On May 28th, 2017 I took part in the Kensington Market Art Fair. I was really excited for this event, and it definitely didn't disappoint. The crowd was great, and the weather wonderful. So did I succeed? That is a tough one to answer. Here are a few lessons I learn about selling humour.

Firstly, I get a lot of joy from displaying my art in public because I can see people's reactions and I can hear their laughter. Since my main purpose as a cartoonist is to make people laugh, this is extremely fulfilling. They enjoy the humour and are entertained by the few minutes that they spend in my tent. That's all great!

Moving on to the second part, why do people buy art work? Well this is a bit more complicated. They do and they don't. We enter a new territory. It may seem plain to say, but just because someone finds a piece of art work really really funny, doesn't mean that they want to spend money on it and put it up on their wall. What could the reasons be? Why do people buy prints? How do they add value to their lives?

The key here is adding value to their lives. When you buy something, you spend money on it because you believe that the value that it will add to your life is worth more than the money that you spend on it. It will benefit you in a way that its a good investment. People buy stocks because they believe they will grow, so really they are trying to buy a lot of money with a little bit of money. When people buy basketball shoes, they are not buying just shoes, they are buying the ability to jump higher, run faster and also look good (help their reputation).

So how does that apply to selling humorous illustration prints? I'm not sure really, but I'll have a crack at it. When I buy something to put up on my wall why do I do it? I want to make my space look good, to myself and to others. I want something to inspire me. Really it comes to down to interior decoration. When people decorate their house they want to impress their guests and also feel good about where they have reached in life. So the value that a print adds to their wall is that it somehow makes them look good to others. It shows that they have good taste. Specially if the art piece is rare, or an original by a famous artist. This is what has value.  Also, it must look like art. This is why painterly things sell quite well. Also things that are really detailed might sell well as it looks like a lot of work was put into them.

And that brings me back to my art work and what sold well and what didn't. I couldn't have predicted this but the fresh (see left) was the bestseller, followed by Dart evader and then the unicorn did quite well. So let me go through them one by one..

FRISH
I think this sold well because it looks like a piece of art, it doesn't look like a cartoon. There are lots of shapes and forms in there with a lot of variety. It has a lot of characters and very detailed so it shows that a lot of work was put into it. People can look it at for a while and notice different things about it. It keeps you looking at it.

DART EVADER
I think this sold well just because Star Wars posters always sell well, and this is a parody of a start wars poster that still looks like a star wars poster (i'm guessing the font helps in this case). 

UNIQUE CORN
I can't really tell why this one sold more than I thought it would. I think that there is something about it that also keeps you on the page, as it is a seemingly never ending conversation. You can picture these two going at it in the corn field all day long. Well thats just my guess!

THE ONES THAT DIDN'T SELL TOO WELL
I did a horror series that I originally sold as T shirts and these were Dragcula, Wherewolf and Spankenstein's mosnter. They actually got the most attention and laughs from the crowd, but funnily enough nobody bough them! My suspicion is that they are funny but not something someone would want to put up on their wall. Perhaps they are bit too naught, and you don't want to give the wrong impression to your guests :) So they might actually work inside a book, but not openly displayed. Merry Peepings had the same result


Also, I found that one liners and quick jokes that get a chuckle and nothing more than that don't sell either. You look it at it, you laugh and thats it. It doesn't get any deeper. These kind of things are better perhaps inside a book as a collection of at least a hundred, so their collective strength gives value. Or as a daily web comic. Either that of they have to be really really clever and funny. 

To conclude you want your piece that you're selling to be something that the viewer can spend some time looking at and not get bored. It should have different levels, and keep the viewer intrigued. You want it to stay on their mind even after they've left it.

I posted this today after making up my mind that I want to get back to the three cartoons a week scheme that I was following religiously in Alicante.  I posted this on Facebook and Instagram, but made the mistake of not putting my main tag line into it, which was 'trick or trick?' Instead I put Happy Halloween and I think it pretty much reduced the overall impact of the cartoon. Oh well, time constraints are good for somethings but bad for others. But overall I say they bing more good. This election is coming up in a few days and I can't believe that this is the choice that the American people have. Who would have thought? After such a historic even such as the first black president we would have this kind of a match up? Well its in eight days, and I think most of the world is hoping for one results. But with the recent Brexit, and then the FARC truce vote, you never really know...

I'm a big ping pong fan, and we have a community table in our building. This is a game though which you can't play by yourself, so I'm always super excited when friends visit as I eventually lure them to the Ping Pong table. Then I thought, we are an entire building/community of people who are not really in touch with each other. How amazing is it that we have a Ping Pong table in our building and how sad is that nobody  knows who else plays? And so after a few months of convincing the building staff (it's an apartment building and not a condo, I think that makes a difference) they finally decided to go through with a little tournament.

