Hey all..it's been quite a bit since my last post. Due to some ill-fated financial decisions on my part, I've had the happy duty of moving once again and staring over once more. My website is dead....my blog is stagnant...and in just trying to regain order in my personal life, many things INCLUDING cartooning have taken a back seat to the priority of getting my ' balance' back.
Albeit one of my most favored forums for the discussion of tooning has given up the 'ghost'. I do try to at least stay in touch every so often. I can no longer post toons as my media for doing so has been suspended for what seems to be an indefinate time. However, if there are any my fellow tooners out there who'd like to talk toons, please write me at
angel_winstead@hotmail.com and I'll be only too happy to 'chew the fat".
Until then, I hope to hear from those of you who I have valued as friends.
Take care......................Tim ( Komik Strip Kartoonz)
" Man !!!...that's the 5th friggin' pencil this week !!."
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Time for another
Hey all..Man !!..what a week. My day job has kept me so busy that up from down isn't even neglible anymore. however, I did manage to buckle down and crank out some artwork, which is pretty cool to say the least. Some fascinating things have been happening to a tooner friend of mine. Pastor Z, whose last name is not something I'll try and pronounce here..has this strip called 'Church Mice' and as of late...very rewarding things have come his way. This man deserves all that comes from his efforts and I , for one wish him all the best. I am very fond of his strip and the quality of work is awesome...some of the best out there. I'd like you all ( providing people actually read this blog ) to chime in here or over at Planet Cartoonist Message Board and wish this guy the best. He is accomplishing the things we all wish and want to. Best Wishes to you Pastor...we're all pulling for you
Friday, April 6, 2007
New perspectives are often the hardest ones to see.
Hey all and once again I feel a need to bring to the board another slant on a issue most of us deal with. Over the past month or so, I've dealt with what I thought was a lack of time to toon issue.
In recent days,I've come to realize that it was fear.Fear of the very rejection that all cartoonists dread and yet utilize to make them a better artist. Fear of a rejection from face-less people I most likely would never meet. A fear that I wouldn't have what it takes to make it ..and land flat on my face. Through the 'point-blank' honesty of a fellow tooner who offered a bent ear and painted a different picture of what I always believed to be a 'routine' occupation. I did manage to come to terms with it and stop tagging it as a ' no time ' thing.
Put the fear on the back burner and just do it. Right or wrong...good or bad...chance or not one in a million years..who knows?? I DO know this: I have this God-given talent and it would be a shame to waste it on doubt and fear. I am a cartoonist and a very good one at that. Trouble is...the world doesn't know it yet...that willl change.
Take care everyone and please..post your take on this.Talking about it helps.......I know.Thanks Mike
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Not enough hours in a day
Hey all...it's once again time for me to write about something slightly inane and quite possibly of little or no consequence to anyone.
However, after a brief period of thought...I may actually touch on a subject here that some of you can sink your teeth into. With respect to my fellow professional tooners out there..this isn't aimed at you..we all know you have NO time.
This 'rant' is aimed at my struggling fellow tooners who hold down day jobs...do the 'domestic' thing at home..rear kids...fix things around the house, and hopefully find time at the end of the day to breathe.
The good thing about a dilema such as this is that there is no deadline to meet.
The downside is that there isn't any time to get better at it....so you CAN be in a position to HAVE a deadline.
As with you guys..I love to draw and see what my warped mind can produce by way of my
even more warped imagination. What sucks is that, like most .....the other aspects in your life need to be balanced out and .......well, most often in my life......tooning just doesn't get done.
There just aren't ENOUGH hours in a day.
But...I do try to allot some time whenever possible to at least jot down some ideas...throw a quickie sketch or two together and somehow justify those tasks as part of the process..so I can say I did something related to a toon.
If there is anyone out there who can elaborate on what it takes to squeeze about 30 hours out of a 24 hour day......please let me know.
Thanks all....til next time
However, after a brief period of thought...I may actually touch on a subject here that some of you can sink your teeth into. With respect to my fellow professional tooners out there..this isn't aimed at you..we all know you have NO time.
This 'rant' is aimed at my struggling fellow tooners who hold down day jobs...do the 'domestic' thing at home..rear kids...fix things around the house, and hopefully find time at the end of the day to breathe.
The good thing about a dilema such as this is that there is no deadline to meet.
The downside is that there isn't any time to get better at it....so you CAN be in a position to HAVE a deadline.
