Monday Morning Marty -- 7-30-07

For today's Monday Morning Marty, instead of a single image, I decided on a series of quick gesture drawings. I'd said last week that I wanted to keep the Marty drawings loose and fun, to make them more of a series of studies than worry about perfect image-making or slick, polished illustration. So this week I'm pushing that to its ultimate.

Quick gestures like these make great warm-ups before going into more detailed illustration, and they make excellent study and learning guides for getting familiar with a subjects proportions, mannerisms or expressions. But they're also great drawings in and of themselves, as they capture a quick snapshot of a moment. In the fact that the strokes and lines are quick, unpolished and unrefined, they can reveal as much about the artist as about the subject.

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Inspiration: Joseph Lorusso

Yesterday I went up to Santa Fe -- about an hour or so's drive from Albuquerque -- to visit with some agencies there and show my work. While up there I sent some time with my lovely wife Jennifer. In addition to her Daily Mammal and Atkins Institute blogs, she also works full-time with a museum exhibit design firm up there.

While up there, Maggie -- our friend and Jennifer's coworker -- told us about her brother-in-law painter. His name is Joseph Lorusso, and he's having an opening this Friday in Santa Fe.

I was floored by his work. Here's a guy who can paint. His work really hearkens back to the Golden Age of illustrators -- few painters today have that style or, frankly, the ability. But Joseph Lorusso's got it!

Check out his work, and if you're in the Santa Fe area on Friday, come out to the opening. He's showing in other galleries across the country, for the rest of you.

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Albuquerque Sustainability Map

Last week I went to a social held by the Duke City Fix, a local online group and blog, and ran into Chantal Foster. Chantal, in addition to designing the DCF blog (and being a good conversationalist) also does IT for the City of Albuquerque, and about a year ago I did the graphics for an interactive map highlighting some of Albuquerque's sustainability features. It's a good map -- she did a great job animating the elements, and it turned out well. Check it out!

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Inspiration: Otto Soglow

Goofbutton.com has posted a great collection of single-panel cartoons and sequences of Otto Soglow.

Soglow's one of those artists whose work you've probably seen, but didn't know who did it. I've seen his work in countless old books and magazines growing up. His little king character might seem familiar. Enjoy!

Thanks to Drawn: The Illustration and Cartooning Blog for letting me know about this post.

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Monday Morning Marty -- July 23, 2007

Here's my contribution to the Monday Morning Marty catalogue for this week. It was drawn from a live model, not from a photograph. I have no problem with drawing from photos -- most of my work uses photo reference, including several of my Marty drawings. But one of the reasons for taking on the weekly Marty drawing series was to get back to drawing for the sake of drawing, and drawing from live models, and drawing just for the fun of it.

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How I Make A Comic Strip

Welcome to my summary of putting together a comic strip. Or at least, my way of putting together a comic strip. This isn't going to be "how to draw" (I'm sure I'll cover something along those lines before too long) so much as it is "how to set up to draw."

Everyone needs a system for putting together a comic strip. Drawing comics is as much a job as it is a calling -- and on days when you don't really hear that calling, it's still a job. And for most cartoonists, it's not a very good paying job. So it's essential that you have a system in place, a streamlined and standardized way of going about the task. I draw seven strips for Annie a week -- six dailies plus the color Sunday strip -- and I need to get that work done quickly and get it out the door by deadline, and still leave time for other freelance work, my webcomic Jazz Age (I'm on hiatus right now, but it's usually a full-color strip written and drawn every week) and, if I'm lucky, my family. I don't want to waste any time here. I need to get the boring stuff out of the way, to give me the most time actually drawing, and get it all done fast.

The system I show won't work for everyone. It may not even work for anyone, except that it works for me. Other comics artists use other systems -- maybe some of them will comment here on theirs -- but this is the one that has evolved for me. Even if none of this is applicable to you, young apprentice, I hope you at least come away with an appreciation for the need for a system.

The process begins with the script, which is written by Jay Maeder and gets to me from my editor, Tracy Clark. the script tells me who's doing what, who says what and what is being shown in each panel. Since we've worked together for some time now -- just over three years -- Jay and I have a pretty good understanding of what each other wants and expects, so his scripts are not very detailed. He trusts me to know the right angles to show things in, and to make the new characters interesting and appropriate.

