I have read in recent months, countless accounts on the amount of work , self promotionals and the kind of multi-tasking that would drive most people to early graves or sanitariums, that cartoonists put themselves through to sell their work. When hearing these tales of woe, as expressed by some..I recall those early days when daydreaming about becoming a professsional cartoonist were very vivid in my mind. Albeit pretty naive about the rigors of what it took to become that 'professional', I never dreamed that so much effort would be required by cartoonists to eke out, let alone make a decent living from it. Flash forward to the present day when I decided to give it a go and try this cartoon thing again, which in actuality was about six years ago. In the 'practice' ' practice' ' practice' process which is a given, I tried to educate myself in what it REALLY took to ....and I use this term loosely......to make it !.....in the world of tooning. I gotta tell you that I didn't like what I heard or read. "This sucks ! " I thought. "How could it be that the ONE thing I love most in the world..well..other than my significant other and my family, be such a pain in the a** to suceed in ??". "It really shouldn't be like this" I thought.
I decided to quit..re-try...quit..and re-try again. A lot of do's and don'ts..wills and won'ts...what happens if it flies...and a LOT of ....what happens if it don'ts ? .
Well...I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not putting myself through that kind of turmoil. If that's what it takes to be that 'professional'....you can have it. I am NOT going to put myself through that kind of stress in order to appease someone else. I am not going to take my love for the art..the act of creating pictures that originated in my mind...and throw it to the 'dogs'.
The way I see it, if my cartoons are liked and well recieved, then I've already achieved what I sought out to do. I love to draw..and that's really the crux of it. But if I decide to do what I've heard from countless cartoonists, as the BEST ways to sell my work...FORGET IT !!.
No way!...I already work a forty plus hour week..do my at home 'domestic' thing..spend time with my other half and as much time as possible with my daughter when I can.. So passing out from exhaustion is about all the creating I can muster.
At this rate, I normally save up about five minutes to breathe, and sometimes that's a push.
Look...I truly LOVE to draw and would love to make my experiences of drawing cartoons that people appreciate and hold a fondness for, something that I can go to meet my maker, feeling proud of having done. That is true success to me.
Rounding out one's life with the knowledge that anything and everything you'd ever tried to do was something the 'Big Guy' would nod approvingly of.
Believe me, I have a huge amount respect for those cartoonists who have pushed themselves past their limits..lost vast amounts of sleep...put their private lives on hold..and gave of themselves 150 percent to please those whose approval meant earning an income....to have 'made it' and become that definition of the ' Successful Cartoonist'. but I'm just not built like that.
I work a good job with the county ,which I've held for almost twenty years..I've recently purchased my second home..actually have a little money in the bank no less ,and still find time to draw. But to draw at my pace and not that set up by someone I've never met. To me, a cartoonist becomes a cartoonist because he or she loves to draw which is the way it should be....but given today's views, policies and whatever it is that governs the way cartoonists become professional ...just sorta let's the air out of the whole process for me. If I'm going to draw for a living, I wanna do it because I love to..not because it's part of a dreadful job I've grown to dislike due to it's metamorph -like change from a talent I loved to use into a skill I hate. If I'm the one with the talent that there may be a demand for, then it's well within reason to be the one calling the shots and not the ones who run the way things are done with and to cartoonists these days. It is not how I intend to use my god-given talent and flitter it away.
When I post my cartoons, it is because I enjoyed creating them and not because I gotta give an editor something to keep my toon from being pulled. I post them because I like the feedback I get. I post them because, when you get right down to it...I love to draw and draw WITHOUT all the rules...deadlines...and the rest of the unsavory trappings of being or trying to be... 'professional. I draw and subsequently post because somewhere out there...someone has just seen one of MY cartoons, for perhaps the first time and a smile,laugh,or both has crept across their face. If I can do that and be 'known' for that alone...then that to me is what being a 'successful' cartoonist is all about. Professional or not.
