Writers can "see" the pictures while they're writing the words that describe those visions and probably couldn't tell an artist what to paint or draw.

 

[VallesMarineris]

in afew brush strokes

It's true that a picture is worth a thousand words. But it's also true that a word is worth a thousand pictures. Examples:

-- Do a Web search on the word 'honesty' and click on the Images category. You'll see that most of the images are of words or quotes. You'll have to scroll far down the page to find a pure image that even comes close. (The first one I saw was of two hands doing a pinky swear. That could refer to a dozen different words.)

-- One of my favorite lines comes from, IIRC, a Dashiell Hammett novel that describes a character like this: "He had lips that would have been inconspicuous on a carp." How do you even draw that and make the same devastating character portrait?

-- Or my all time fave first line, from Ken Follett's The Key to Rebecca: "The last camel died at noon." The whole scene is right there. You're hot and thirsty instantly. The image in your post used up about 500KB. Follett used 6 words.

VM

 

[Bazzle]

I do a little side line in writing reddit/x Smoking Fetish models profiles. Why did they start smoking and how they became to be models and why on earth do they continue to smoke.

I literally work on the theory that a 1000 words paints their pictures. They post hundreds pictures of themselves, I just write about 1000 words to describe them. The words behind the picture.

 

[TadOverdon]

I think the two talents, art and writing, are the same.

Draw me a horse.