I finished up my third season at Valleyfair, and instead of focusing on drawing really fast and making lots of moneys, I wanted to slow down and really do some good drawings. At times this is frustrating due to annoying customers, fatigue, and a plethora of other reasons. But at the same time, slowing down allowed me to really enjoy every drawing I was doing rather than crapping out a bunch of so-so drawings. I can't say that there's much or any artistic merit to the theme park work, but drawing that much all summer definitely had its benefits. My manager put it to me this way: we get a new model every 10 minutes, and guess what, they pay US to draw them. We should be so lucky!
I was also fortunate enough to start getting some freelance work for a couple publications in New York. There really isn't a whole lot of creativity that goes into these illustrations as the respective art directors pretty much tell me exactly what they want, but I can't see myself turning these jobs down for a lack of creativity. All of the pieces I've done for them have to deal with local politics, so its hard to really connect to them. I'd really like to continue doing more work like this with the hopes that I'll get to use more of my own creative juices.
Lastly, I've been pounding through a few sketchbooks lately. Mostly I've been trying to experiment with new mediums and styles. I feel like I've gotten stuck in a rut with regards to my use of line. So I've really tried to expand my abilities with ways to depict form or even simple shapes.
I really want to continue the work that I've been doing in my sketchbooks, and apply them to some finished pieces. One thing I regret from the summer is that I didn't get any finished pieces done other than the retail caricatures and freelance work.
1 comment:
Marc,
I think your political cartoon work is quite strong--I really enjoy the New York pieces and the sketchbook ones, too.
At this point in your career as a student/professional artist (what I think, anyway), you should work on developing your own point of view or style--as much as that's possible within the realm of political and cartoon/illustrative work.
Like you said, continuing to work with line, but also looking at others' work to see what they bring to their own work that makes it "theirs."
Are there certain caricaturists/cartoonists that you admire that have a recognizable style or take on things?
Who? And what makes them so?
This would be my challenge for you for the semester.
Great work, as usal.
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