It is for that reason and that alone that I toon...no more and no less.
If there is some influencial individual out there that is interested in my work and will work with me on MY terms, then I may actually become that professional cartoonist I thought I wanted to be, but the real world reality of it all is that situations such as that are very unlikely, so it's back to the drawing board to do what it is that made me want to become a cartoonist (paid or not) in the first place...and that is to draw.
So...to all my fellow tooner's out there...professional and aspiring alike...I wish you all the best.
I'm gonna go draw something for me.
I decided to quit..re-try...quit..and re-try again. A lot of do's and don'ts..wills and won'ts...what happens if it flies...and a LOT of ....what happens if it don'ts ? .
Well...I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not putting myself through that kind of turmoil. If that's what it takes to be that 'professional'....you can have it. I am NOT going to put myself through that kind of stress in order to appease someone else. I am not going to take my love for the art..the act of creating pictures that originated in my mind...and throw it to the 'dogs'.
The way I see it, if my cartoons are liked and well recieved, then I've already achieved what I sought out to do. I love to draw..and that's really the crux of it. But if I decide to do what I've heard from countless cartoonists, as the BEST ways to sell my work...FORGET IT !!.
No way!...I already work a forty plus hour week..do my at home 'domestic' thing..spend time with my other half and as much time as possible with my daughter when I can.. So passing out from exhaustion is about all the creating I can muster.
At this rate, I normally save up about five minutes to breathe, and sometimes that's a push.
Look...I truly LOVE to draw and would love to make my experiences of drawing cartoons that people appreciate and hold a fondness for, something that I can go to meet my maker, feeling proud of having done. That is true success to me.
Rounding out one's life with the knowledge that anything and everything you'd ever tried to do was something the 'Big Guy' would nod approvingly of.
Believe me, I have a huge amount respect for those cartoonists who have pushed themselves past their limits..lost vast amounts of sleep...put their private lives on hold..and gave of themselves 150 percent to please those whose approval meant earning an income....to have 'made it' and become that definition of the ' Successful Cartoonist'. but I'm just not built like that.
I work a good job with the county ,which I've held for almost twenty years..I've recently purchased my second home..actually have a little money in the bank no less ,and still find time to draw. But to draw at my pace and not that set up by someone I've never met. To me, a cartoonist becomes a cartoonist because he or she loves to draw which is the way it should be....but given today's views, policies and whatever it is that governs the way cartoonists become professional ...just sorta let's the air out of the whole process for me. If I'm going to draw for a living, I wanna do it because I love to..not because it's part of a dreadful job I've grown to dislike due to it's metamorph -like change from a talent I loved to use into a skill I hate. If I'm the one with the talent that there may be a demand for, then it's well within reason to be the one calling the shots and not the ones who run the way things are done with and to cartoonists these days. It is not how I intend to use my god-given talent and flitter it away.
When I post my cartoons, it is because I enjoyed creating them and not because I gotta give an editor something to keep my toon from being pulled. I post them because I like the feedback I get. I post them because, when you get right down to it...I love to draw and draw WITHOUT all the rules...deadlines...and the rest of the unsavory trappings of being or trying to be... 'professional. I draw and subsequently post because somewhere out there...someone has just seen one of MY cartoons, for perhaps the first time and a smile,laugh,or both has crept across their face. If I can do that and be 'known' for that alone...then that to me is what being a 'successful' cartoonist is all about. Professional or not.
It is for that reason and that alone that I toon...no more and no less.
If there is some influencial individual out there that is interested in my work and will work with me on MY terms, then I may actually become that professional cartoonist I thought I wanted to be, but the real world reality of it all is that situations such as that are very unlikely, so it's back to the drawing board to do what it is that made me want to become a cartoonist (paid or not) in the first place...and that is to draw.
So...to all my fellow tooner's out there...professional and aspiring alike...I wish you all the best.
I'm gonna go draw something for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment