blog: musings

Self-employment update

It’s February! I am coming up on a full year of non-full-time employment. I haven’t had an actual “job,” like with holidays and health insurance and stuff, for about two years now, but I had a pretty regular freelance gig for most of 2006 and the first few months of 2007. When that ended, I started flying without a net, and it’s been scary, rewarding, frustrating and exhilarating in about equal measure.

Nearly a year on, I’m finding myself turning down work-for-hire gigs more and more often so I can have time to focus on the comic and other personal projects. Like Tuesday’s comic expressed (in a fashion), I don’t want to waste or give away any more of my own personal calendar-squares than I have to. Often that means that I walk away from decent paychecks or even potential career opportunities — but in doing so, I’ve realized with growing clarity how important it is to spend my finite energy in pursuit of my own goals, rather than those of an advertising agency, movie studio, or corporate client.

This transition has only been possible because of your generous support. Thank you so much for reading the comic, for blogging about it and spreading the word, for buying from the store and for offering a kind word at conventions. You are the reason I do this and why I’m thrilled to be working very hard on new, exciting directions for not only Wondermark, but the greater Wondermark Enterprises brand. Thank you all for your continued kindness — I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, do it without you.

Drawing: Permanent Scowl #1

Okay guys, I’m serious about this. I am going to teach myself cartooning. So if you like these, share them — the more eyes I have on this stuff, the more I’ll be driven to improve.

I love moving backwards through the archives of comics I respect and watching the skill and style devolve — it really shows how far the artist has come. I hope to look back at these comics the same way, marveling at how bad I used to be. But for now this is what you get.

Click for bigger.

pretty wordy

Drawings: more scowly action

A few of these doodles really capture the essence of this character. Others aren’t really on point at all. But that’s the point of sketching! It doesn’t have to be perfect — in fact, it shouldn’t be, because then it allows you room to develop and grow.

As before, click for bigger.

totally not peeing

Next week: comics!

Submission: the ‘john girl’

ballpoint pen again!

This is a drawing by my old art teacher/mentor, John Arthur Williams. John drew this in the front page of a sketchbook he gave me as a gift. (The sketchbook had crappy binding but the drawing survives excellently.)

John taught me and my fellow students most of the artistic philosophy that bubbles out of me occasionally, and which in fact contributed to the guiding ethos of this site — the idea that not everything has to be great, the idea that you can get a certain energy and liveliness from just letting your pen or pencil glide across the paper with no aim in mind. And it came so easily to him — watching him draw was like watching a photograph develop.

John was the one who used to crumple up sheets of blank paper and throw them across the room, saying “Don’t be afraid to waste paper. It’s cheap.”

Looking through my files I am pleased to notice that I still have lots of snippets of notes and inspirational bits he gave me over the years:

A reoccurring thought, one that frightens me, has continued to run through my mind of late. It is: that I really don’t know how to paint.

When I look at my better works, it’s occurred to me that, were I asked, “How did you do that?” or “What method did you use to execute this?” I would have to answer that I do not know. Even when I begin a new work and I ask these questions of myself, (this is when it is most frustrating) I am faced with the same dilemma, even to the point of having of having to pull my own originals from the walls in order to see what I might have done to bring it off! Amazing, really—but I think that is really how it should be if the process of creation is at its peak. The process should really be unconscious. You should be unaware of yourself in the process; try to let the subject lead you. That’s when it becomes exciting!

So what if I never discover what I did in the last painting that worked?

You can see more of John’s work at his website, here.

Drawing: put that pen down and come to bed

i see you

It surprised me, but in a life-drawing class about eight years ago I discovered I really love drawing with a pen more than a pencil. It makes me more precise.

Not really that evident in this drawing — it’s a bit scribbly — but in general, drawing directly with a felt-tipped marker makes you work more slowly, giving each line more thought.