3227: Board House
New place is new. I dunno. In some ways, it's better, but in others I'd rather be at Rockledge or on campus. I think it's that no free parking thing =p not even in a garage! So I can't take my lunchtime nap in-car--I had to find a disused lounge area with a chair for not a particularly winsome win.
On the other hand, Subs [substitute super] is kind of... "Eh, we have things to do, but... eh." So I'll basically die of boredom, if anything.
...house!
The problem with drawing technical stuff--buildings and whatnot--is even the slightest deviation in perspective makes it look off. Still, getting it done feels good, since I normally balk at a large task like drawing a whole, intricate background, but doing this reinforces that *just fucking starting it* will go a much longer way toward getting it finished than you might realize beforehand. Listening to Spike's Ustream helps, also, though I wish she'd do them earlier if she's going to do them on weeknights.
On that note, a couple of topics touched on during what I caught of last night's:
- Michael Eisner got the idea for The Gummi Bears after his kid came home from camp one day and asked for the candy--and he subsequently went into the animation studio and said, "Make a show about Gummi Bears," then turned and walked out. [Uh... yeah.]
- Creating a successful serial comic [especially] is HARD WORK--if you enter something like The Rising Stars of Manga and expect to hit it big from drawing twenty pages, you're in for a surprise. [relevance to prior: "creators" who think that coming up with an idea then foisting the heavy work onto actual writers/artists deserves 50% profit share of the final product]
The second is a sentiment I share, that shoehorning yourself in with some Big Name to try to make a name for yourself is basically saying, "Here, take 50% of what I could make!"--if they even take it--mostly for doing some legwork. I know I can't speak from experience, but Spike can, and it says volumes that what she's learned directly echoes what I've learned from observation: "If I had gotten signed by Dark Horse or whoever to publish my books, I would also have to have a day job." It's similar to how bands can make less than minimum wage from touring/record sales, and video game developers... well, I'm a bit underinformed on that front, but I'm sure if you asked Charles, he would gladly cite chapter and verse ¬_¬
Granted, it feels almost *ingrained* to want to see one's stuff in an actual bookstore on actual shelves being badly sorted by actual retail employees, but in the long run the prestige of it isn't really much of an improvement to the great Word of Mouth that is the internet and working conventions. It is much more likely that someone will pick up on your stuff if it's advertised through Project Wonderful or if they pass your booth than if it's on a shelf in a bookstore--especially considering the effort it will take to get Random Mallrat to actually see your book in the bookstore.
Mostly I think it's provident that I put off doing anything with myself until now... can't explain why in defensible words, though =/ except that I just despise the idea of working conventions as a means of putting food on my family XB
My one dissention is that someone who says, "Okay, I drew a page of comic--how many t-shirts should I make?" may not necessarily be shooting him/herself in the foot. A good design can stand on its own, as many others have proven. The trick is having the right design, one that isn't too dependent on the "a page of comic" aforementioned.
On the other hand, Subs [substitute super] is kind of... "Eh, we have things to do, but... eh." So I'll basically die of boredom, if anything.
...house!
The problem with drawing technical stuff--buildings and whatnot--is even the slightest deviation in perspective makes it look off. Still, getting it done feels good, since I normally balk at a large task like drawing a whole, intricate background, but doing this reinforces that *just fucking starting it* will go a much longer way toward getting it finished than you might realize beforehand. Listening to Spike's Ustream helps, also, though I wish she'd do them earlier if she's going to do them on weeknights.
On that note, a couple of topics touched on during what I caught of last night's:
- Michael Eisner got the idea for The Gummi Bears after his kid came home from camp one day and asked for the candy--and he subsequently went into the animation studio and said, "Make a show about Gummi Bears," then turned and walked out. [Uh... yeah.]
- Creating a successful serial comic [especially] is HARD WORK--if you enter something like The Rising Stars of Manga and expect to hit it big from drawing twenty pages, you're in for a surprise. [relevance to prior: "creators" who think that coming up with an idea then foisting the heavy work onto actual writers/artists deserves 50% profit share of the final product]
The second is a sentiment I share, that shoehorning yourself in with some Big Name to try to make a name for yourself is basically saying, "Here, take 50% of what I could make!"--if they even take it--mostly for doing some legwork. I know I can't speak from experience, but Spike can, and it says volumes that what she's learned directly echoes what I've learned from observation: "If I had gotten signed by Dark Horse or whoever to publish my books, I would also have to have a day job." It's similar to how bands can make less than minimum wage from touring/record sales, and video game developers... well, I'm a bit underinformed on that front, but I'm sure if you asked Charles, he would gladly cite chapter and verse ¬_¬
Granted, it feels almost *ingrained* to want to see one's stuff in an actual bookstore on actual shelves being badly sorted by actual retail employees, but in the long run the prestige of it isn't really much of an improvement to the great Word of Mouth that is the internet and working conventions. It is much more likely that someone will pick up on your stuff if it's advertised through Project Wonderful or if they pass your booth than if it's on a shelf in a bookstore--especially considering the effort it will take to get Random Mallrat to actually see your book in the bookstore.
Mostly I think it's provident that I put off doing anything with myself until now... can't explain why in defensible words, though =/ except that I just despise the idea of working conventions as a means of putting food on my family XB
My one dissention is that someone who says, "Okay, I drew a page of comic--how many t-shirts should I make?" may not necessarily be shooting him/herself in the foot. A good design can stand on its own, as many others have proven. The trick is having the right design, one that isn't too dependent on the "a page of comic" aforementioned.