With a new decade, new state I’m living in, and new projects I’m doing, I felt it was time for a new logo.
Retiring the serif JP logo. It served me well for the last 8 years being printed on my books, prints, business cards, bookmarks, etc. as well as all my social media avatars.
Big thanks to @vanguarddesignco for working with me to update it for the new decade. And also a salute and thanks to @melanieburk who designed the original logo back in 2012.
Why even have a logo if you’re an artist?
A logo isn’t going to make or break you as an artist, it’s not your brand, and it’s not going to get you more followers.
What it does is this: helps people remember you.
In a crowded online world, where attention is the most valuable commodity, you need a way to plant little flags in people’s minds. You do this by crafting a story about yourself. This story is made up of where you came from, who you are now, and where you’re going. Every time you share something you’ve created, something you’re interested in, or a hot take on something occupying people’s attention, you add to your story. When you sell a print, a book, or a sticker, it adds to your story. Both from the subject matter of your work, and the way it’s delivered to the person.
A personal logo is a visual hook that connects all these things together, and reminds people of your story whenever they see it.
Having a logo might not be for everyone, but I think it’s helped connect everything I’ve been doing this last decade together. Hopefully, when you see the (JP) you think positivity, cool art, and helpful advice.
A logo is only as strong as the thing it reps. My hope is I can do right by this great design, and make it mean something as we all move forward into this next decade.
-Jake
The desk of Jake Parker
TMNT POWER
I forget where I read this (maybe twitter?) but someone was saying that Louisa May Alcott established how four different personalities should be used together in a narrative with her novel Little Women, and it’s been used ever since from rock bands to the TMNT.
The personalities are summed up as:
The leader.
The passionate one.
The contemplative one.
And the outgoing/social one
I was talking about this with a friend and we got into how the personalities of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy are also reflected in the four elements: Earth, Fire, Water, And Air respectively.
Earth can be grounded and practical. Fire can be passionate and emotional. Water can be fluid and excepting. Air can be idealistic and dreamy.
And it tracks from Little women, to the Beatles, to Seinfeld to the TMNT.
Earth: Meg, Harrison, Elaine, Leonardo
Fire: Jo, McCartney, George, Raphael
Air: Amy, Lennon, Jerry, Michaelangelo
Water: Beth, Ringo, Kramer, Donatello
What do you think? Can you come up with other characters this works with?
-Jake
Are you as excited for this movie as I am?
You know I love me some Star Wars, and with the launch of the FINAL trailer for Episode 9 you know I have some things to say about it.
If you some how missed seeing this trailer. Here it is:
I'm kind of excited for this movie. Not because it's the "end" of the Skywalker story in the Star Wars universe, but because I'm more curious from a storytelling standpoint how they plan on wrapping up a trilogy of trilogies. JJ Abrams is a masterful entertainer, but he's only ever finished one series, and that was Felicity. Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible 3, Star Trek, and Star Wars were all shows and film series that he's started, but he hasn't really proven that he can wrap a series up. Even if the story falls short there's plenty of cool stuff to see and enjoy. I'm a fan of the Star Wars universe, not just the stories. I'm also a HUGE fan of JJ Abrams' work so I know this is going to be rip-roaring good time.
Here's 5 things I love about this new trailer:
- A practical puppet working on Threepio's brain
- The Tantive IV (or a ship that looks like it) flying through the jungle
- Riding horses on Star Destroyers
- Space Iceberg
- Palpatine's spikey throne pulled straight from old Ralph McQuarrie concept drawings: LINK
Bonus Like: That shot of all the ships flying together. OH MAN. And the best part was spying the Ghost, which if you don't know is the ship in the series Star Wars Rebels. Rebels, IMO, is one of the greatest things to ever to come out from Lucasfilm. You owe it to yourself to watch it.
