Isabel Pohjanen

Media Literature 2020

Essay 3

Marcos Mateu-Mestre, Framed Perspective 1 & 2

Marcos Mateu-Mestre is has become one of my favorite visual artists in a thunderstorm. He is most
known for his work as a storyboarding artist, who has worked for all the biggest animation studios,
including Disney, DreamWorks and Sony Animations to name a few. Master of his art, he has
mastered down the important tools of perspective to become the critically acclaimed storyteller he
is today. I have acquired all his books and they have been waiting on my table for me to go through
the books I wrote about in the earlier essays.

It is difficult not to compare the book series Framed Perspective to Scott Robertson’s How To- series,
since both dabble through the theme of perspective and most of all, accuracy. Both series are also
from the same publishing company, and Mestre’s books even have a foreword from Robertson
himself. The two-book series gloss over a lot of the same topics, but through a different lense. While
Robertson is a technical drawer and talks very little about design and story, Mestre in the other hand
looks at every topic as a storyteller first, artist second. Even though I will write about the two-part
book alone, I think that it is important to compare the two series, How to Draw and Framed
Perspective, since they have many similarities. It would be hard not to do the comparison. After
reading both, they did showcase enough differences for me to deem the both worth reading and
acquiring.

Marcos Mateu-Mestre has had a long career as a visual storyteller and his books are a precise
depiction of his wide knowledge in how to utilize the tools of perspective to tell a story. Compared
to the fact heavy book created by Robertson, Mestre’s style of teaching is more laid back and chatty.
I was actually reading these two books simultaneously, and whenever I got caught on something I
couldn’t understand on Robertson’s book, I would turn over to Mestre’s book for a different
perspective on the subject. The way in which Mestre teaches is clear and filled with examples, and in
a way it is written so you feel like a student in a class, more than a person reading a book. Mestre
goes from explaining things lightly to telling facts, and the text was separated into small chunks that
were easy to read.

Even though the first part of the book went through many of the same basics that perspective
drawing has as Robertson’s magnum opus, Framed Perspective went better in detail with the
differences of one-point perspective, two point perspective and more. The perspectives were
divided into their own chapters, which is something I felt could have been given more attention in
the How To Draw, where it was explained all on one single spread. The chapters went into good
detail also about how to use these perspectives with storytelling, how does our brain read different
compositions and lay-outs etc. In a way this series puts more focus on the design aspect that I was
kind of missing in Robertson’s books. The chapters at the very end of Part I were one of my favorites,
with tips on how to draw freehand and composition. Most of the tips were new and different
compared to the ones I have read before, with a lot of good insight on what it actually requires to
make working concepts and stories. The last chapter about composition briefly goes through all. Of
the illustrations is the book and gives a short explanation on why each composition was done in the
way that it was. I think that these spreads were super helpful and most of all insightful to the way
that Mateu thinks as he is building an image.
I highly admire Mr. Mestre’s work and while I was reading the books, I found his way of teaching
easy to digest and apply as I was going through the different exercises in the book. As I went through
the first part, I kept a notebook along with me so I could make notes about what I learned to make it
stick to my brain tighter. I ended up making tons of notes to the notebook and the book itself, after I
came to the conclusion that it might be more beneficial to have the notes in the book itself too, in
case I ever lose the notebook. As I did with the How To Draw, I ended up going through several
exercises more than once, since there was still a lot of things to take in even though I had previously
read a book that glossed over the same topics. I noticed that a lot of things I had learned were still
there, but not clear enough for me to use them creatively or recall them from my memory in the
future. I deemed that it would be the wisest if I just patiently went through everything, even though
at some points I felt a strong desire to skip some topics. In the end, I think the patience turned out
being the best thing, since a lot of techniques and concepts needed specifically the info on how
Mestre does something so you could proceed with the book. I can also definitely recognize that I
have gotten more patient with the books after the beginning, although Framed Perspective is a
much easier read than the ones I did read before.

The most interesting aspect of Mestre’s books is the fact that he has worked in a long line of top
productions for the animation industry, and many of these movies are still deemed as classics. The
way that he talks about stories and technical drawing is easily understandable even though he has a
long career behind him and it became every apparent for me during the read, the he did not get
good because he had just talent. Everything in every frame he creates is calculated to the smallest,
and he has reasoning for his choices, more than just intuition. He has knowledge and he shares these
small details to the reader.
The second part of the two-part book series had something I have not read before properly in any
other book about before: technical drawing for shadows, volume and most importantly, characters.
Even though I have other books on topics such as anatomy, volume and casting shadows, I cannot
recall ever reading a piece that goes into such detail and depth on combining all these aspects with
technical drawing. All this is to eventually tell a story, which is something not many books teach
besides the techniques needed to draw properly.

