Monday Morning Marty & Minnie -- 12-31-07

Here's wishing you a New Year full of warmth and togetherness!

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

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24 Mammals in 24 Hours!

On December 22, Storyteller's Workshop illustrator (and my wife) Jennifer Rae Atkins is having a unique event over at her site, The Daily Mammal: 24 Mammals in 24 Hours.

To quote from her site:

"On Saturday, December 22, I will be drawing a mammal every hour. That's right, I'll stay up all night, draw and scan like crazy, and post the mammals here for you to see.

"I'm not just doing this because it will be fun, though. It's for a special cause: Defenders of Wildlife, a 60-year-old nonprofit organization operating nationally, that works to protect wild animals and their habitats. For more information about what they do, visit their website. If you have questions about how and why I chose them, post 'em here.

"Now, here's where it gets fun for you, too. If you make a donation of at least $25 (using the DONATE button on the right-hand side of this website), you get to request a mammal. I'll draw it on December 22, then I'll send you the original art! Each mammal drawing is about 5" by 8". I draw on tracing paper (but I don't trace!) with markers, pens, and colored pencils. I'll send your original art along with a gray piece of cardstock, like the ones I use when I scan my drawings, to provide the perfect background for framing your mammal. I will send all the mammals out on Monday, December 24.

"Tell me your favorite mammal (or, if you don't have one, let me choose one for you) and donate at least $25. You'll help animals and get a lovely piece of original art. The button's just right over there! And please stop by throughout the day on Saturday, December 22, to give me some moral support!"

Jennifer is a talented artist and a real lover of animals. Your support, financial and otherwise, will mean a lot to her, and to me. Make a donation, request a mammal and watch the fun all day and night on December 22. I'll be supplying the coffee.

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Monday Morning Marty -- 12-10-07

Today's Monday Morning Marty takes us back a few years. This is Marty as a puppy, about three and a half years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long. Such a Sweetie!

The picture uses a Micron pen, most of it using the same line width. The result reminds me of illustrations from the 1970s, which were often traced from photos (as this one was) and have that expressive cross-hatching intermixed with a close tight following of the original photo. In this case the hatching was used to simulate the grass that Marty was sitting in. I put the hatching in fairly loosely, less interested in capturing detail than I was in making a general impression, and in creating a gray tone that Marty's white body could stand out against.

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Behold: The Power of Networking

I had two emails waiting for my on my laptop Monday morning. (No, actually I had quite a few more than two, but two emails that are relevant to this story.)

They were both people interested in my storyboard work. They were both people I'd never worked with before, or even heard of before.

And they both heard of me through Internet networking sites.

The first one I read was from a guy who learned of me from the business networking site LinkedIn. He was friends of, and on the network of, a friend and client of mine, so he found me through her.

The second one needed a storyboard artist and found my listing on Production Hub, a site of companies and services for the movie and video industry.

The first guy needed storyboards right away -- overnight, in fact -- and had contacted other people besides me. I gave him my rates -- including the rush charge for the immediate turnaround. He emailed back saying that his AE thought it was too much, but that he loved my work and wants to work with me on something in the future -- hopefully when it's not a rush.

(So I didn't get the job, but I did position myself as an illustrator who is good, experienced, and therefore not the least expensive one out there. If I'd come back with a lower price -- say, waived the rush charge or something -- I'd have looked desperate, unprofessional, and like someone who charges arbitrarily, which I don't. You always have to be able to negotiate with a client, but if you lower your price, get something else from it instead -- a delay in due date, or black-and-white instead of color, or a more limited rights transfer. In this case the guy didn't even make a counter-offer or ask me to come down on the price -- if he had I would have tried to accommodate, without simply giving him an unearned discount.)

The second guy loved -- LOVED -- my web site. He wanted to buy one of the Albuquerque Tricentennial Posters from me if I was selling them. (I wish.) He hired me for a chunk of time to do his storyboards, and sent me a large advance via PayPal. He didn't even mind that I'm no longer in Philadelphia -- I'd moved several months ago and forgot all about the listing on Production Hub, so I never updated it. (I've updated it now, you bet!)

(Later that morning I got a THIRD storyboard inquiry, but that was from a previous client. While it's a great part of the "Look What a Great Monday Morning I Had" story, it doesn't belong in the "Behold: The Power of Networking" story.)

So I got two inquiries on the same morning via two different networking sites. Neither one charges a cent for the listings, and I've already received several hundred dollars in advance, and have a gig lined up for next week that will bring in several hundred more.

What's the moral here, folks? Anybody? The moral is: put yourself out there. Get on professional listings. And don't be choosy, especially among the free sites; I'd been on Production Hub probably for well over a year and never heard a peep from anyone -- until this job worth a couple of thousand dollars fell into my lap.

And if you learn of some good professional listing sites that do cost money -- consider making the investment. One job from them will pay the costs, probably, if the jobs that you see on the sites are good ones. Those sites where the only illustration jobs that come through are t-shirt designs for someone's nephews birthday parties -- and those are usually paid subscription sites -- I don't bother with those anymore.

I had a problem with taking the time to find those sites, to get marketing messages out there -- to post on my blog -- until I realized that it's the prefect activity when I don't want to start drawing yet! It's a great form of constructive procrastination! Try it!

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Monday Morning Marty & Minnie: Comparison

This sketch was done as a comparative study of Marty and Minnie's chests.

Though they're both roughly the same size, Marty is a lot heavier than Minnie. That's because Marty is solid muscle, whereas Minnie is mostly fur.

In this sketch comparison, you can see Marty's barrel chest on the right. He's got the muscles. His wide chest accounts for his front legs being so far apart.

Minnie's front legs are often far apart, as they are in this sketch, but that's more to do with poor posture than athletic physique. You can see her chest is a lot less bulging, a lot less muscular. And much of the volume that's there is her longer fur.

The odd perspective regarding the legs and tail, etc., are due to the fact that both the dogs were sitting right in front of me while I sketched, so I was looking down at a sharp angle. At first they were hard to keep still, but the more attention I'd give one, the more the other would want it, and they quickly figured out that sitting still was their way to get it. Quick learners, these two.

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Repeal Day

Those of you who are fans of my webcomic Jazz Age -- and those of you who aren't -- might find this interesting.

This Wednesday -- December 5 -- is Repeal Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment here in the U.S., which repealed the 18th Amendment which had prohibited the sale, transportation and manufacturing of alcohol. We just called it Prohibition. And the makers of Dewars scotch have a web site up called RepealDay.com.

I was surprised by the depth of research that went into the site. There's one section that talks about the way Repeal Day used to be observed. For instance, to celebrate the 21st Amendment, festivities usually commenced at 21:00 hours, or 9:00 PM; the first drink of the night was usually non-alcoholic, to remind the guests of life under prohibition; and at midnight the host usually has a toast to reflect on what repeal has meant to them. This isn't just drunken abandon here.

They've also put together a station on Pandora.com called "Underground & Cutting Edge: 1920's" that plays music of the era. There's a lot of good ragtime and old jazz -- it sometimes veers way off course in time period, giving us much more recent blues and whatnot, but what can ya do?

Prohibition plays a pretty big part in Jazz Age, as it played a large part of everyday lives back in the 1920s. Those of us who want to harken back to those days and pay tribute to our grandfathers' time might want to host a Repeal Day party -- if nothing else, it's an excuse to get together and celebrate. And you don't have to drink Dewar's -- I'm a Jack & Coke man myself.

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