Facing Right

dfacto

This is something that's been on my mind for a while and I was curious what other people's thoughts on it are.

Looking at the art in my reference folders, the subjects are frequently facing to the right, that is, we see a roughly 3/4 view of their left side. This holds true for standalone character designs, illustrations, vehicle, weapon, and creature designs. Whatever the subject it's "face", or business end is facing to its right most of the time. Look at weapon illustrations, even with no body, there is still a trend towards the muzzle facing to the right. In my own work I also overwhelmingly favor the right facing 3/4 view, and it's something I've been trying to shake.

But to be honest I prefer that view. It just seems right, both in terms of being visually pleasing, and in terms of pencil placement when I'm drawing. Is this conditioning from seeing and drawing that view so much, or is there some underlying psychological reason why that view is so favored?

Do you guys notice this too?

Zack Fowler

I heard it's because we read left to right. I imagine if one looked at an art site based in a right-to-left language you would see the opposite trend.

Adam L. Gray

Hmm, I deffo thought about it before. I think it's more of a personal preference thing what looks right and so, and for me it usually depends on the prop and scene etc. Take my portfolio for example, it's not really intentional, but my stuff is sometimes facing right - left - right - left - right (by sometimes I mean that two of the thumbnails switch images)

/edit: actually, what Zack says sounds reasonable. I still can't really say that I'm that effected by it though. Yet I only read left to right.

Cheers

Del

~ Whoa! Same thing with my folio.

I like to think there's a cooler reason.. Like the fact that I played Super StreetFighter 2 as a kid a lot and its subconsciously made me think that the characters facing right is something that I emulate without think about. lol

ZacD

I've heard facing to the left can also make us feel like the character is looking into the past, or reflecting on something, but if it's facing the right it appears to be looking ahead, try flipping some of your favorite pieces and see if the emotions or look changes for you.

Lord McMutton

I seem to be the opposite. A larger number of my characters face left.

Mark Dygert

3/4 view either way, is way more interesting and visually appealing than straight on... Outside of that I don't think it matters. Go make art.

dfacto

Marshal Banana wrote: »

I seem to be the opposite. A larger number of my characters face left.

Out of curiosity, are you left handed?

Lord McMutton

Nay, I'm a righty.