Friday, December 28, 2007

Am I wrong?

I get a ton of requests that generally go like this . . . "Hey man, dig your work, can you tell me how you do it?" or "Can you show me how to make my art like yours?" "Can you give me a tutorial?"

I have spent the better part of 40 years drawing, I spent 20 of those years (after a failed attempt at art school) working my ass off to actually get paid to draw. I worked shit jobs, Shit graphic design jobs. Yes graphic design is a shit job - ask any artist who had to sit through a trashing of his work by a salesman. In a well know firm where i once worked, I was the only "artist" of 28 hot shot designers who could draw.

I have had more portfolio rejections than I can count. I've had clients who refused to pay for hundreds of hours of work. I lost count of comic conventions I've been to or the hours I have waited in lines next to virgins with sharpies just to get an editors bored rejection. I never gave up.

I now have a small amount of success, hard earned. Working 15 hours a day 25 days a month. I love it and would not give it up for anything.

I heard a comic artist say once "I don't have fans, I have people who want my job."

So for those of you who want to know how to do what I have spent my entire life working for . . . the answer is No.

Go draw . . . with a pencil and some paper. Really.