Today, I met up with a couple of old friends (installers) and attended my first awesome here in Indianapolis. Nate and Aaron helped promote me in ways that I couldnt have done nearly as effectively on my own. It really helps to have a good wingman or two inspiring you and not letting you leave without talking to every guy in the room. Sam Ellis, character designer for Archer and artist on the Adventure Time comics (and a pretty awesome guy), gave us some good advice about networking and told me about the Small Press Expo (next September). I met Jay Faerber, a writer Id corresponded with on several occasions over the years on the Image Comics forum. I spoke to the founder of Big Dog Ink (a small company out of Chicago) and met a dozen artists (some of them from here in Indiana). I got a lot of encouragement. Most everyone told me what everyone has been telling me for a while now: Youve just got to make a comic and put it out there. Just make comics. Just do it. Make a comic. Show you can complete a project. Get a booth and sell it. Put yourself out there. Do it. Thats what Im about to do. Send pitches to companies. Produce an original work. Get it done. Promote it. Do another one. One artist, Jon Buran, explained that he tries to make half of every frame (roughly 50% of every frame) black so it reads well (readability is the goal) -- which is his approach to shading in black and white. Ive heard people say it should be a 40/70% ratio. This is for high contrast shading -- which seems to be the industry standard for ink without additional gray tones. This is one of a few options Im considering (the others being gray tones, ligne claire and fully rendered chiaroscuro). Another artist, Jason Keith Phillips, told me he dips his Pentel water brush instead of filling it because it bleeds -- which helps because, yea, it does bleed. We also got to sit in on a question and answer session with Adam West and Burt Ward -- which was entertaining. There were some cool costumes. It was a good time. When meeting up with old friends, I strongly recommend doing some sort of activity together. You get to catch up but you also get to work on something together and interact in practical ways. Its more fun than just sitting around shooting the breeze. Go to a show. Hit up a museum. Go to the zoo. Do something fun. But, also, sit down for a couple of beers. Honestly, the guy next to us at the bar was as motivational as anyone. That dude was cool. Anyway, today was awesome. awesome-con/
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 05:58:57 +0000
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