151 Midtown Art Show

“If you’re in art school, and you feel like you’re wasting your time, then leave. You don’t need it, but if you can benefit from it in some way, make it happen. Just don’t let those years feel like a waste…”

“Don’t do it for the grades. Do it for the experience and what you learn from it. If an assignment is really lame, change it. Make it so that it benefits your growth. If the professor is smart, he/she will understand and respect you for that. As long as you can back up your reasons for changing it. Otherwise, that D will be earned and you’ll feel humiliated.

Take FULL advantage of your resources. If you have access to a darkroom, printmaking presses, a kiln, a computer lab with the latest and greatest software, power tools, lighting equipment, etc. USE IT. It’s not going to be available after you graduate, and it’s m’f'n expensive to find any of that again for personal use. Even if you don’t dabble in half of the resources available to you, at least appreciate that you have access to them.

Okay, so you don’t really like some of your professors and they might suck at teaching and/or you don’t like the way they use their medium of expertise. Get over it. They still deserve your respect. They aren’t your peers and they aren’t your drinking buddies. You don’t have to like them, but it’s pretty likely that they know their stuff and can be valuable resources.

Don’t goof around your last couple years. You’re done being spoon-fed drawing techniques, painting applications, photoshop tutorials, etc. You should know your stuff by now. This is the time when you explore what you’re capable of, if you haven’t been already. That’s the point of the advanced classes… with the guidance of your professor, whomever that may be, you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses, what matters to you and what you want to convey/express, and how you are going to be successful at what you do. It’s NOT the time to be playing around, to become lazy because you’re not handed strict assignments, and it’s not the time to do what you can to get by. If that’s your attitude, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll know how to self-motivate to get anything done as an artist after graduation. Your habits need to begin while still in school, not AFTER graduation. Again, USE YOUR RESOURCES while you have them – that includes the opinions and the guidance of your professors.

Senior Seminar is a complete waste. Don’t expect to learn anything from it. It’s a shame. But, the truth is, no one will hold your hand and tell you how to submit to galleries, write a resume, write an artist statement that MAKES SENSE (ugh), build a website, design business cards, learn how to network, how to promote yourself, how to price your artwork/your services, and how to sell your artwork/services, unless you take the initiative. It shouldn’t be that way. KSU really needs to redesign the senior seminar class and also the portfolio class. The priorities are out of order. The things I listed above are half of what makes an artist successful. Talent and skill are the other half. So, again, get close to your professors and get those questions answered!

Don’t stress out if you don’t know exactly who you are as an artist before you graduate. In most cases, it might be a little premature to assume that you do know exactly what you’re saying with your work. Just make sure you actually seek that out while still in school so that you can hit the ground running (or at least walking) by the time you graduate.

Finally, my best piece of advice is this: You’ve all heard that statistic about how 1 in 100 art students will actually find some amount of success? Don’t be intimidated by that… the solution is to actually be that one person, otherwise… you’re wasting your time, your money, your resources, and your sleep. Half of it is having the confidence to propel you, even if you have to fake it. It’s never about competition… it’s wholly about setting your personal bar just a little higher than you can reach and learning how to jump to grasp it.”

–Kelly McKernan.

What are your thoughts on this? I think it gels quite well with what I’m saying. But what about those of us who got out without getting all of our questions answered? I quest to find the answer to that. More soon! And thanks, Kelly!!

We’ve got some changes to make to the issues before it can be printed. They’re all changes that are worth it, especially in the art department. Josh had originally wanted a more cartoony look for the book, but we decided to add some depth to the art by adding greyscale “color” to it. And what easier and more fun way for me than to use watercolors?

Thus far it has improved the quality of the art nearly threefold. It doesn’t take long to do, but definitely adds a level of life and depth to it that it lacked so sorely before. I’m very excited to see what it looks like when it’s finished. Of course there are writing and editing changes that Josh and Matt are implementing as well, but as a whole the final quality of the book will be much higher because of it. This does mean that the official release date will be pushed back some, but I feel it’s worth it to wait and release a better product than to rush.

As of right now I am still in the process of painting the pages, and they are being relettered. Josh and Matt are brainstoming about the writing, and there is a possibility of an Issue #0 being released in the near future as well, to really introduce readers to the characters and story before the main series begins.

I thank everyone supporting the project for their patience– it will be well worth the wait, I promise! Please stay tuned for more updates in the near future.