As with you guys..I love to draw and see what my warped mind can produce by way of my
even more warped imagination. What sucks is that, like most .....the other aspects in your life need to be balanced out and .......well, most often in my life......tooning just doesn't get done.
There just aren't ENOUGH hours in a day.
But...I do try to allot some time whenever possible to at least jot down some ideas...throw a quickie sketch or two together and somehow justify those tasks as part of the process..so I can say I did something related to a toon.
If there is anyone out there who can elaborate on what it takes to squeeze about 30 hours out of a 24 hour day......please let me know.
Thanks all....til next time
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Cartooning for Me
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.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Bike Week Cometh
Well gang..it's almost here. The Eternally popular Bike Week.
During my 'day' job, I actually await this event with anticipation. You see, although I don't own a Harley..I am an avid biker. I work in the Enginneering dept. , which is nothing more than a glorified term for maintenance man. In that capacity, it befalls me to install the telephones and internet lines that vendors will use in our building, You see...this week, as we do every year..we host the annual Harley Davidson Motorcycle Show.This event acts as one of a great many hubs that bikers can enjoy.
What does this have to do with tooning??. Actually, quite alot. You see, there is this exclusively commissioned artist that shows up every year who does these awesome paintings. Not entirely sure of which media he uses...possibly oils, but the point is....his renderings are incredibly life-like..to a point of doing the double-take .These things look just like photographs. The hoardes of people that crowd this guys booth are huge. The relation to tooning ? Most of us,if not all have learned that in order to create great toons, we must observe real-life in order to understand proportions , perspective and how to exaggerate our toons to make them funny and memorable. When I see this guys work, I find myself staring much like everyone else and in observing this most life-like of illustrations...I seem to pick up on ways of working certain elements into my toons, albeit with nowhere near the skill level this guy has.
However, these observances garner me a better understanding of elements in my toons I feel weak on and after taking mental notes on the little this and thats..I make improvements on my own work. It's certain this guy has no idea of the impact that his work has on people such as myself...but I do look forward to yet another year of ..." How is that done?" and " Can I do something like it?".
This long winded story leads me to beg the question :
Has there been an artist or artists whom, regardless of media...have done work that you not only admired, but just from a visual standpoint...learned something you could use in your work?
C'mon guys and gals..belly up and tell me your tale, because like it or not...none of us are so good that there isn't somebody better we've learned from.
During my 'day' job, I actually await this event with anticipation. You see, although I don't own a Harley..I am an avid biker. I work in the Enginneering dept. , which is nothing more than a glorified term for maintenance man. In that capacity, it befalls me to install the telephones and internet lines that vendors will use in our building, You see...this week, as we do every year..we host the annual Harley Davidson Motorcycle Show.This event acts as one of a great many hubs that bikers can enjoy.
What does this have to do with tooning??. Actually, quite alot. You see, there is this exclusively commissioned artist that shows up every year who does these awesome paintings. Not entirely sure of which media he uses...possibly oils, but the point is....his renderings are incredibly life-like..to a point of doing the double-take .These things look just like photographs. The hoardes of people that crowd this guys booth are huge. The relation to tooning ? Most of us,if not all have learned that in order to create great toons, we must observe real-life in order to understand proportions , perspective and how to exaggerate our toons to make them funny and memorable. When I see this guys work, I find myself staring much like everyone else and in observing this most life-like of illustrations...I seem to pick up on ways of working certain elements into my toons, albeit with nowhere near the skill level this guy has.
However, these observances garner me a better understanding of elements in my toons I feel weak on and after taking mental notes on the little this and thats..I make improvements on my own work. It's certain this guy has no idea of the impact that his work has on people such as myself...but I do look forward to yet another year of ..." How is that done?" and " Can I do something like it?".
This long winded story leads me to beg the question :
Has there been an artist or artists whom, regardless of media...have done work that you not only admired, but just from a visual standpoint...learned something you could use in your work?
C'mon guys and gals..belly up and tell me your tale, because like it or not...none of us are so good that there isn't somebody better we've learned from.
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" My NOT So Prolific Profile"
- Tim Winstead
- Ormond Beach, Florida, United States
- I draw,I cook,I fix things,I ride my motorcycle and work my tail off. I run my website, Komik Strip Kartoonz for the sheer enjoyment of it. I do daytrips, and like to try new places to eat. I like sci-fi..reading books when time permits, and catching an occassional movie every now and then. Over all, I have the attention span of a teetsy-fly and need to do all this stuff to keep myself from slipping into a catatonic state and drooling all over my clothes.