Be Nice and Have Fun
With Inktober 2019 in full swing, I thought I’d post a little reminder for you all that Inktober is just a framework to get yourself to draw better and have some fun with your art. It’s not a contest to see who the best artist is. It’s a challenge to see how much you can improve your art in a month, and to be inspired or to help inspire other artists to do the same.
There's no Inktober police going around looking to shut people down if they aren't using ink or the prompt list.
While it's suggested to use real ink, keep things black and white, and use the official prompt list, the spirit of the challenge is very open to people being creative in what tools they use, how they use them, and what they create.
This month, if you are tempted to call someone out for not doing Inktober the way you think they should be doing it, I want you to just keep it to yourself. Use your energy to celebrate people's creativity and expression. Do like your mom taught you: "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all."
If at any point the challenge gets too overwhelming and you aren’t having fun, pause for a day or two. Catch your breath, and just pick up where you left off.
In short: be nice, and have fun!
Thanks,
Jake
Some Days the Raptor Hunts You
Some days are better than others. Some days you just want to forget. One day you might be on top. The next day you might get torn to shreds. What matters is that you showed up ready for whatever comes instead of staying in bed, because no matter the outcome of the day you're going to learn something and be stronger from it.
When you go out an take action it means you might hit a home run, but you might also strike out. In his historic career as a professional baseball player Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, but he also struck out 1,330 times. You don't hear about the strike outs very often, at least not as much as you hear about his home run record. Your errors are the same way. They are dwarfed by the impact you create by your action.
So, yeah, you'll have bad days. Days where you didn't get anything done on your list. Days where you put out fires instead of making meaningful progress on important work. There are days where you get sidetracked, confused, blindsided, or hand tied.
I love this quote from Emerson:
"Finish every day and be done with it . . . You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. To-morrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
At the end of a bad day ask yourself this: Did I get up today and do my work? Did I dress for the hunt? If the answer is yes, then know you did your best, learn from you mistakes and move forward. Tomorrow is a new day. A perfect day for a hunt.
Writing this because I needed to hear it today. Thanks for reading.
Jake
Hunt print is available in my shop: LINK
On Being an Independent Illustrator
I love working as an independent illustrator.
It’s pretty much like being an entrepreneur, except your start up company is your illustration work, and you are the only employee.
You set your own schedule.
You decide where you want to live.
You decide how much vacation time you get to take.
You decide what projects you want to work on and what you get to say no to.
You decide what people you want to work with.
You have to pay entirely for your own health insurance.
You bill people, and then are in charge of following up with them.
You do all your own promotion.
The more creative, and smart you are in these areas the more successful as an illustrator you will be.
Many illustrators work with reps or agents. These people take 15%-30% of every deal they negotiate for you. But if they are good at their job, you'll make enough money for it to be worth it.
The most successful illustrators I know needed 5-10 years to get their careers going strong enough to start making a comfortable living.
In that time they either relied on their spouses income, they worked a day job while growing their illustration career on nights and weekends (me), or they just lived a bohemian lifestyle with zero dependents.
They needed that time to build their network, master their craft, grow their audience, and wait for everything to click.
Many independent illustrators, myself included, rely on multiple revenue streams to make their living.
So far this year I've gotten an advance payment for a children's book, a couple royalty checks for books I've done in the past, sales from my online shop, sales from online classes I've sold, sales from live workshops I'm doing, money from a convention I attended, money from youtube videos, money from amazon affiliate links, and money from a speaking engagement.
There were a few months there where very little money was coming in, and then in May I made $40K. So you need to be good at managing your money. Don't expect a steady paycheck.
I guess whether or not being an independent illustrator is a good fit for you depends on your personality. If you need financial stability, are risk averse, and not very entrepreneurial minded then I would pursue a career in animation, video games, or entertainment. You'll get a steady paycheck, good health benefits. You just show up, do your work, go to a few meetings, and then you don't have to think about it at all until you arrive to work the next day.
However, if you are constantly coming up with ideas for making money with your art, are willing to bet on yourself, don't like people above you calling the shots for you, and are willing to fall on your face frequently, then there are ways to make an illustration career work for you.