After reading through the script, I go to my layout worksheet. This is a worksheet I made up that gives me little boxes, scaled-down versions of the individual strips, and lets me sketch out the six dailies on one page. These layouts are loose and sketchy -- since I'm the only one who needs to refer to them and since I'll be drawing the final art in a day or so, I don't need to go into much detail -- I'll remember what I had in mind. The most important aspect of the layouts is to show roughly where all the important elements are.

The next step surprises some people. I do the final lettering. Years ago I made the best investment of a couple hundred hours I could ever have made -- I created a digital version of my own hand lettering, in Fontographer. And I made alternative versions of most of the letters, which you can access by hitting OPTION with the letter, so double letters don't look quite so obvious. I also made up a library of word balloons in Quark -- which I've since transferred to InDesign -- that I can put the lettering into, and which are resizable and adaptable to any need. Using the layouts as a guide, and an InDesign template that has the strip dimensions preformatted, I create the panel sizes and add the lettering balloons, copying and pasting the dialogue directly from the script emailed to me by Tracy.

Why do I do the lettering first? After years of frustration with trying to make lettering balloons fit a tight space because I underestimated it when I drew the panel, or having to cover up some really nice background art I drew with a balloon, I realized that the artwork was more adaptable than the lettering. It's easier, in other words, to make a figure, or a face, a little bigger or smaller in the panel to fit the space after the balloons are put in than to make the balloon bigger or smaller to fit the space after the artwork is put in. A figure, or a face, can be partially cut off and still work -- words are rarely that flexible.

Once the lettering and layouts are completed, I print them out on good card stock. I used to pay a small fortune to buy Bristol board pads, cut them down to size and throw away the extras -- they never did learn to make those pads 11 x 17" -- and then start doing the lettering by hand. Now, I can buy 11 x 17" card stock and print out the lettering, all ready to go, for a lot less! Even before I got my large printer, and had to email the InDesign files to a printer to output onto the card stock, it was still cheaper than buying the Bristol board. And it works just as well for drawing on. Nearly. It's not quite as thick, so it can warp if you lean and sweat on it too much. Oh well -- everything's a trade-off.

So now, with the lettering and panel borders printed on the card stock -- I put two dailies on one 11 x 17" sheet, or half of a Sunday strip -- I'm ready to get down and draw. Which, as I mentioned, I'll have to cover another time.

With the line art all done, I scan the artwork. Until I invest in an 11 x 17" scanner, I have to make two scans of each page and splice them together. Then I clean up the scans, and send the strips to the editor for approval. Ta-daah!

For the Sunday strips, after I scan the artwork, I create a color guide for the print house, which they use to put together the final color files for the newspapers. That'll also be another post.

So there you have it. My system. My regular process for breaking down a very large job into bite-size pieces and taking care of them in order. Like I said, it may not work for others, but it works for me. Every week. Now I feel tired.

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Monday Morning Marty -- 7/16/07

Here's the Monday Morning Marty for this week -- and instead of the usual pencil sketch or line drawing, I went with a different approach, and digitally altered a photo of Marty into a painting look. I still plan to have the Monday Morning Marty series be predominantly sketches, drawings and maybe the occasional real painting, but digital illustration is legitimate, too. So today you get a little variety.

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Tutorial Will Have To Wait...

Dad-gum it. Wouldn't you know it?

I was just in the middle of some really good writing, explaining the need for a good comics-making system and outlining the beginning of the process. I was writing about the rough layout stage, and the layout worksheets I use, and was going to scan the most recent one.

Then I realize I'd thrown it out. And it went out in the trash.

Sigh.

I saved the draft, and I'll pick up working on it next week, when I will SAVE the next layout worksheet in preparation for this series.

Boy, it's going to be a good one, though. Just you wait. It really, really is...

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On Being a Comics Reporter

Last week Alan Gardner, the guy who runs the excellent Daily Cartoonist blog, put out a call for cartoonists and people in the comics world to help fill in for him during his vacation, which began yesterday. I wrote in saying I'd be happy to! It'll be good exposure for me, I figure, and it should be fun, too. He says great, thanks me, gives me the login info and all, and off he goes on vacation.

And then it hits me -- I'm supposed to find NEWS STORIES for this blog!

The Daily Cartoonist, for those of you unaware, is a great news source, with all the latest about who's doing what, what comic strip collection just came out, who got fired, who got picked up -- and I'm supposed to contribute to this? Daily Cartoonist is where I find out all this stuff!

