Monday Morning Marty & Monday Morning Minnie!

We got a new dog yesterday -- Minnie! She's a beautiful lab mix, about a year old or less, and just as sweet and cute as can be. And best of all, her name begins with M, so I can draw her or Marty on Monday mornings and keep that important alliteration.

This is a sketch summing up Marty's reaction when we first got Minnie home. He made his dominance clear from the start. But Minnie soon pushed back, then show her submissiveness, and pretty soon they were getting along like old friends!

I'll let you know how things go with Minnie, but so far it's going well!

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Monday Morning Marty -- Marty Deco!

This week's Monday Morning Marty is an Art Deco-inspired poster of our favorite pup. I wanted to get in some practice of my Pueblo Deco style, and I wanted specifically to recreate the look of the WPA posters of the thirties for our beautiful National Parks. Those posters are characterized by colorful, simple backgrounds, solid blocks of color making stylized subject imagery of animals or whatever.

I'm not sure of these colors for the final piece -- I just made this Sunday night, and may want to look at it again in a couple of days and refine it. And I'm not entirely sure of the drawing itself -- a couple of the legs are worrying me. But it's a good, solid start, and with a little tweaking should make a fine addition to my portfolio.

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Another Key to Success: Ideas!

Last week I saw an item online about a certain historic theater here in New Mexico celebrating its 80th anniversary. (I'm leaving out the theater's name, because no deals have been signed, but anyone in Albuquerque can probably guess the theater in question.) I immediately thought of the Pueblo Deco, World's-Fair-style tricentennial posters I did for the City of Albuquerque last year, and realized that this theater -- a Pueblo Deco landmark -- needed a poster like them for its own. (Now the rest of you in New Mexico have figured out the theater.)

So I emailed the theater manager and told him that if we worked quickly, we could have Anniversary posters printed up in time for the Holiday shopping season. He wrote back saying they weren't interested in anniversary posters, since they'd become dated quickly, but were interested in putting together a new poster for the theater. We're now in the midst of working out the details.

See how easy that was? This could be a big project for me, and all it took was for me to see an opportunity and make an inquiring email. Email! I didn't even have to send a letter or -- yikes! -- make a phone call!

In a profession like mine, it's easy to get passive, to wait for the work to come to you and then get it done. Even with aggressive self-promotion, the focus is usually that I'm available, that I can do what you need getting done. I sit back and hope for a big break. And big breaks do come -- occasionally. But in order to get further in your career you have to make those breaks. You have to go out and do more than say "I can do whatever you want." You have to say "This is what you want."

The biggest break in my career was probably the Albuquerque Tricentennial posters, but that didn't exactly fall in my lap. I was hired by Rick Johnson & Company to draw up sketches of what the posters would look like, to sell the concept to the Tricentennial Committee. They hadn't picked an artist for the final work yet, but were looking at some guy in Toronto, I think. I told them I could do the job, and they were wary. I hadn't done anything of that scale before. So when I did the sketch, I made it very, very tight, to show them I could do this. That, my enthusiasm, plus the good PR they'd get for hiring a local boy (doesn't hurt!) got me the job.

That's a great story, but the fact is I should have been pitching ideas to companies for years now. I'm very slow at learning this business, but I am learning. I need to do this more often -- go out and look for possibilities. Since that theater anecdote, I've sent similar proposals to two other organizations -- this time by mail, to make things a little more formal. That and I couldn't find an email address for one of them.

Whatever your field, if you're not where you want to be, you need to go out and make it happen. You can't wait for a big break to fall in your lap. If you want to work on more important projects at your job, tell your boss that. If you want your writing hobby to become a business, find someone who could hire you to write and then convince them. You can't afford to be passive, to hope that someone else can see how you could help them in some way. You need to come up with the ideas, and then show them. Sometimes that's all it takes. Even if they don't like the idea you're pitching, they'll see that you do have ideas.

Just don't be pushy. People hate that.

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Monday Morning Marty -- Marty in the Rio Grande!

Yes, the Monday Morning Marty is back!

This weekend Jennifer and I took Marty to the banks of the Rio Grande, which is about a mile from our new house. Marty had never seen a big river like this, and we didn't know how he'd react.

After a little initial trepidation, Marty took to the water like... well, like a duck to water. He loved it! We tossed sticks for him to fetch, and he loved jumping through the water to get to them! At one point he found the rather disgusting skull of what we hope was a coyote, and despite our repeated attempts to get rid of it he kept bringing it back. He was a muddy mess by the end of it, prompting a long-delayed bath when we got him home.

These are sketches of a couple of my memories of the adventure. He sure loved diving into that water! We'll have to take him back again, the next time he's due for a bath.

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"I'm here to win, not to make friends."

You see it all the time on the reality TV contests -- candidates who snub their fellow contestants, are rude to them, lie to them, get into shouting matches with them, all to supposedly gain some sort of advantage in the show. This makes good TV, of course -- but does it really help? And even if it does, is it worth it?

I'm not talking about the shows like Big Brother, The Amazing Race or Survivor, where the show is just a game. I'm thinking of the career-oriented shows, like The Apprentice, Project Runway, Top Chef -- even America's Next Top Model. Shows where the contestants are trying to show what they can do in their profession, or would-be profession.

Let's leave alone for a moment whether such a strategy actually helps you win. Overall -- with the recent exception of Evil Dick in Big Brother -- the abusive people, the bullies, the "b*tches" rarely make it to the top. But let's assume for a moment that it will help you win. Is it still worth it?

On the career-based contests, I'd say the answer is no. And that winning the game isn't really the most important thing you can do on such a show.

Shows like Project Runway and The Apprentice are wonderful PR opportunities for the contestants. The chance of coming away with the grand prize are slim, but once you're on the show, the chance to demonstrate your professionalism and hard work ethic are is a sure thing. Comport yourself well, be courteous, respectful and no-nonsense, put out your best work with no excuses if you come up short, and you'll just about assure yourself a good career after the program airs, regardless of how far you make it. Your future clients, bosses and coworkers will want you on their team. You'll have cemented a solid reputation, which is the most valuable prize you can take away from such an opportunity.

Be one of the "villains" of reality TV, and you'll assure yourself a future of spots on Best Week Ever and The Surreal Life. But you won't make yourself very attractive to the people you need to work with in your chosen profession. (Unless being a reality TV whore is your chosen profession.)

This lesson is well worth learning even for those of us who somehow don't make our way onto a reality TV show. (Full Disclosure: I was a contestant on The Weakest Link. No, not her, the daily syndicated version with some American guy as host. No, I didn't win, but I made it just shy of the final round, and I only got one question wrong. Yes, it was a Harry Potter question.)

When you're trying to land a job, or get a client, or score a big assignment, don't get so caught up in that short-term goal that you lose sight of your long-term aim -- to build a solid reputation for honesty, reliability and achievement. That other guy you back-stabbed to jump ahead of him may be the one who ends up working for the next company you want to work for. Or your contact at a client that you consider too small to give your best efforts to may get a job with that really big client who's looking for an illustrator and asks her who she recommends.

In the freelance illustration business, as in any business, the winner is the one who does make friends.

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