​Ofcourse I volunteered to do the poster for it. I wanted it to make is something authentic and unique. I think that now overtime I do an illustration for a specific purpose, that it should be unique only to that purpose and not usable in other instances. If people wanted generic stock illustrations or graphics then there's a place for that. That's why I have the very casual looking dude with the slippers, the house keys, the ghetto ping pong racket, and the recycling bin (which is next door to the ping pong room). This is what makes is special and unique, it caters directly to the audience in mind, it speaks their language. It's not just any ping pong tournament, it's a ping pong tournament for these specific people who live in this specific place. It's for a niche market.

Every commissioned illustration must be a special unique gift to it's audience and nobody else.

Expecting warmer weather this Spring? Looks like you'll be waiting in vane. Whether you like it or not.

Imaginary pundits suggest this winter may have been mild, but what it lacks in intensity it will more than make up in longetivity. Get ready for a colder than average spring, a chilly summer, a freezing autumn and ice age of a winter. But why this phenomena?

In the midst of the deep freeze of February 2015, Canadians were asked but he Canadian Winter God whether they prefer their winters to be less intense and longer. 95% of Canadian humans and raccoons over-politely said no, they willing to suffer through a brutal winter so that they could enjoy longer periods of good 'patio' weather.

However, the Canadian Winter God, being a god after all, doesn't give a flying leaf what the people think or want. He decided to make this winter less intense and longer anyways. To add to this dilemna, Canadians going to Cuba to escape this wrath, will be a facing a new, and and even great castrostophe.... American Tourists.

This Friday (the 25th of March) a bunch of us went and watched this movie by Zak Snyder. I didn't like the last one but with all the hype, of course I was still curious about this one. Sitting in the dark and frequently using my mobile phone as a light source I wrote notes as the movie progressed. Here they are, illustrated

Superman's hair style remained flawless throughout the movie. Through exploding buildings, fires, nuclear disasters, monsters and so on! This movie also teamed up with Turkish Airlines in a very weird way.

Whenever Lois was in the slightest bit of trouble (and also when she wasn't) superman swooped in to the rescue! What a creep!

It seemed like really the only way to beat superman was with Kryptonite, and I felt after a while this method just isn't interesting anymore, and just makes for any excuse to show batman beating up superman (Fans probably get off on this sort of a thing).  I don't remember what happened int he original Dark Knight comic by Frank Miller, but it definitely was more intriguing!

This was movie was just grim grim grim. I feel like rather than advertise Turkish Airlines so much perhaps they would have succeed with some Anti Depressant commercials. I go to a movie to enter a fantasy land, not to see how everything just sucks! Zak Snyder, you've depressed us again!

I have no answers for this one! Is it some sort of a political reference to the terrorist attacks in Paris and that America stands united with France? Can you think of any other reason? 

Superman releases a day before Good Friday? Superman, the saviour, that is doubted by his people, is persecuted for doing good, has special powers, came from the skies above .. dies, and then at the end of the movie, his grave trembles. Coincidence? Decide for yourself! 

Other comments.. Many funny attempts during the movie to hide Zod's penis.. Doomsday being created and taking up about 20 minutes of the movie, a story that was the best selling comic of all time and took about 10 issues to complete! I say this is on par with botch up of Venom in Spiderman 3!

Now that DC comics owns Mad Comics, do they really go and do a proper satire of it? 

It has been a couple of weeks now since this event has passed and I really should have written this blog then. But, perfect conditions hardly ever exist, and here I will try and recreate the excitement and energy that reverberated through me back then. A whole blog could be written on just our visit to Florence and Pisa, but for now I will focus on soley these workshops.  Firstly, what are these Schoolism Workshops? Bobby Chiu  and Kei Acedera of Imagnism studios (a concept art studio in Toronto) have been organizing these talks by successful artists who have made meaningful contributions to the Animation Industry. These talks have been held all over the world and received tremendous reception. The two workshops of which I will cover were held in Florence this December. I shall being with Peter De Seve.
 
Extremely charming with surprising spontaneous bursts of humor and a flair for the theatric, Peter was entertaining from the get go. For fear of revealing too much about what he talked about and spoiling for others that have not seen him yet, I will try to just create a general picture. 

Peter started of by showing some of his earlier work as a child and his black and white illustrations for newspapers. He mentioned how important it was to ‘do the type of drawing that you grow up on’. This holds true possibly for any artist, as most of us propelled into a drawing frenzy by the excitement created from the art that we admire. His influences ranged from Bugs Bunny to Frank Frazetta and Heinrich Kley to Gus Bofa. I think it’s always important for us to stay in touch with art that we love and keep it somewhere where we can see it easily so that it continually fuels our passion. Also, it’s important to get away from ‘normal’ influences like these and to visit museums and parks and discover interesting designs that as Peter states it ‘use shapes in a surprising way’. Which is really what you want to do as a character designer.