Luckily there are two other volunteers who are also filling in for the vacationing Mr. Gardner -- Charles Brubaker and The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon -- both of whom seem more than capable of filling in single-handedly. I've been supplying a few stories so far, and I'm actually enjoying tracking them down, but it's clear I'm not needed for my journalistic sleuthing. I can't compete with these guys there.

But one thing I can do, that neither of them can lay claim to -- I can talk about what it's like to draw Little Orphan Annie!

I'm going to put together a series of posts on the creation of a comic strip, and link those posts to Daily Cartoonist. I know, it's shameless self-promotion -- except that I am, just a little, ashamed -- but that's what I was asked to do, dammit. Daily Cartoonist is a site for fans of, well, cartoons. And cartoonists. And cartooning. Even if you prefer the term "comics illustration." (I know I do.)

So look for those posts to begin some time soon. Maybe in mere moments, depending on who calls me in the next few minutes with work.

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It's a Wrap -- I think...!

The storyboard job is finished now. At least I think it is. I sent in my batch of "final" panels this afternoon and haven't heard back. That's not uncommon -- they're incredibly busy, of course, and have better things to do than tell me that they don't need anything from me. Since my scheduled time with them is up, I'll just assume it all went well unless I hear otherwise from them.

One of the hardest aspects of self-employment is the need for objective thinking about your work. I go to every new client with a little trepidation, a little nervousness. Even though I know my work is good, there's no guarantee that someone else will think so, and if their expectations are different from mine, there could be trouble. And when I'm being paid for my time, as opposed to charging for the project, I'm sensitive to the possibility that a mistake of mine will cost my client a good deal of money.

Luckily, they seemed to like my work. I liked it. And hopefully they liked it enough to recommend me to the next movie that comes to town. I'm ready!

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Clients: Illustrators Help with Summer Vacancies

It's that time of year again, folks -- summer vacations. I've seen several business-related sites talking about coping with the vacancies in offices that these vacations cause. Wells Fargo's Business Roundup has one such article. One resource those articles don't mention, but which you should consider, is... well, me.

A good conceptual illustrator can help take the burden off your hands. I'll go into the difference between a conceptual illustrator and the other kind in a future post, but for now let's just say that a conceptual illustrator is more than a pair of hands. He or she has a variety of styles and applications, and works at finding the right solution to the problem, instead of needing everything laid out in front of them to just follow skillfully.

As a conceptual illustrator, I can work with an art director to come up with a piece that's the right fit for the project. I can be given some rough ideas and can run with them, freeing up the art director or designer to get on with other things.

If you've got a project that could use some illustration to give it some pop, some project where you can't even think of how to approach it, what visual to give it or what style might work with it, I can not only provide you with some great illustrations but can help shape the direction of the piece. Give me a call, drop me an email and let's see what we can come up with.

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Monday Morning Marty

This week's Monday Morning Marty was drawn on Sunday afternoon, after Marty had had a nice long fetch session in the park near my in-laws' house in Albuquerque. Since we moved here, Marty's really been enjoying himself. He just couldn't get this relaxed and have this much fun in Philadelphia. The closest he every came was at my parents' house, which has a beautiful big lawn just like the park here. Marty loves fetching the tennis ball at full speed about a hundred times, then for some reason he's tired. Like he was here.

The drawing, like previous Marty drawings, was first done in pencil, then gone over with a Micron pen. I liked the line work as is, so I didn't color this one.

He looks pretty happy, I think. He's wearing his red bandanna. So cute.

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Deadbeat Clients -- err, Client Misunderstandings

I'm in the middle of some difficult negotiations with a client who hasn't paid me yet for work I did, and invoiced, months ago. (Don't worry, guys, I won't name names!) Dealing with clients who won't pay up is one of the hardest things a freelancer must deal with.

The title for today's post is intentionally provocative -- not all clients who don't pay on time are "deadbeats." Sometimes an invoice gets lost between departments. Many times the art director I'm working for will ask me to email or mail the invoice to them, and they'll pass it on to accounting. And that's often where it falls through the cracks. Sometimes the person who needs to cut the checks goes on vacation, or maternity leave, or resigns, and there's another opportunity for an invoice to get lost.

My invoices ask for payment within 30 days. Sometimes the agency has a policy not to pay for 45 days. Some agencies say that I won't get paid until they get paid by their clients. Obviously, I'm not a fan of that mindset. Do these agencies tell the utility companies that they'll pay their bills when they get paid? Can I tell my landlord or mortgage broker that? I was hired by the agency, not their client, and if I can meet the deadline for my work, they should be able to meet the deadline of payment.