Sometimes I feel like I’m way in over my head and the work load is too much. But each challenge has refined me and made me stronger and better equipped to handle the next project I take on. This wasn't always the job I wanted, nor could do, but I'm very happy where I am right now.
Note:
This post was taken from a response I wrote to an email I received from a student at BYU named Conor Searing. Conor had a bunch of questions about choosing illustration for a career as apposed to entering the animation industry. I answered him privately and with his permission I posted our correspondence here to hopefully help others in the same situation as him. Here’s what he asked:
I was wondering if I could ask you what you do as an illustrator? Has money been a huge stress for you? Do you feel you have enough time to commit to being a good artist as well as spend with your family? If you had any doubts about making a career of illustration how did you over come that?
Thanks for the questions Conor!
Style vs Technology in Feature Animation
Just wanted to note that Sleeping Beauty was released 21 years after Snow White was released.
Sleeping Beauty, 1959
Snow White, 1938
Sleeping Beauty, 1959
Snow White, 1938
The same amount of time had passed in between Toy Story and Finding Dory:
Finding Dory, 2016
Toy Story, 1995
Finding Dory, 2016
Toy Story, 1995
I’m guessing in the first 20 years of Disney animated films the artists were more concerned with advancing style than they were technology. Once they figured out the techniques of 2D animation, style and artistry became the focus.
In the first 20+ years of CG animation the focus has been technology over artistry. “Look how realistic we can make: plastic/wood, grass, fur, water, lighting, different water, wet fur, clothing, wet clothing, explosions, humans...”
In the last 5 years pretty much every CG technological mountain has been conquered. Right? When the artists no longer have limits to what they can create in CG, they can completely focus on style. Spiderverse is the perfect example:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018
I think Spiderverse was just scratching the surface of what CG artists can do stylistically and it makes me really excited for the future of CG animation.
-Jake
The gravitational pull of your work
Currently Reading the War of Art by Steven Pressfield
I always like to have one foot in a book about creativity, or creating, or how to improve your life. I can't read these kinds books for more than a few pages at a time because they give me so much to think about and process. I can't recommend this book enough. I'm about 3/4ths through it and there's so much I can relate to and apply.
One idea he stresses is that of resistance and how real it is. He spends plenty of time defining it, casting all kinds of light on it so that you can identify it easily in your work. But then he goes the next step and shares ways to fight it, to stab a sword into it and kill it dead...for a day. It always comes back the next day.
The latter half of the book is about the muse, and how we can tap into creative energy and use it.
I'll leave you with one thing I've been thinking about a lot: The gravitational pull of your work.
On page 108 Pressfield says, “When we sit down each day to do our work, power concentrates around us.” It costs us energy to produce something, but when you show up to do it (and by that I mean actually putting pen to paper) the gods of creativity lend their hand and help. At the end of the day you have a small mass of creative matter that's managed to hold itself together. The more you work on it, the more creative mass your project builds, until it has enough pull to get you out of bed each morning and suck you into it every day. However, leave it alone for a day, or a week, or a month, and that energy dissipates. It starts to lose mass and as a consequence has less pull. If you let go of an idea it floats away instead of falling towards the center of the mass.
All this to say, get up and do your creative work and be consistent. It's the only way you'll ever finish a thing.
-Jake
Also reading:
- Batman: White Knight: What if the Joker was a good guy? Really good story and art. Like REALLY GOOD.
- DUNE: To much going on to explain... but I'll try: a inter-galacti-political storyline with giant sand worms. I read the first half last year, but didn't finish before I left Greenport. Picking it up where I left off.
- All-New X-Men Vol 3: The X-Men from the 60s are sent to the future to stop their present day selves from making a mess. I've been reading X-Men off and on since the early 90s and it's a huge convoluted mess, but man I love it.
Why I Make videos
After 5 months, I finally made another YouTube video.
