Catching the Eye of Art Licensing Agents

  

So I've started approaching some agents regarding branding of either my style or individual things I've come up with recently (things that all started as doodles, but caused my mind to start spitting out associated ideas).  I like doing humorous illustration and I also like applying, my self professed, quick wit (warped and quirky also) to situations and things.  I'm not quite sure how the whole agent thing works exactly.  My assumption is they serve a similar function as you would expect an agent for a movie star, model or athlete to work.  They feel like they can make money off the talent and therefore are willing to work for a cut.   Additionally, like actors and models agents my thought is they should be able to spot talent in the rough and have enough confidence to polish it up in a manner that the rest of the untrained world can see the beauty.  Well I think I'm better than just a dirty rock waiting to be discovered for the diamond I am, but I know I'm not polished and cut just right for the Queen's crown just yet.  So I'm having to jump feet first into this approach and see what comes of it.

Garden Girls is just one of those things that seems to pop up on my sketch pad. (my past sketch pad post are probably riddled with seeds of marketable ideas)  One doddle leads to another then a quote, then another and soon I have what I think is an idea worth exploring.  I took the sketches and worked up on color idea just to see how she looked. I think she is interesting and a bit of tweaking might have potential.

Purpose Of The Blog Explained

Mixing up the looks and angles of looking.  The dude slumped over express my general mood on any given day.

As a kid when I was drawing random cartoons my sister would always ask, "Who's that?" to which I would always respond, "Nobody.  It's just a drawing or doodle."  It always aggravated me for her to think every cartoon was supposed to be someone or something, when most of the time I was just doodling and creating random looks and posses.  Equally, I never quite understood how she seemed to think they all looked alike.  "Looked alike!!??" I'd exclaim, "No more than every person on the planet looks alike!  If you mean they all have a nose and eyes in the same relative association with their month, then yea I guess they do look alike, but considering they have different noses, eyes, hair and other features they surely don't look alike."  Maybe if you aren't a cartoonist you can't see the detail.  Maybe it is like me not being able to tell one chimp from another without some obvious variation.  Then there is our very human need to name animals or even things (cars) that we are around a lot.  Maybe I've missed the need for people to have continuity of character when it has come to this blog.  So let me explain my purpose here.

The primary purpose of this blog is to provide a venue to showcase my skills in order to establish or garner enough interest from people to prompt them to inquire about hiring me to create and draw cartoons.  And it is with such an objective that what I generally post, image wise, are pages from my sketch pad which are generally going to be random doodles with no continuity or connection from one day to the next.  There is no central character beyond me.  I am Boon.  Boon is not a character.  Boon is the creator of characters.

The editorializing and verbiage of the blog post for the most part are a means to attract and draw viewers to the blog.  That being said I do enjoy the writing and do also believe that some editor will read these words of wit and reach out when the need arises.

Has anyone ever paid me to draw cartoons?  You beat they have and still do.  

I am a cartoonist for hire. 

Let be close with this request of you, the reader, share your insights.  Is the blog to broad in theme?  Would it be better received if it was built around a central character or more easily identifiable voice, position or theme?  Is there currently anyone in the position as a buyer of such services even reading this blog?

I'm a Hermit After Years of Working At Home

Random thought yield random doodles

Boy I just feel all disorganized lately.  For at least a week if not longer.  I seem to be constantly out of the office at meetings and driving to meetings.  Which is really disruptive to my normal flow of activity.  With working from home there is no wasted time, but leaving the house creates all kinds of wasted time. 

First I have to stop whatever I'm doing and allocate time to cleaning up and dressing.  I don't do that every day until I'm damn well and ready to do that and it normally gets done when I've got nothing else to do.  But that's an hour right there.  I have to shut down and load my lap top and sync my Blackberry.  More time doing stuff I normally wouldn't need to do.  Then there's the drive.  In my area you better allow 2-5 minutes for every mile you have to travel.  It took me nearly 30 minutes to just get to the highway about 10 miles away.  So any meeting usually has hour drive time to get there and hour drive time to get back.  If  I know I'm going to be out of the house for one meeting I usually try to book more so I'm not wasting a lot of time.   Of course then there's the actual meeting.  I'm much more efficient on the phone.  I can cut to the chase, but in person you have to pretend you like the person, make more rapport (I hate the way that is spelled it makes no sense it should be REPORE or REPOOR) building effort, and general spend time trying to become friends.  Of course then I get back home I have to unpack, undress, and start doing all the stuff I would normally be doing but now just squeezed into a shorter amount of time. 

It is insane.  I like being a hermit.  Hermits must be very efficient.

Oh, hey, by the way if anyone knows someone in the art licensing agent world I'm looking to become a brand or brand some of my characters.  Point them my way.

I Know I'm Not An Alcoholic, But Damn I Need a Beer

If there were ever a day not to cross me, today would be one of them, because quite frankly I don't give a FUCK how you feel because I feel like total crap.  Not physically, although I don't feel great there either, but emotionally...well you can tell my mood from today's doodles.  Maybe I'm suffering from Post Vacation Separation Depression.  (Bio-rhythm alert, today is a low point)

I know I'm not an alcoholic, but I really feel like I need a beer today.  Oh, how do I know I'm not a candidate for AA...well I'm pretty sure real alcoholics don't really ever question themselves, just like crazy people never ask if they are crazy (unless that is an urban legend). Additionally, I've gone long periods of time without a drink.  I took off an entire year when I was 18 not drinking. (When I was 18 it was legal).

