Week 15: Documentaries

    During our last week of class, we watched two different films. One being Comic Book Confidential and the other being Exit Through the Gift Shop. Both films focused on artists and the work that they had created. Obviously the films are quite different because one is entirely devoted to comic book artists and the other focuses on artist Thierry Guetta.

  One artist from the film Comic Book Confidential would be William Gaines. William Gaines wrote such comics as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science and Two-Fisted Tales. The comic book I remember vividly from the film would be Tales from the Crypt because of the horror type illustrations drawn throughout the comic book. The illustrations include a lot of details and hand drawn aspects to them as oppose to the artwork of Thierry Guetta from Exit Through the Gift Shop. Thierry's artwork borderline looked much like a reproduction of the famous artist Banksy. Most of Thierry's pieces had a pop-art feel to them. Unlike William Gaines, Thierry's artwork seemed to include less details and something made through the use of stencils and that could be easily reproduced.

  Obviously the major contrast between the two artists would be one is a comic book artist, so his artwork mostly focuses on illustrations and the other is a street artist with works of art made through stencils and other mediums. The comparisons between the two artists would be they are both pretty well known in their own genres. People who are heavily into comic books, would know about William Gaines while those who are into street art would know of Banksy and then that of Thierry Guetta. I think as far as artwork goes, both artists utilize color very well within their pieces. Thierry Guetta's pieces are very over-exposed with color with all the bright colors. William Gaines uses very simple colors within his comics that suit them very well.

Overall, these two artists are very different within the realm of art because William focuses on comic books and Thierry focuses on street art. They do share similarities with the use of color found in their artwork and how they illustrate the images they've created. Both films are a good watch and I'd definitely recommend them.