It’ll be good to go back to the inkwell since it’s been a few years since using the old crowquill. I’m looking at using the quill, sable brush and ink markers or a combination of all three. The bristol board I bought though might now work with the quills so I’m prepared to use thin black ink markers and brush. The brush will take some practice though but the rest not so much.
The hardest thing will be sticking with the schedule of inking 5 pages a day. It’s a lot and we’re going straight, headlong into the holidays.
An artist must be
stubborn with his time.
Especially, when one works a job on top of it all. The deadline must hold, otherwise time gets away from you and what was supposed to just take a few months can turn into 6 or more! Doing it all myself along with the sound effects, and word balloons does not make it easy.
After that’s concluded I must do the cover, back covers, contact page, inside covers and then adjust the contrast of each page in the computer. It can’t be too black or too light gray.
Then, when all is said and done I have to market and promote the book! No easy task and it costs money.
The marketing is where the rubber meets the road. I finished reading The Last Ronin written by Kevin Eastman and at the end of the book he talks about how he and Peter, backed by a loan and a dream, had a bunch of issues to make of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was their origin story but they went to a comic convention and hit big apparently. The power of an idea.
Doing that today is probably tougher because there’s so much competition in artists alley. There’s so many great artists so how does one stand out? The power of an idea. There’s always better artists. One has to think of how likable one is, how attentive to the customer and the layout on the table, the price of the book, etc…
Also, do you have a pitch for the comic and character before they decide to take a
chance on your book?
Then ok, you sell some books, maybe do some custom drawings for people, can you sell enough to make up for the price of the convention booth? If you didn’t use Kickstarter or other fundraising means, can you make up for the price of buying all those books from the printer? Probably not BUT it is possible.
You do your yearly comic book conventions for the year and you’re off to draw your next book. Wash, rinse and repeat.
There’s a trick here somewhere, somewhere along the convention circuit (if one can afford to go). Somewhere, you meet people, find something out, make a new friend? All the years that I’ve gone I haven’t made a friend at the conventions unfortunately. People are too distracted by the books, toys, etc.
Where does the luck start and the break begin? It’s nebulous, kind of like searching for the holy grail. I think the thing to do is pour a simple foundation but keep it SIMPLE. Don’t have many moving parts at all. A website, a notebook, a box full of comics, a small box of business cards perhaps, a drawing pad and a smile. Perhaps even that’s too much.
I guess making that, refining it, is what I’ll do. Everything will be an extension of that starting here. So here it is in bullet points. Let me know if it works for ya.
Box full of comics (product inventory)
Small box of business cards
Drawing paper
Notebook for notes, marketing ideas, contacts, story ideas, etc.
That's about it, I'll keep it in one place but I think keeping it simple helps immensely. Of course supplies like pencils, inks, rulers are part of it for sure but they’re not at the core of the business. Same with the computer. I need it but it’s not the core of it all, not the driving force.
So that’s about it for now. Do you have a creative business that you feel has overwhelmed or gotten away from you? What do you do to keep it simple? Let me know in the comments. Keep it movin’ towards your goals even if it is movin’ slow.
My next blog will be about the final thoughts on completing the pencils on Rage #5.
Giving myself a deadline etc..
Oh yeah, one more thing. I have one-page left to draw for this mega-issue! One Page!
Thanks for reading
-Chris