One thing I noticed about Peter was that his spontaneaouty (don’t think that’s actually a word) and humor in person were directly reflected in his work. As he sat for a break at half time (after two hours) I looked over at him and told him that he was actually best (during his talk) when things went wrong and it required improvisation. And this very theme he then talked about later as he said that one should ‘see mistakes as opportunites’ and there are ‘things that you can only learn from accidents’. This lead to an insight on the shortfall of digital illustration where it is altogether to easy sometimes to fix mistakes. This can lead to less decisive, confident and spontaneous work. One can see in his techniques in watercolour that there is a lot of that happening, and really helps to bring life to his drawings. With traditional illustration there is more of a sense of commitment the marks you are putting down, whereas with digital there is always ‘undo’. In real life there is no undo button and we are imperfect in every way possible and this is what his art reflects. 

Going back to his philosophies in life he talked about the notion of being ‘open’ to opportunities and not be too rigid with your plans. (he never planned on being a character designer for animation) Also, he mentioned the importance of ‘preserving yourself in the art that you make’ and ‘protect the artist that you are’. Very often in studios there is a tendency to become a stylistic chameleon but you have to always find a way to express your individual point of view.

He had few remarks about shape that are worth noting. Firstly that one must develop a consciousness of shapes. He tries to distill the shapes to say as much as he can with as little as possible.  Also it’s important to remember as a character designer that the shapes you create must be easy to animate.  Additionally one must learn to think volumetrically, like a sculptor. I feel that perhaps doing some sculpture would profoundly help one with getting more volume in his or her drawings. 

One amazing thing that I never knew about Peter De Seve’s illustrations were the amount of details that went into them and how much he used real life references. He mentioned that New Yorkers really take a good look at the covers so he has to make sure that he is thorough. Everything from the wine glasses, to the bricks on the road to the types of trees are specific to New York. These subtleties are really important as drawings not only communicate a story and make you laugh but also are documents of history.  People will look back at these in 100s of years and see how we lived and what type of a culture we were. 

Peter talked about how everyone around him is an influence on the characters that he creates. If you actually know the peson that you are drawing then you can provide a much deeper and more realistic character. You understand the psychology of the person you are drawing and subtleties may even come about subconsciously. I think we have to be constantly observing people around us, and not forget them when we are drawing by ourselves, keeping them with us always. He showed us some examples of how subtle changes in emotions on the face led to dramatically different stories. He also talks about the most interesting moments of people are those moments ‘in between the static and the obvious’. Carrying a sketchbook and drawing from life are almost cliché’s now but it cannot be overstated how important these activities are.  Peter also mentioned costume design and how vital it is that it adds to the characters. He showed us a great example of Normal Rockwell and how he painted a boys shoe. ‘Every element helps to tell the story’ This is so so crucial in any illustration, that there is attention to detail but nothing unnecessary. 

As we all sat with our mouths opening salavating as this living legend created swooping scratching marks on his paper that projected on the giant screen at the Florence theater I noticed something very unusual about his drawing that I never would have guessed if I hadn’t observed it myself. 

Alas, I cannot reveal anymore as I feel this delight is something to be experienced in person. Check out schoolism.com to see when the next Peter De Sever workshop is, as I have only scratched the surface. He goes into detail on his process work for New Yorker Covers and character design for Ice Age, Robots and the upcoming ‘Little Prince’.

 My next blog post will be on the tremendous skill and talent of Mercelo Vignali (the workshop that followed after lunch). Stay posted!

Last weekend I was in Lausanne (Switzerland) live scribing (taking big visual notes)  for a conference about dog food. The teams were discussing new ideas of what kind of products can be created in order to take their brand to the next level. Since I had already done some preliminary sketches I was familiar with the concepts they were about to discuss.  I was a bit nervous before they started as I wasn’t used to drawing directly in pen. I felt more comfortable as I went along though, and just took it as a large way to take notes with fun drawings in it.  

Here are some important lessons I learnt from this event..

1. Listen carefully and be selective

Don’t draw everything single thing that is being discussed. It is important to to know what is important and what is just side chatter. Familiarity and preliminary reading help with this. Also what's useful is to take small notes before you do the bigger drawing. Once you are sure that something is of importance then you can proceed to draw it.

2. Maintain a hierarchy

It’s vital that for the sake of design and clarity, some things are clearly bigger and more important then others. These include key words, and iconic images. Scribing is like taking visual notes, but to the next level and designing things well, more sophisticated.

3. Choose YOUR medium

Use a medium you are comfortable with and feel comes most naturally to you. You’ll see in  most youtube videos and most events scribers use Felt tip markers in various colours. That’s the norm, but if you are comforatable with coloured crayons or watercolours, by all means do that.

4.    Have fun, be spontaneous!

The whole purpose of you being there and doing this is that you keep the audience awake and stimulated. Have a sense of humour, play with words, extract funny meanings and take it to another level.

5.    Remember the purpose

At the end of the conference, the speaker might use your drawings to summarize the event. Make sure that they are organized, easy to read and are truly representative of the talks. If you’re not sure you should talk to someone who is familiar with the proceedings and let them guide you!