This is the last of five posts on the topics of my presentation at New Hope Academy’s Ask An Expert Day. Check them all out here!
#5. Seek Out A Community
One of the biggest aspects of college that I miss is the community. I was surrounded by artists for five years, in class and out of it. My friends were artists. Half of my roommates were cartoonists. Since we were in an academic setting, helpful criticism was everywhere, as was encouragement and inspiration.
What a shock it then becomes to leave college and lose that community. I still have a wide collection of friends, but now my friends are actors and directors and writers and teachers and administrators. Very few visual artists. This is natural because, unless you find work at an agency that employes a menagerie of artists, most companies don’t need more than one designer, and freelance and fine artists are by definition alone.
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What have I been up to recently? It’s pretty obvious I haven’t been posting any comics or art projects, and my written observations have not been posted with much regularity. I promise I haven’t been sitting around eating Doritos and watching Netflix streaming all day, though I wish that were the case.
Here you see the first public image from one of the major projects I’m working on now. The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire is producing an original musical called Hero about a guy who draws comic books. Logically, they need someone to do illustrations for the show, which includes marketing images, onstage drawings and sketchbooks, a website, behind-the-scenes drawings, and a full comic book that will appear onstage and be sold at the show. And that person is me!
I’ve been working on this for a couple months now, and this is the first finished art to be produced. The artistic director and I took some time to land on the exact style of the drawing (somewhere between mainstream superhero and autobio comic with a certain level of darkness to some of it). This is not only the poster for the production, but will also be the cover for the comic book. Each of the characters are based on the actors who have been cast in the show.
In about a month, we’ll have a website up for the production that will feature a regularly updated sketch blog, so you’ll be able to see a lot more then.
This is the fourth of five posts on the topics of my presentation at New Hope Academy’s Ask An Expert Day. Check them all out here!
#4. Aligning Your Dreams and Your Work
During my presentation, one of the teachers asked me talk about what it’s like to work for other people and create art for them, as opposed to creating my own work with no oversight. It was an interesting question, one obviously designed to get me to tell the kids that they have to get used to having authority in their lives. And its something that creatives deal with constantly— horror stories about problem clients are everywhere.
For myself, I see it in two ways: if you want to have complete creative control over your art, then you are a fine artist. Fine artists are different from commercial artists in that they are drawing primarily from themselves and their interpretation of the world. These are the artists that inspire us, who we learn about in art history class: Jackson Pollack, Pablo Picasso, Marcel DuChamp. That CAN happen for you, just like you could become a Hollywood A-list actor and make millions of dollars and choose your own projects.
The rest of us, however, have to do our own self-directed projects on the side and spend our days working for other people, which means tailoring your art to meet their needs, to fit into their brand, and to speak as their voice. As a creative professional, how do you deal with that? The trick is twofold:
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This is the third of five posts on the topics of my presentation at New Hope Academy’s Ask An Expert Day. Check them all out here!
#3. Embrace Decision Making
The act of creation require decision making. Where does your first mark land on the empty sheet of paper? What is your base color for this painting? What is the first word of your novel?
If you are creating something for yourself, these decisions can seem minor. Which vegetable in my fridge will be the basis for tonight’s dinner? Worlds will not crumble if you choose radishes instead of sweet potatoes. But choosing the wrong paper stock or ink color can have financial repercussions for your client. Choosing a logo that will represent a company to hundred of thousands or millions of people is some serious weight on your shoulders. People are hiring you to make these artistic decisions.
That’s why you must become comfortable with making decisions in your life.
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This is a follow up to the second of my five posts on the topics of my presentation at New Hope Academy’s Ask An Expert Day. Check them all out here!
#2.5 The Non-Linear Path, Specifically
As a sidebar to my post on Taking The Non-Linear Path, I should mention the topic of specialization, since it was brought up in my classroom presentation. A young woman told me she had a lot of interests and talents and couldn’t decide which to follow. Teachers had advised her to choose one of those interests and specialize in it, because that was the only way to get a job.
I told her that was silly and that she should follow them all. I said it was likely she’d be able to invest in all of her interests at the same time, so she should give yourself permission to take turns with them. Perhaps she could combine them into something unique and unexpected!
Remember, I studied both acting and comic books! I wouldn’t call myself an “expert” on either acting or comics, though I am certainly well-trained in them. I’m certainly not an expert in graphic or web design. But I have found my niche at the intersection of all of these things: I can create marketing design for theaters better than many other designers because I know theatre, both the art form and the process of making it. I use my love of storytelling to tell the stories of the plays or the companies. So, in a sense, I have specialized in using illustration and design as a storytelling vehicle that markets art experiences. If you can call that specializing.
By not choosing only one path for yourself, you can invent your own career path and remain flexible enough to adapt to changes in the economy or industry. Your business (should you be a freelancer or run a company) should absolutely specialize, but as an individual, allow yourself to fully explore your interests and your passions. Don’t close any doors until you’ve at least looked through them. Take the non-linear path.