If you have a Twitter account and would like for me to follow you as well, make sure to let me know. I like keeping in touch with all my friends.

Follow me here!

This particular theme is more streamlined, professional, and easier to organize. It also forced me to revamp my categories and add tags, but that’s something I should have done to begin with. I’m still tweaking and adding things as I go, but hopefully this can be a theme I can stick with for quite awhile.

This theme was designed by Samk.ca, and is quite lovely.

The realization that I had been treating art like a hobby instead of a career blindsided me early in the morning last Thursday. There I sat at my day job, wondering why all of my efforts to make art a full time venture just weren’t working. Wallowing in thoughts about if I was made of the right stuff to make this successful and what I was doing wrong, it hit me:

A career is the way you make your money, survive in the world, and create your livelihood. Ideally, it is supposed to be something that you truly love and cherish; something that makes you eager to get up in the morning to do.

A “hobby is an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.” (1)

In other words, a hobby is something that makes you happy that you do from time to time. An occupation or career is something that you drive at all the time, constantly whittling, improving, and polishing. I stepped back and looked at my own habits. What have I been doing with my art since I finished my degree?

A little here and a little there. Occasionally. To make me happy.

Well it’s no wonder I’m not going anywhere. I was serious enough about art to spend five years honing my talent at a university, yet I wasn’t serious enough about it make sure I had the same dedication towards it even after I had to get a day job.

Sure, I’ve been really bustin’ it on Vinny since December of last year, and sure it’s been going through tons of revisions and push backs, but what have I done for my OWN art and my own career? Of course I want Vinny to be wildly successful and have it help catapult me into comics success, but there are other things that I could be doing.

The problem I feel I have is that I don’t have the right education. No, I don’t mean I should have gone for a different degree. Most art schools focus exclusively on content production, movements, history, and honing a student’s skills. They may briefly brush on art as a business, but most schools don’t approach it in-depth, don’t give any marketing training, and most certainly don’t help train an artist on how to survive in the real world once that diploma is hot off the presses.

Some artists get lucky. But the ones that are really successful get smart. It’s all about your skills and who you know… but I also think it’s got to do with WHAT you know and what you do to make things happen. So we don’t have that part of our education? It’s up to us to get it, then.

Coming home from my day job and putting off painting or drawing because I have another hobby to feed most certainly isn’t getting me anywhere. Of course life has its own requirements: family, house, bills, pets, etc. But am I truly putting in my all when it comes to educating myself in how to get my work out there? No. I keep doing it for “funsies” and hoping that something magical falls into my lap. Reality check: I seriously doubt I’ll ever get anywhere doing that.

I need to learn more about business, more about marketing, more about freelancing, copyrights, licensing, the whole thing. I should be blogging more, getting my voice heard, and doing more art. Putting it out there to be seen, digested, critiqued, and hopefully purchased.

It’s time to shape up, learn, and be dedicated to my craft or I’ll be day-jobbing it for the rest of my life.

Any other artists (young or old) out there suffering this same problem? Anyone have any advice? It is my personal goal now to learn what I don’t know and do what I’ve been too lazy/depressed/bored to do. I’ll share everything that I discover along the way to help other artists find their way as well.

It’s time to make art my career, not my hobby.

Works Cited

“hobby.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 24 Sep. 2009. .

The Vinny #1 proof copy finally came back from the printers! It was quite possibly the most glorious moment in all of my artist life– holding a finished and printed comic book filled with MY art! My breath was taken away.

And of course as a bonus this means that as soon as it’s OK’ed, sent back, and we receive the printed sale copies (plus as soon as I get far enough along in #2) they will be ready to BUY!!!!!!

In the meantime, life has been busy as always. Dragon*Con was fabulous as always, and I got to meet some cool people. Maybe next year I can have some pieces in the art show. Hmmm, that’d be fun, huh?

Paint Chat HP Insanity — By Joie and Lauren

Considering that we only had access to mice and NOT tablets, as well as a very primitive paint chat (AND I had to use my right hand instead of my left), the fact that we were able to produce anything even semi-recognizeable is a miracle.

And of course, some of the ridiculousness was done on purpose. I mean, c’mon. If you’re gonna be silly, you might as well go all the way.

Our activities insipired us to want to find a decent Oekaki board to join… anyone know of any? Or, alternatively, maybe I could add an Oekaki to my website? Thoughts? Pros? Cons? Interest level?