The reason I haven’t put a ton of love into my channel this year is because I’ve been really busy with projects, and at the end of the day I don’t want to be a YouTuber who draws. I’d rather be an artist who makes YouTube videos.
As an independent artist you are always on the look out for ways to make money and support yourself with your art.
The ideal project is something that:
Uses existing artwork that you’ve already created
Puts something cool and/or useful into the world
So, when Rhinoshield contacted me about making phone cases with my artwork it was a no brainer for me.
I get to use art that I’ve already created
They make sturdy, sleek cases that legitimately protect your phone, and look cool. A useful tool for us phone wielding sapiens.
Part of the deal with them was, they would prep my artwork for the phone cases, manufacture the phone cases, run the website, process orders, and package up and ship the phone cases out to people.
In turn, all I would have to do is some social media posts about the cases. They also specifically asked for a Youtube video.
I’m trying to be as transparent as possible with my Youtube channel. I told my audience that I’d never make a video just becasue I needed to upload a video that week in order to stick to some sort of posting schedule. I don’t want to be a part of the problem of time wasting videos on YouTube.
Also, to just make a video that was all about “BUY MY PHONECASES” seemed a little disingenuous and spammy. So,for this video I did something that I rarely do on my channel: I showed step-by-step how I made the art that ended up on one of the cases Rhinoshield is selling.
I usually charge for tutorials like this, but when I’m already getting paid to do a video, I figured I would give away my knowledge for “free.”
-Jake
Click here to check out my RhinoShield Phone Cases
“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!” - Dr Seuss
Advice for Recent Graduates...or anyone walking the creative path
In the last few weeks I’ve been visited by a handful of high school kids and college underclassmen asking for advice on what they should do to prepare to get a job in the art world. In response to that, I asked a bunch of my artist friends at Emerald City Comic Con what was once piece of advice they had for someone graduating high school who wants to be an artist for a living. I made a video of their responses.
Lacking from that video was my advice. I have some things to say to people who have chosen to walk the creative path. If that’s you, then settle in. If it’s not you, please share this with a person you know who’s going to art school, or recently graduated. You can read it too, or course. This advice is universal and it just might help you no matter what stage in life you’re at.
A Career in art is possible
By now you’ve probably figured out that it is possible to have a career in art. Some art careers make more money than others. Some are more stable than others. But for anyone who has the skill, the drive to improve, a healthy work ethic, and isn’t afraid of the unknown it’s possible to get to the point where you can support yourself and a family with a career in art.
I want to share with you five things you can do to help you get there. This is stuff I’ve learned over the years that has helped me succeed, and I wish this was advice that was given to me as a high school kid. I remember graduating, having no idea what to do, or where to go, but just knowing that I loved to draw and really wasn't qualified to do anything else. If someone had sat me down and told me these things as a high school kid it would’ve saved me years of spinning my wheels.
1 - Focus on one path.
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose. “ - Dolly Parton
You need to be a heat seeking missile focused one thing. A heat seeking missile works by finding a heat target and then ignoring any heat signal that doesn’t come from that target. That’s why heat seeking missiles don’t just fly straight towards the sun when they’re launched.
Picking one thing to do does not mean that’s the thing you’re going to do forever. In fact, it’s very rare to be ONE THING you’re whole life. Steven Pressfield tells us of this truth in his book The War of Art:
“As artists we serve the Muse, and the Muse may have more than one job for us over our lifetime”
That said, you have to start somewhere, knowing how to do something. So pick something and learn what you need to master in order to get a job in that discipline. Learn how other artists got their job. Study the art of people who work where you want to work. That’s the bar that you need to reach. Visit the studios, meet up with the artists, acquaint yourself with recruiters. Do internships. Insert yourself into that ecosystem. Make it so that when you finally apply for that job, it’s a no brainer for whoever is hiring, to hire YOU.
The side benefit to doing this is that whether you want to go into animation, illustration, video games, film, comics, or children’s books the skills you learn to do one of these jobs has applications for other jobs. If you get into it and realize it’s not quite for you, transitioning to another job isn’t going to be an impossible feat.
