Stuff. (I'm not deep, yo.)

I often get asked what other webcomics I read. Not many, I’ll admit that. Why? A couple of reasons. First off, lack of time. There are a zillion and a half webcomics out there and trying to keep up with them all is a job in itself. Secondly, most of them are…… well,… let’s generously say I’m not in their target demographic.

But there’s another reason – I have nothing to learn from them.

Learn from them you ask? But they are comics! Enjoyment! Escapism! Right? Not entirely.

This past weekend in NYCC I heard from several fans, artist wannabees and fledgling creators about how they like to check out other webcomics to see ‘what they are doing’.

Looking at other webcomics is like looking sideways not forward. I need to look at art that challenges me to understand how things are accomplished. I see other disciplines at work to solve visual problems I may never encounter, but in imagining them I exercise my imagination and the skill of the critique. When I turn that back on my own art, it keeps the bar raised ever higher and encourages me to strive for improvement. In striving, I search for newer artistic venues, and artists, to inspire and challenge me. The end result of all this is that I, hopefully, improve as an artist and continue to enjoy what I do.

Any artist worth their ink learns the difficult skill of the critique. More specifically, this is constructive criticism not bad-mouthed opinionated whining. In learning to crtique we most especially learn to edit our own work with honesty. The best way to do this is look at everything you like or dislike with a discerning eye. In that observation you can understand why you think the way you do. By understanding that, you then can learn from it.

For example, I may like a Picasso. I seriously doubt I’ll ever paint like him, but in critiquing it I can understand what it is that makes me like it. Perhaps it’s the colour or composition. I might want to borrow the palette for something of my own. I might want to remember the vigour of his strokes to create textures or the balance of values. I might just want to remember that it’s a picture that makes me happy for no reason and I can look at it when I need the escapism. That’s okay. After all and it’s why most people look at art.

But I am not most people. I draw comics.

Let’s redefine things a moment. Unless you are truly taking advantage of the infinite canvas possibilities of a webpage, you are just drawing a comic. I draw two. They happen to be on the web, but they are formatted in a traditional print manner. I draw comics.

See what I did there? I just stripped away a bit of the fiction that those of us who publish ‘online’ are somehow special. We are cartoonists, illustrators, writers and storytellers. The medium of our choosing isn’t anymore different than a painter using oils vs one that uses watercolours. I’m not a ‘webcartoonist’, I’m a cartoonist with work on the web. I’m not a ‘digital illustrator’, I’m an illustrator who works in Photoshop. I’m not a ‘manga-ka’, ’cause that’s pretentious and just fucking stoopid. I draw comics.

It’s so much fun that at times I wonder how it can be legal. I never ever want to be bored by it or bore my readers with my work either.

I recently wrote Tom Richmond of Mad Magazine fame a brief note, to which he replied very promptly.  I read Tom’s blog pretty regularly and the man writes almost as beautifully as he draws.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Tom a couple of times at past NCN conventions and he’s a great teacher and advocate of cartoonists and caricaturists.

Another person I’ve been reading recently is Steve Silver over on Facebook.  Steve is a lead character designer in today’s animation field and recently started an artist’s group on Facebook where he posts motivational points on working as a creative individual.

Then there’s Sean ‘Cheeks’ Galloway, a comic artist and character designer who posts sketches and in progress designs, blogs, animates, and even though I’ve met him only briefly never forgets my face when we bump into each other at a convention.

Do you spot a trend yet?  Successful, hard working artists, with families and jobs and probably even busier than I am in my own little world yet they still find time to blog and encourage and correspond with people on a regular basis. Whereas I find difficulty returning most emails within a three month period.  It struck me that I should stop envying them this ability and do something about it.

