by Christopher Hart | Jun 18, 2013 | Blog old, Slide Show
Ah yes, the quintessential question for today’s overly-scheduled person. You carbon-based units amuse me. Nonetheless, I know that time is a precious commodity. So, how does one find the time to practice? The easiest way is to simply blow off school or work, and draw all day.
You probably already thought of that, but would like some other choices, too. Here’s the problem: Many budding artists go through intense creative spurts. These are often followed by lulls, where they do little, if any drawing. Common wisdom holds that, in order to practice, an artist needs to first feel inspired to create.
Jettison this ridiculous thought. Think about what would happen if everyone worked that way. You call up your plumber to fix a backed up toilet. And when he arrives, he just sits there, at your kitchen island, for an hour or two, while waiting for inspiration to hit him.
Not a good plan.
You’ve got to practice when you feel like it, and when you don’t feel like it. But don’t do it so intensely that you risk burning out, or dreading it. It’s much more effective to practice moderately, but with continuity, rather than in big spurts. As a general guideline, I recommend practicing 2-4 times a week, for 40 or more minutes at a time.
Now that we’ve decided on a reasonable schedule, let’s figure out how to fit it into your busy week. For me, I usually sketch for an hour or so while watching the day’s news on TV in the evening. As a result, my drawings improve, but I end up knowing precious little about world affairs.
Take a sketchpad with you to the beach. Take it on vacation. When you go to an amusement park where there are long lines. At the zoo, for sketching animals. In the plane or train. When you go to the park. At waiting rooms for doctors’ offices. Or, as you sit in a shoe store while your wife or girlfriend shops. Take it when you visit the in-laws. Or better yet, skip a visit to your in-laws and draw at home. The thing is that any time spent drawing is quality time. That’s because much of creativity happens at a subconscious level. When you split your attention between two different things at the same time it’s, it’s almost impossible to judge yourself critically. There’s only so much room in the brain. Therefore, creative work, like drawing, can sometimes flow better when you’re distracted.
So the take away for today is:
“Don’t stop whatever it is that you’re doing in order to draw. Just add drawing to whatever it is that you’re doing.”
by Christopher Hart | Jun 18, 2013 | Blog old, Slide Show
Let’s say that you want to get better at drawing. How much should you practice?
This is an excellent question, and not just because I wrote it myself. All right, maybe a little bit because I wrote it myself, but mainly it’s because sooner or later, every aspiring artists asks this question. Let’s break this down into two parts: first, how much time should I practice; and second, how often should I practice?
The answers are counterintuitive: Take it slow; take it easy. Don’t work at it so hard that it takes the fun out of drawing. Fun is an essential element in cartoons and manga. If it stops being fun, or if you no longer get the satisfaction that you used to get from drawing, then you’ve turned it into a chore. And there’s another important aspect to this: By leaving some part of your practice session unfinished, you’ll look forward to resuming. And taking a break from a drawing, even a brief one, almost always adds perspective to the creative process.
If you find yourself especially motivated one day, and inspiration is just flowing all over the place, then don’t force yourself to quit early! Ride the horse where it’s galloping. (My, but we’re having a lot of animal metaphors today….)
Specifically, how much time should you devote to practicing? The answer is: Enough so that you feel that you’re making progress. But it doesn’t have to be fast progress – and here’s the weird part – you don’t even have to be improving to show progress.
“Dear God!” you utter, totally bewildered, “Is there no end to your cryptic vagaries??”
Well, I’m not quite sure what “cryptic” and “vagaries” mean, but since you asked, I’ll try to wing it. You see, when you’re learning a new technique, you’re breaking old habits. You’re going out of your comfort zone. And that means the drawing may, at first, look worse. This is where some people get discouraged and quit. The ones who stick with it, through the troughs, often end up with far better skills than they ever imagined.
So the takeaway for today is just this:
“Two steps forward and one step back makes for steady progress.”
by Christopher Hart | Jun 16, 2013 | Blog old, Slide Show
Cartoon characters need personality in order to hold a viewer’s attention. A cartoon can be drawn with skill and care, and yet, fall flat. It can even be funny and energetic, and still not connect with the viewer, because it lacks personality. In my opinion, a great case in point is Disney’s “Roger Rabbit.” Never heard of it? I rest my case.
Here’s the key: Your audience wants to find something that they find engaging about a character. Otherwise, the image becomes boring. And if you’ve ever noticed, boredom is never a strong positive. No one ever says, “I feel like getting bored.” So we try to avoid that.
To make a character – your character – engaging, something about it, some feature or trait, has to be compelling. This is often misinterpreted to mean that you have to make a character “likable” in order for people to like it. We can scoff at people who hold this wildly inaccurate view. Yes, my artistically inclined friends, simply hurl that thought from your brain as fast as a banshee recoils from a glass of sour milk. At least, I assume banshees recoil from sour milk. What kind of a warped, unholy banshee would actually like sour milk? Please quiet down. You’re getting me off topic.
Back on track again: The thing to remember is that there’s a big difference between making a character “likable,” or compelling to watch. That’s what we’re talking about, along with a little banshee humor tossed into the mix.
No one can like every character. Who warms up to a villain? Lawyers? Okay, that’s one. But it’s hard to come up with more examples. However, a villain can be wonderfully engaging it their wickedness. They can be syrupy sweet and cunningly disingenuous. And the audience will find it hard to take their eyes off such a character. Therefore, you’ve got to find something in each and every character that is charismatic, in its own way. Pokies rely on luck, and your previous spins won’t affect future spins in any way https://www.playpokiesonline.org/play-for-real-money.
Today’s cartooning takes away is simply this:
“Create villains that viewers love to hate.”
by Christopher Hart | May 27, 2013 | Blog old, Slide Show
When I was in art school, the instructor told us two things that I devoted to memory: First, the directions to the school cafeteria. And second, he said that the word “artist” is a gift-word, which you can’t bestow on yourself. People must refer to you that way before you can rightfully claim that title as your own, he said.
I understood his point, which was that, just because you call yourself an artist, doesn’t mean you are one. After all, most professions have some type of minimum standard or credential.
You can’t go around calling yourself a lawyer and defending people without a JD, unless you’re eager to see what the inside of a jail cell looks like. And you can’t call yourself an economist if your resume includes “change maker” at the annual carnival.
But the creative arts are a different animal. Often – and this was the case in my life – an artist acquires professional credits before he or she ever sets foot in an art school, let alone earns his or her college degree. While I believe it’s fair to say that the majority of artists who have had some training possess more skills than the artists who have been exclusively self-taught, such is not always the case. There are many artists whose only formal training has come from eating a few sliders during recess while stealing some time to practice from how-to-draw books. Charles Schultz of “Peanuts” fame toiled away at a how-to-draw correspondence course. Self-taught artists are not uncommon in the profession.
When I recommend a graphic artist, illustrator, or colorist for a particular freelance job, some formal art education is a plus. However, I have also referred, and hired, artists with zero formal training, and few professional credits. They were generally young and early in their careers. The main thing, aside from the quality of their portfolio, was whether they presented themselves as professional artists. A person, no matter how talented, who is working on an accounting degree, but has an amazing portfolio (oh yes, this stuff happens) would not make an appealing candidate, because their priorities lay elsewhere. Most publishers or clients who are doing the hiring are looking for people who are “all in.” There’s just something dedicated about them. You know that their artwork means everything to them. Why? Because they’re “artists,” even if they don’t have formal training, or the professional credits.
Today’s take away is:
“You are what you dream to be.”
See You Soon,
Chris Hart
Your Cartooning Sherpa