But, even though my invoice says that a late fee of 10% per month will be added after 30 days, I never do that. At 30 days I'll send an email asking if the agency in question has the invoice, and where it is and when I can expect to see payment. It's usually not until 60 days, if it goes that far, that I'll start getting a little pushy. I've only issued a second notice invoice with the late fee added once or twice in my career, and even then, if the agency just paid the initial amount I wouldn't press the matter of the late fee.

The problem of the late fee, of course, is enforcing it. I know I have the legal right to impose such a fee, but if my client disputed it, do I want to go to court or through legal proceedings over it? Of course not; I'd rather just get paid.

The other problem with these negotiations is trying to keep relations with the agency on good terms. On one hand, you don't want to burn bridges, and pushing for late fees and bothering people is a good way to do that. On the other hand, if the agency really is bad at paying on time, or at all, and if this isn't the first time you've had this problem with them, do you really care if you work for them ever again?

I've had couple of clients in the past who would never pay on time. Both of them were habitually late -- sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. I did my best to keep talks with them completely civil, to gently but firmly demand my money. And I made it rather obvious to them that I would not be interested in working with them again. Neither of them called again.

The reason you don't want to be rude or disrespectful in these cases -- the reason you should never be rude or disrespectful ever, in any case -- is that, even if you decide you'll never work for such a firm again, those individuals you're talking to may move on to other agencies. You want them to remember you well, even if you have major disagreements, when they start working for a company that does pay on time. They may be as frustrated and angry at their company's inability to pay on time as you are, but if you take it out on them, instead of getting their empathy at your frustration, you'll become the target of their anger. And you'll burn a bridge.

It's never easy working your way through this kind of situation, but if you keep half your attention on the short-term goal -- getting your payment -- and half on the long-term goal -- making sure your reputation for fair, respectful behavior remains unmarred -- you'll find the right balance, and do what's best for your business.

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Making Use of the Time You've Got

So the storyboard job is well underway; I wrote about it in a previous post. I'm drawing storyboards for a few sequences in the new Kevin Costner comedy Swing Vote. The work is going very well, indeed -- so well that I find myself with plenty of down time.

Don't get me wrong, I love down time -- especially when I have other projects to work on, like the Annie comic strip which needs a week's worth of strips, six dailies and a color Sunday, done every week. By starting early, over the weekend, and putting in evenings, I got the week's worth done today, just in time for the July 4 holiday -- I'll be able to relax tomorrow.

But the reason this down time is significant is that the film company's paying me by the day. I'm getting a day rate, for five days total, and to be honest, they're not working me very hard so far.

Of course, if it doesn't bother them it shouldn't bother me. We're not behind schedule, in the least -- on the contrary, they might love the latest revisions I sent them this afternoon and not want me to go back and tighten them up, and I'll be done two days early.

But when I agreed to work five days, I committed myself to them for those days. The other work I've done was never at the expense of their work -- it was only done while I was waiting to hear back from them, after finishing the work so far and sending it in for review. But to part of me it still feels like I'm cheating, like I'm getting away with something.

I remind myself that as long as I make myself available to them -- and I haven't made any other appointments or commitments for these days so that I would be available to them -- then it's okay if, while I'm waiting to hear from them, I take care of other work. It's actually a great arrangement for me, obviously. The director seems happy with the work so far, as does the director of photography. So it's all good, right?

In fact, as a freelancer whose time is valuable I have a duty to make the most of the down time, to take full advantage of the gaps in my storyboarding workload to get other work out of the way. To not do so might make me feel more loyal to the film company -- for reasons that don't even make any sense as I'm writing this -- but they'd be at the expense of my business. I can't afford that kind of luxury.

Just as a good freelancer needs to accept without shame when things aren't going well, a good freelancer also has to accept, without guilt, when things are.

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Monday Morning Marty -- July 1, 2007

Here's my Monday Morning Marty for the week -- just a quick sketch of the pup while he sits in his kennel. We have another dog staying with us a couple of days, while her owners, family members, are on vacation, and while she eats, Marty stays in his kennel. Perfect opportunity to sketch the ol' hound dog.

Still the least happy with the head. He moves it around too much. As I get more practiced drawing him, I'll be able to do it quicker, and capture the gesture more accurately. But this does look like him. Especially that sweet, hangdog expression. And the crossed paws in front. He's so classy sometimes!

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