Original subtitles

All right in this lesson we're going to look at "parallels". And what are parallels?

Why do you know about parallels?

Why do we need to avoid parallels etcetera etcetera?

Right.

So, parallels really (and I think like the double L here, it's a good memory tool)

Parallels really are parallel lines when you're drawing, or in terms of the visual communication of a piece

even the symbolic communication of piece, Parallels can also be parallel objects.

For example, you know, a character's standing, and their arm position, even though it's at a three quarter

angle, their arm position is basically the same on both sides.

This is a visual parallel.

Sometimes this is called mirroring, and then parallels are also equal numbers of objects in a piece.

So for example, you have a scene and there are some trees in the background.

If you have two trees, that's considered parallel, and it just feels too balanced- balanced in

a bad way. It feels too engineered.

Right.

So there's like sort of two trees in the background.

And so what we want to be constantly doing in our work is making sure that we are breaking the parallels.

Right.

So obviously what is the opposite to a parallel?

Well that would be something that converges, right.

And in this instance where we've got these two lines next to each other which are quite parallel, the difference

between this parallel and the converging lines, is that the converging lines have a sense of directionality.

right. They have a sense of directionality.

Now that's in terms of a literal parallel, where maybe you've drawn a leg for example,

let's kind of imagine I'm drawing the leg here, and I've made the lines on both sides of the leg, even

though there's directionality in these lines,

this is a literal parallel between the actual shapes, if you wish, or the lines, so that they are really mirroring

each other and creating parallels.

This fits more into the mirroring category. Let's say here one is a literal parallel, two is mirroring,

and then three is, you know, I'd say this is more symbolic.

OK.

It is actually symbolic parallel. This is mirroring although this is technically not literal mirroring,

because literal mirroring would then be, you know, the front view, and you have this really literal symmetry

that you're seeing in the piece.

OK.

Nevertheless, in general I'm sure you'll start getting the idea of what a parallel is and not just in

character but in all kinds of art.

You know, you have two mountains in the background of a piece, and you know, dividing the page

equally like this, you know something like that.

It's very distracting, too balanced, awkward, too engineered for the viewer.

So we want to avoid parallels at all times.

We hate parallels.

Parallels must not be in our piece whether they're literal parallels, whether they're symbolic parallels,

for example.

Another example of symbolic Parallels, is let's say you're drawing a character, and the character is

wearing a shirt, and you might think "Well this is crazy, like How can he say what He's about to say?"

well you'll see.

Let's say he's wearing a shirt here, it's a collared shirt, a nice shirt and you're putting the buttons

down the shirt.

I'm saying definitely don't put eight buttons. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, OK maybe eight is a little hectic.

Let's bring that number down to six right.

I would say definitely don't do six buttons do seven or five.

Right.

Because odd numbers are more interesting and because odd numbers can't be divided equally,

they are not paralleling each other in a sense right.

In a symbolic way.

And so the piece feels more natural.

There's a saying, I don't know where the saying comes from, so I do apologize.

There's a saying that goes "God doesn't draw in straight lines. So things that are unnatural that just

aren't straight, they aren't balanced, they aren't mathematically equal to them in the natural world

really, you know everything was formed by natural in natural ways.

You know, like in terms of the world, and so on and so on, I mean what I mean to say is there was

energy behind the formation of these things. And so things kind of you know, you look at mountains and

mountains are very random in a sense ,although they have a sense of directionality to them, probably

from the energy that formed them, but they are really kind of random, there's nothing like exactly four

mountains.

Now of course there are instances where they are exactly four mountains or exactly two mountains and those

are usually tourist destinations because it is unusual.

Right.

It's it doesn't seem natural, it seems unnatural and so there's an appeal in that sort of thing.

But when we're trying to make a natural looking scene or natural looking character, we want to avoid

literal parallels, you know so we definitely don't have our arms or our limbs or clothing or anything

to have literal parallels in it like this, right.

And we definitely want to avoid mirroring.

Why have both of the characters arms down at the same angle?

You know, why have the same pocket on both sides of a shirt? and et etc. I mean you can really do that

if you want to, but you have to ask yourself "Does it feel too balanced, does it feel to engineered? Or does

it feel natural and cool?"

Right.

So we want to kind of change the arm direction and instead of mirroring it, you know, we have one arm

that way, and maybe the other arms reaching out for something, or it's on the hip or something

like that.

So, and this way we kind of achieve a nice natural feel.

OK.

So this essentially, this essentially is what parallels are. They are literal parallels, mirroring

parallels, symbolic parallels, and the opposite to parallels really is asymmetry, We want asymmetry in everything

that we're doing. And we'll look at asymmetrical shapes again later on. We have covered a little bit.

We'll look at it again later on, just to drive the point home about how much we need to avoid parallels

in our work.

Alright that's the end of this lesson.