I stopped by the grocery store on the way back from a meeting to make sure the cat had litter and I had garbage bags, exciting life huh?  I passed the beer aisle and debated about it, and opted not to spend the money on beer.  My cheapness has, in my opinion, kept me from being addicted to anything cause eventually it will always come down to spending money or not.

Maybe I am detoxing.  Maybe 3 weeks of vacation did whack my system and I'm just purging and cleansing, but isn't a cleansing supposed to make you feel better? 

Okay, bottom line, I feel depressed.  Poor me I'm not happy.  I'm just a big puss and sorry you had to read all this just to find this out. But you know what, FUCK YOU!  I could care less what you think because that is just the kind of mood I'm in today.

No More Vacations, I'm Exhausted!

I'm baaaacccckkkk!  Yep I'm done with summer vacations. They weren't so much a vacations for me as it was for the rest of the family.  Mine could be more accurately called a

Remote-working-cation

Which is fine with me, although I'm not sure if it is good for my health.  I came home exhausted and I'm not sure why.  Yea I got up early every morning, but heck I'd most likely do that regardless if I was attempting to knock out some work.  I typically took the late afternoon lulls to check in and take care of more work and usually hit the bed at my normal 11pm.  So I really don't feel as if I as over extending myself.  Maybe 3 weeks of vacation is just too much.  Oh, well I'm home anyhow.  

This trip was to Anna Maria Island and Orlando and when I get a chance I'll write a little bit about it.  Another contribution to my effort to become a travel writer/cartoonist.  Today I just wanted to let you all know I'm back and post today's sketch pad doodles.

A Summer Vacation Where the Souvenir is a Scallop Dinner

Well my email inbox was NOT filled to the brim with expressions of concern from my loyal readers and blog followers wondering where I've been for the last week.  Thanks for that!

Doodles I had on my sketch pad before I left for vacation.

Where have I been?  Well I've had my head under the water, breathing through a tube, looking for dinner.  I've been participating in the annual ritual of scallop season.  That time of the year when the "in-the-know" adventure vacationers converge on a small section of Florida's west coast to hunt and gather scallops.  Specifically, I was in the small town, sometimes called a fishing town, of Steinhatchee (not Stein-A-Hatchee), Florida.  The easiest way to describe the location is about 50 miles south of the Florida elbow bend, inland up the Steinhatchee River.

Sea Hag Marina as the sun sets on the Steinhatchee River,  Steinhatchee, Florida

There is not much in this town and most of my group did wonder what happens here other than fishing.  Most of us were convinced nothing, which is one of the charms of this vacation.  Our port of departure and home for the week was the Sea Hag Marina and the Sea Hag Shacks.  They call them "shacks" and maybe you would also, but I think the are pretty damn perfect for this type of excursion.  They are small, mostly cinder block buildings, easily circa 1970's if not earlier, recently renovated and painted fun, bright colors.  Our shack was called the Sea Bass, which was a two bedroom, two bath with a kitchen in the middle.  The whole shack experience is more akin to car camping, where the shacks stand in for your camper or tent.  Most everything else occurs outside the shack accept sleeping and bathroom needs.

Sea Bass at the Sea Hag Shacks

 What's involved with scalloping?  Well you need access to a boat.  Fortunately my fellow hunters came with three boats, but you can rent them at the marina.  You are going to need a scuba mask and snorkel, small mess bag and a 5 gallon bucket.  That's it.  Optional gear could include sun block, fins, swim booties, and cooler of food and beverages. The balance of the time you are in shorts, tshirt and flip flops.  The general mind set here is "If you are wearing flip flops you are over dressed".  Very low key, low stress.

With our boats loaded with us and the gear, each day we would head out to the Gulf of Mexico (yea that's the big body of water off the west coast of Florida), head north or south, find a place where there were several other boats anchored, drop anchor and snorkel.  We were never out of sight of land, so I figure no more than a mile or two out.  The water depth is typically not more than 4 feet, normally shallower.  

Are there sharks in the water?  I'm sure there are, it is nature,
but we never have seen one.  I did see a sea turtle

The bottom is sandy and grassy, either a flat blade grass or grass that looks like green wire.  The scallops sit on top of the grass and you merely reach down and grab them while slowly drifting about.  It is like an Easter egg hunt underwater.

  

Of all the gear I mentioned, the 5 gallon bucket may seem the least obvious of its utility.  It is used as the standard measurement.  Each person is allowed to gather 2 gallons of in the shell scallops.  Typically, though you will have more than one person on the boat, we divided ourselves up in to groups of 5 per boat, which I found out is not uncommon, because the maximum, or limit, you can collect in a day is 10 gallons.  So if you want to create some stress then you work until you get your limit, which actually is not really that difficult.

The scallops pile up to nearly our 10 gallon daily limit.

So each day we would rise, drink coffee, eat breakfast outside our shack, load up the boats, cruise for maybe a half hour, anchor and float around.  After we either limited out or just decided to head in, it was back to the Sea Hag.  Where we would typically sit at the marina and watch all the other boats come and go and shuck the days catch.  Clean up, eat dinner, sit at the marina for a few more cocktails, maybe a cigar and repeat the next day. 

Shucking is a whole other story but its a requirement to get the reward.that will yield the ultimate in fresh sea food for a multitude of dinning experiences.  Ten gallons of scallops generally yields 5 pounds of meat.  These are bay scallops and each scallop's meat is about the size of the average man's tip of his pinkie finger.

This isn't your run of the mill Florida vacation.  No beach, putt-putt and every chain restaurant within a mile.  From what I've experienced over the years it is not over run with tourist, which lends itself to the laid back, easy going adventure I need to dial down from my regular stress filled, crazy life.