My Pen Has No Focus. My Pencil is Anal.

This should be a short post.  I've got things I need to do and things I want to do.  I started a new sketch pad.  YEA FOR ME.  For those who have followed this blog (all 8 of you) you'll recall the aggrevation I've had with the previous pad.  It wasn't 8.5 x 11 and was a pain in the rear to line up on the scanner.  This one is 8.5 x 11.  It even has a pocket...how cool is that?  Now I can yell at it to get its hands out of its pocket and stand up straight.

Progress on the cartooning business front.  I sent out over 260 promo pieces to magazines and another 500+ to newspapers in the last few days.  I'm about to send out more to advertising/marketing/PR firms, but not sure how many yet.  I bought the most recent edition of Artist Markets, on my Kindle, so working my way through it.  I really wish I could find my old marketing data base from 1995..that one ginned up a lot of business over time.  So far my efforts have been met with no results.  I don't know if it is the times or the markets.

Happy Birthday to Mort Walker, cartoonist of Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Boner's Ark, Sam and Silo and other strips.  He would have to be my childhood cartooning influence and I'm sure a dicerning eye can see hints of his style in mine.  Anyhow, he is 90 now and Beetle turns 63 this week also.

Cartoonist in Drag - Where Are My High Heels and Big Hair Wig?

Getting in touch with my feminine side.
That just sounds dirty.
(see there's that warped sense of humor)

Okay, as I mentioned in an earlier post I'm exploring the world of art licensing.  For those not in the know, this is the side of the art industry where art meets all those things in your home and what you wear that have any kind of image, design, pattern or art on them.  Artist produce all that stuff, not machines, and sell the use of the art to manufactures that make and sell this stuff.  Some times artist and manufacture work directly with one another and other times there is an agent that puts artist and manufacture together.

Well what I've learned thus far is it is all about not trying to blaze new trails it is about a level of conformity that makes it the absolute easiest for the largest percent of the buying market to not have to stretch their imagination or struggle with fitting in.  Which I get and have understood in concept for years relative to many things in life.  If you want volume then you have to appeal to the lowest common denominator.  (I am not my customer and therefore shouldn't attempt to please me).

So, what are some of the common themes to appeal to the largest percent?  Women, middle age, bright colors (blue over yellow) vanilla humor (not French or vanilla bean either), happy, and cheerful.  (gag).  I'm smart enough to recognize (and I've commented on it before) I'm a white, middle age (nearly over the hill) male with a warped sense of humor that leans toward sexual connotation and darkness/depression.

My challenge now, or soul searching I have to do, is can I tap into some inner femininity.  Can I speak to women? Can I become the everyday woman.  Do I want to be a cartoonist in drag in order to make money? Stay "tooned".

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.