2 - Learn your craft.
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” -Archilochus
It’ll take you about 4 years to learn the fundamentals of art and a lifetime to master it. So learn how to learn, because the most successful artists I know are continually pushing the limits of their abilities. They understand that the levels that can unfold in art are inexhaustible.
Draw things you’re not comfortable drawing. If you’re bad at drawing people, draw people. If you’re bad at drawing environments, draw environments.
Read books on the subject. There’s an amazing amount of information stored in these relics.
Find a good school that can teach you these fundamentals. You’ll know it’s good if the work coming out of the school is good. If not the school, then find a teacher who knows her stuff. Your focus at school isn’t grades or a degree, it’s skill, portfolio, and friends. Those are the three things that matter and are going to stay with you as you leave the school.
Learn from your peers. It’s not who you know, it’s who you help, so look for ways you can help others succeed, and in return you’ll be made better for it as well.
Find a mentor. A mentor doesn’t have to be someone older than you, just someone more experienced than you. Again, see how you can help them, become a linchpin in their system, so that they need you as much as you need them.
3 - Get a life.
“It’s more important that you go off and learn what to make movies about, than how to make movies.” - Advice given to JJ Abrams from his father.
If the goal of mastering your craft is to be able to show the world your vision, then the goal of every artist is to have a vision that’s worth showing. In order to do that you need to live life and have experiences worth building off of and sharing.
Cut the fat, and live deliberately. Live less online, and more in life. Make friends. Date people. Get married. Go places. Whether it’s exploring the south side of town or the southern hemisphere, there’s something to be gained from every excursion outside of your home.
The purpose of this is to fill your creative bank account with enough creative capital that you can barely contain it.
4 - Do one personal project a year.
“You make your place in the world by making part of it.” - Art & Fear
Take all your pent up creativity and use it by putting out a finished product at least once a year. Something tangible. Something you can point to and say, look, I made this thing.
Pump all your experiences, the craft you’ve attained so far, and your passion into this project.
This is going to give you a benchmark for yourself. This will give you something to aspire to beat with your next project. This will also be a calling card and something that other people can point to and say “look, this person made THIS.”
You only become known for your projects you make, not for the craft you’re privately learning. No one will know the experiences your privately having unless you share them through your projects.
5 - Share your work.
“An artists job is not to be perfect, but to be creating.” - Jeff Goins
The students I’ve talked to are a little afraid to share their amateur work. If that’s how you feel, quit thinking of social media as an art gallery with wall space reserved for your best work. Instead, think of social media as a peek into your studio. Invite them in, give them a glass of water and a comfy chair, and show them what you’ve been working on. No pressure there. Use twitter, facebook, or instagram as a way to document your progress online. Think of it as a public journal of your development as an artist.
Tell people who you are and what you’re about. Tell them what you’re going to be someday, and invite them to watch your journey.
What will happen is your audience will grow as you grow. They will be your online cheerleaders sharing your work with others, and first in line to buy whatever you make.
Lastly, I just want to share this quote from Bob Dylan:
“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night, and in between does what he wants to do.”
Remember, life is too short to be stuck doing something you don’t want to do, and it’s also too short to waste time doing something that isn’t working for you. I hope these five things give you a head start down that path of doing what you want to do in life. As the good doctor once said, “Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!”
-Jake
Thank You Mom
She passed away on March 22 and I’ve been thinking about her life a lot. I don’t normally post personal stuff on here, but I just wanted to talk about my mom for a bit.
The reason I decided to pursue art is largely because of her support, encouragement, and example. If you like anything I’ve created, it’s because of her.
The daughter of a cowboy and an elementary school nurse, her father was a gifted woodworker who always had a good clean joke to tell. Her mother was a skilled artist who knew how to get things done. These were traits instilled into my mom’s personality which filtered down to me.
