Hey, I know exactly what you’re talking about with the Mad Magazine kid. I’ve never liked that character. He’s always struck me as weird in an uncomfortable and creepy way. Like he’s stupid and perverted or something. I can’t really explain it, but I know how it makes me feel.
It’s the uncanny valley effect, isn’t it? Like, almost everything in Rockwell’s paintings is photorealistic but the facial expressions are slightly too caricatural, too exaggerated too be real. Human faces don’t quite work the way he paints them. On one hand, those faces convey an emotion instantly On the other hand, it’s an inauthentic emotion, theatrical, even dumbed-down - all ambiguity removed and subtlety forgotten. The girl is Proud, the woman is Concerned, the principal is Reflecting.
Hey, I know exactly what you’re talking about with the Mad Magazine kid. I’ve never liked that character. He’s always struck me as weird in an uncomfortable and creepy way. Like he’s stupid and perverted or something. I can’t really explain it, but I know how it makes me feel.
Yes! The Mad Magazine kid has the exact same quality that puts me off of Norman Rockwell’s style.
It’s the uncanny valley effect, isn’t it? Like, almost everything in Rockwell’s paintings is photorealistic but the facial expressions are slightly too caricatural, too exaggerated too be real. Human faces don’t quite work the way he paints them. On one hand, those faces convey an emotion instantly On the other hand, it’s an inauthentic emotion, theatrical, even dumbed-down - all ambiguity removed and subtlety forgotten. The girl is Proud, the woman is Concerned, the principal is Reflecting.