On the first glance before I began reading the book, I thought that the second part would only go
through the basics of anatomy and leave it at that. But as I proceeded, I learned lots of tips on how
to apply a human form into a three-dimensional place, which has always been hard for me to do, as
it is difficult for many artists. Also, the second part was in a way different to the first part, so it made
sense that they had cut it into two separate books. For me as a student trying to study the
fundamentals, it was the best thing that during my read I could carry one lighter book along instead
of one enormous one that had not been split into two. This was also stated as reasoning behind the
separation by Mestre himself, and it is very apparent that he has carried many heavy books with him
during his time as an artist. User experience is important with books too.

Even though I love the Framed series and I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat, the
second part is in not perfect. For example, the book has a chapter where Mestre taught about
anatomy. The information was good but in total it was short compared to the detail in which Mestre
goes through perspective. To be fair though, this is not really the book to learn the basics of a human
form from and the book does not claim to be one. I would say that this is mostly about how to place
the knowledge you already have about the human form in a three-dimensional space. I personally
have several books about anatomy, so I was not really expecting to learn about it from this book
anyway. And I don’t think that I’m even at that point yet where I can move to living beings, I have
happily surrendered to the fact that I have to draw many cubes in perspective before I can even
begin to think about being confident with the human form.

I think that reading The Framed series together with the more technical take of the How To-series
was a good move. Both books seem to support one another because they go through many things
that the other one does too, but from a different artist’s view. This is most likely unintentional but
bound to happen when writing about the same topics. I do think it was beneficial for me as a student
though, the different view on why things are done was fresh and helped me solidify many of the
concepts I started forming during my time spent with Robertson’s book. I think that the way that
Mestre writes is so pleasant that it’s amazing that I know very few colleagues from my studies who
even knows about the guy. I would recommend his work to anyone, this a series I will be going back
to over again. The tone was not condescending at all, but rather encouraging.

This is a book that I have been raving about for all my friends who do art. I was a huge advocate of
Mestre’s work for professional learning when I first read his first book, Framed Ink. But the amount
of knowledge he has on perspective is so wide and vast, that this is a book I would recommend to
any artist, especially professionals. I think that I have spent a long while reading different
instructional books for artists, and there is a lot of books that I could not recommend for anyone,
because the books try to gloss over too many topics and don’t take the time to truly teach the
concepts properly. Framed Perspective is something I could recommend in a heartbeat. In my
opinion these two books have all the main details about perspective that an artist would want to
know. Learning everything in between the pages would most definitely give an artist such a wide
knowledge on subject, that the artist could go on for many years with these books only. That might
be a bold opinion according to some, but I would choose the Framed series if I had to choose one
series out of all the ones I have read.
Since I am halfway through with me reading the books and writing the essays, I think that looking
back this has been very beneficial to my improvement as an artist so far. Practicing fundamentals is a
tough cookie to chew on, but after many years of slacking on the subject, it has been great to see
how fast it is possible to develop if you truly try to figure out what you can improve upon. After
reading so widely about perspective, shadows and volume, I have noticed a very clear change in the
art I create. I most definitely do not master everything yet and won’t for many decades to come. But
I think that it is extremely encouraging to see how much it is possible to develop as an artist when
you practice.

For many years I used to think, that art was something you were just good at, and that some people
would just reach the limit of their development as an artist, including myself. I think that has been
one of the things that I have never been happier to be wrong with. It is wonderful to have fallen in
love with knowledge and learning after a long while. I currently feel really motivated to learn from
the best artists about their craft, which is a feeling I have missed terribly. I have been interested in
making money, and even though I would be lying if I said that it was not still a big motivation of
mine, it’s wonderful to feel passionate towards art after a long while.

I would think that these books will be a big part of my development as an industry professional. The
thing that I learned during my time at Bon Games was that the fastest way to learn is to be smart
and learn from other artists. Reading books created by industry pros is a big asset. For example,
Mestre has written pretty much all of his knowledge of the subject of perspective in the pages of
Framed Perspective, and that means decades worth of valuable learning that has been applied in the
field. And in all the biggest productions the world has seen in the field of animation and film. I am
eagerly waiting for more pieces to come out from Mestre, since I already have all the Framed series.
Even though I won’t write about the rest of the series for these essays, I have read those before and
will keep on going through them in the future as well, as I will be going through Framed Perspective
1&2.