She was an educator who found many ways to help encourage, support, and inspire students from all walks of life. She was also an incredible seamstress. Happy to share her love and talent with anyone, she sewed countless dresses and blankets for friends, family and those in need.
She always made sure there was plenty of paper in the house. Though we didn’t have very much money, one time she bought me a full set of Prisma Color pencils. Every Christmas and birthday she made sure I got some kind of art book or comic collection to inspire me.
She taught me to be kind, to help others, to share my knowledge, and most importantly how not to wet the bed (something my wife is incredibly grateful for).
Thank you mom. Everything good in my life is because of something you did for me, or something you taught me.
Thank you for reading this. I just wanted you to know a little bit about her.
- Jake
I Love Star Wars
I love Star Wars. Love it. Even the bad stuff.
My unapologetic love and fandom for Star Wars is probably like someone who is a life long Dodgers fan.
As a kid they get taken to the games, they collected baseball cards, they owned a jersey, and are brought up knowing all the players. As adults, regardless of how the Dodgers are doing they still watch the games, they still root for the team, they still want them to win the World Series.
They also know when the team stinks, but that doesn’t diminish their love for the team...in fact, it might make them defend them and love them even more.
That’s me and Star Wars. Seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater when it came out as a six-year-old made a deep deep impression on me.
It would probably be like taking a kid who was into sports to a professional game and having them high five one of he players as he entered the arena.
I came home and replaced my Batman costume with a black Luke costume (with one black glove), and my RoTJ Luke action figure became a daily carry. A life long Star Wars fan was born.
I’ve never felt franchise fatigue for Star Wars, and I can plainly see that so much of it is designed to make money, but at the heart of it, just like in Major League Baseball, there’s people who are making it not just to collect a check, but for the love of the game.
That love still shines through in a well acted character, a really thoughtful piece of concept art, and an exhilaratingly creative scene.
Which is why I love this brilliant, flawed, beautiful, stupid, but most of all FUN galaxy far, far away.
Tabling at ECCC: What would you do?
For the last 10 years I’ve ran a table at at least one comic con show a year. The most I did in one year was around 2016 when I did 6 or 7 shows. However, I’ve been seeing a steady decline in the amount of money I’ve been making at these shows and I think it’s time for me to push pause on cons for the foreseeable future.
Here’s why I do comic cons:
I love meeting the people who support my work
I love making friends and strengthening old friendships in the comic industry
I like getting out of my studio and seeing new places ( also like the long road trips to clear my head)
I always come away from the shows wanting to do better and be better in my career. I get ideas from other professionals and fans about how to improve my work and business
Its a way to supplement my income
EMERALD CITY COMIC CON NUMBERS
By far the best show I do every year is Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. All my other shows gross roughly $4,000 to $6,000, but Seattle is always a good $2,000 more than that. I’m going to talk about Emerald City because I’ve decided that if I do any show from here on out it’ll be that one since it’s my biggest money maker.
In 2015, the first year I did the show, I grossed $9,053. My expenses for a show are between $1000 and $2000 depending on the amount of tables I get and what my hotel situation is. I walked away from ECCC 2015 with about $7,500 in my pocket. Not bad!
BUT, Here’s how it’s broken down since 2015:
2015: $9,053
2016: $8,745
2017: Took a year off
2018: $6,283
2019: $5,743
That’s a pretty steep decline. This year my best seller was by far my new SkyHeart book. I sold over 60 copies of it! However, this last year I sold less prints (for less money), less books overall, and I only did 2 commissions instead of my usual 9 or 10.
REASONS FOR THE DECLINE
Here’s some of the reasons I think there’s been a decline:
1) I don’t sell BIG Marvel Fan Art prints any more. They were 13 x 19 and sold for $30 a pop. (I don’t sell them any more for a few reasons which I’ll get into on another post) Also, the prints I did sell at this show are half the size of what I used to sell and go for $20. I made them for a smaller show and I’m just clearing them out. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
2) It’s been a few years since I’ve done any comic work for Marvel, and I didn’t bring any original comic art with me.