As I look at the disorder that is my studio, I realized what I’m doing wrong is a question of discipline.  Sure, I have discipline.  I couldn’t put out nine comics a week without it, not to mention merchandise designs and other odds and sods of art.  In the meantime though, the paperwork piles up, correspondence goes unanswered and the dustbunnies form warring societies behind the cpu like something out of an old EC comic.  What I need to do is take that same energy and occasionally point it in another direction for an hour or two to get other things done and done well, so I don’t have to call 9-1-1 when a pile of old comics collapses upon me, pinning me to the linoleum as the cats pine for attention.

It’s not so much a question of priorities.  I think I have those ducks well lined up.  It’s the sundry activities in life that I make excuses about, that really would only take a few minutes of my attention to set mundanities right, instead of neglecting them until they become monsters I can’t ignore.

When someone asks me about being an artist, I always tell them there’s no shortcut for practice practice and MORE PRACTICE.  There are no shortcuts. I think I may have just figured out there are no shortcuts for the rest of life either and I better start lifting my ponderous butt out of this chair a little more often to deal with it.

Later!

So apparently it’s not so much that I never have anything to post about but that I never have time to post after the fact!  The past couple months certainly have been very full.  Back in October I not only got to enjoy Manitoba Comic Con but also participated in the 24 hour Comic Challenge under the fine care of Nick and Adam of 8Bit-4Colour, Kingston’s premiere comic shop.  I got to attend a metal concert backstage and caricature the band.  November of course, was all about my creative partner, Ryan Sohmer, getting married.  The bachelor weekend was held in New York City, where a dozen of us gathered to fete him with overpriced drinks and Broadway tunes.  This past weekend was the actual wedding and was a beautiful ceremony (my first Jewish wedding) and a gathering of friends and  family to start the couple off on their new life. 

Sometimes you get to attend a wedding where everyone is checking their watches, not because it’s late but because they are counting down the minutes to the divorce.  Sometimes you get to attend a wedding where everyone is sighing because the couple has long delayed the move of solemnizing their relationship.  And sometimes you attend a wedding all pissed off because it’s a cash bar.

This weekend was none of those. 

This past Saturday night, I was proud to stand among the friends and family to witness Sohmer marry the love of his life, Sue.  A surprise?  No.  The man has never been happier than when he’s with her.  Risky?  Hardly – the two of them are incredibly self-sufficient while also being hugely supportive of one another.  There may be more confident people out there, but I’m not sure I’ve met them.  You know how people say a bride is ‘radiant’?  There were times I could barely look at Sue as she was as a white flame, a blazing column of feminine strength and love that filled the synagogue with her love.  The extended family represented three generations of people who were intelligent, good humoured and so filled with love for the new couple.  It was a marvelous gathering.

What’s that you ask?  Cash bar? Please!!  Sohmer knows how to throw a party.

Not since my own wedding do I think I’ve enjoyed myself more.

We’ve got a week to get through before Sohmer returns and the hectic Christmas season steals the focus but if you have a minute this week, do yourself a favour and pause in your day.  In that moment, let a warm feeling of love creep into your psyche and know that it’s from the reality that there’s a new soul made of two people now living as one. That love is spilling out to include us all.

Later!

Hey

Just remembered… I’ve got a couple of my cut paper caricature pieces in an exhibit going on right now in Montreal. The show runs till November 12th and is at the Maison de la culture Frontenac on Ontario St.  The show is the annual 1001 Visages show, which features caricature, portrait and editorial cartoons, primarily by Quebec artists, but they are slowly expanding it to across Canada and a few select international artists.

You can find more info at their website: www.1001Visages.ca.

Later!

11x14, cut paper

I needed a break this evening, so despite being tired and knowing I should go to bed, I stayed up an extra hour to do a caricature of Audrey Hepburn (a la Breakfast at Tiffany’s).  There’s a monthly caricature ‘challenge’ on the NCN website and she’s the subject for September. Good fun.

I think the b&w is more successful than the colour, but it was fun to apply the soft skin tones and work the visual contrast against that luxurious graphic black.  Enjoy!