3) After FOUR Drawings books I think people might have all the Drawings books they need. Sales of those have definitely slowed down. (Maybe I should do Drawings 5?)
4) In 2018 and 2019 I moved my location to the Sky Bridge. Emerald City is set up with two main halls connected by a narrow glass atrium that looks over one of the main streets in downtown Seattle. It’s called the Sky Bridge and it has a lot of traffic, but it’s not direct traffic. It’s mostly people just passing through to get to the other side of the con. The first two years I was in the Artist Alley and I think the people who cruise Artist Alley are more likely to be there deliberately and are looking for specific things to spend money on.
I can fix most of these problems to maybe squeeze out a few more dollars from a show, but is it worth it?
But here’s some other theories of mine that I don’t think are fixable:
1) People are just suffering from con-fatigue and not spending as much money.
2) Cons growing in the amount of artists that are showing and the attendees spending the same amount of money, but distributing it to more people. (it looked like ECCC Artist Alley was BIGGER than it’s ever been this year)
3) I’ve tapped my full audience at comic cons. It’s entirely possible that everyone who is a fan of Jake Parker in the Seattle area already has everything they want from me. There were lots of people who came by just to say hi, which is super nice, but they didn’t buy anything.
REASONS TO QUIT
There’s a handful of reasons I do not like doing cons. They are an incredible time and energy suck. There’s the days leading up to the con that you’re getting everything ready. There’s the travel to and from. There’s the con itself which can be brutally noisy and socially draining. And then there’s picking up the pieces of your life when you get home. I usually have to spend a day doing all the house chores and errands I didn’t do while I was gone.
When I look at the reasons I like going to cons I wonder if actually tabling at a con is the best way to address those needs. It seems like the amount of time, effort, and creative energy that goes into setting up a table for a weekend at a convention could be better spent on deeper pursuits. A monthly google hang out could be a better way to meet fans in a more personal way. There could be a better way to maintain friendships in the industry via phone calls, texts, and skype hangouts. I could make a trip to another city where 100% of my time is spent exploring and experience everything that city has to offer and not have to spend 10 hours a day at that city’s convention. I could also spend money on specifically focused professional development courses/seminars and probably get more ideas and inspiration than what I would get from a convention. There a lot of better ways to make a few thousand dollars in a week where I still get to sleep in my own bed.
In short, maybe the money I make at a con isn’t worth it.
QUESTIONS
My questions I’m trying to answer right now:
Should I fix what I can and go one more time and see if the numbers rally?
Should I stop for a year?
Should I bid ECCC adieu?
What would you do?
—
BELOW: A sample of what I had at my table this year:
The Hero We Need Right Now.
Superman turns 80 in a couple weeks, and I thought I'd share why I think Superman is not just the greatest superhero but the hero we need right now.
I understand why most people don’t get Superman. This is no fault of the character. I put the blame on most writers of Superman. I think the common mistake is to make him relatable by giving him weaknesses that he has to deal with. The writers of Superman give him kryptonite, or they give him a love interest, or a family, or an inescapable past. All of these are designed to be pressure points that a villain can manipulate him with.
Something like kryptonite makes him weak, but it isn't his weakness. This misses the mark, because Superman already has a built in weakness that should be exploited in every story.
His true weakness is the fact that he can't be everywhere at the same time. He can't save everybody. A frustrating thing for someone who is a Christ figure, a savior of the world. He came from another realm not to rule the world, which he could so easily do, but to be one of us and to save us from ourselves.
How do you save a planet that’s hellbent on destroying itself from the inside out? And how do you approach a character that has already fulfilled the needs of safety, acceptance, self esteem, and self-actualization?
A Superman story shouldn’t be about super powers, or secret identities, or being the sole survivor of the planet krypton, they should be stories about him having more faith in us than we have in ourselves.
Every person Superman encounters in a Superman story should inherit his values of truth, liberty, justice, and life just by being in contact with him. A Superman story should be about how we can be better, how we can find safety, how we gain acceptance, how to build our self esteem, and how to achieve self-actualization. A Superman story isn’t about his character growth, it’s about our character growth.
That’s Superman’s true power. Not leaping over buildings, melting steel beams with eye lasers, or flying faster than a speeding bullet. His power is changing people. One man can’t save an entire world, but one man can inspire a world to save itself.
And that’s the story we need to hear right now.
If you're interested in reading a handful of really good comics, here’s four of THE BEST Superman stories. These are the ones I keep coming back to:
Superman Birthright: I actually bought this book for the art but stayed for the story. It's a great origin story of Clark Kent taking on the mantle of Superman. Maybe the first time I read a really good explanation of the "S" on his chest.
Superman for All Seasons: A quiet Superman story that narrated by those who knew Clark Kent the best and how they impacted his life, and in turn how he's impacted theirs.
All-Star Superman: My favorite of this bunch. This takes a bunch of the crazy Golden and Silver-Age Superman characters, experiences, and set pieces and weaves it into a serious story about the Man of Steel's last year on earth. It was heartfelt, engaging, and fun. Plus the art is incredible.
Superman Secret Identity: An alternate universe re-telling of the Superman origin story. I didn't know what to expect when I bought this, I just heard it was really good. Took me by surprise a little, but I enjoyed it. Also, really great art.
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Roald Dahl, Double Barrel Cannons, Yaretas, and Breaking into Comics
I like keeping my creative bank account full and fresh, so I'm always on the look out for cool/interesting/thought provoking/inspiring stuff. To keep track of it, I'm posting it here on my blog, so that a) I can access it easily, and b) so you can benefit from it too.
In that same spirit, if you run into anything you think I might like please share it with me, either in the comments or via my contact page. Thanks!
Okay, here's 5 cool things that came across my screen recently:
1) Roald Dahl’s Letter of Advice to a Young Writer.
Always interesting to see what advice successful creative people have for amateurs. Lessons learned from this brief exchange:
1 - Don't ask too much of them. You should have already studied their work, and the work that they studied to get where they are. Once you've done that, if there's any gaps in your understanding you can ask for them to fill that for you.
2 - Do your homework on the person you're contacting so you don't ask them for information that is already readily available. When you only have one shot to talk to someone you look up to you don't want to waste it on something that you already had access to.
I had no idea these things actually existed. What a brutal weapon! The ingenious part is connecting the cannon balls with a chain. Might be cool to put something like this in SkyHeart...I'm thinking on a bigger scale. Maybe the tengru use a massive version of this to level cities?
3) Yareta, the 3000 years old plant
Another thing I never knew existed! This was brought to my attention by Rebecca Dart who shared this on her twitter feed. Pretty cool to know that stuff like this grows on our planet. Might be good reference for an alien civilization. I can imagine tiny villages built on these plants, with little alien farmers harvesting them for food.
4) "I feared releasing something unimportant, so I didn’t release anything at all."
Short read about allowing your ego to get in the way of you putting something out into the world. I think they nail it. If you haven't created something and shared it with people in a long while, could this be the reason?
5) How to Work in Comics? The “Don’t Break In” Panel
I was a part of a panel at Emerald City and Comics Beat did a nice write up of it. In the panel we unpacked the idea of making comics on your own as a way to "break in" to the comic industry. Jason Brubaker, Lucy Bellwood, and I have all had success self publishing our comics. A great discussion, and really nice to hear three different perspectives on this topic.
That's it for this week. See you next time.
Jake
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To Art Students in Puerto Rico
I met Samuel at the CTN Animation Expo last year. He’s an animation student from Puerto Rico. Last summer Puerto Rico was hit by a massive hurricane that destroyed a lot of the infrastructure of the country and, by extension, the infrastructure of the art school Samuel attends.
I’m trying to imagine the full extent of the damage this caused. Two months after the hurricane Samuel told me that there was still no power. A trip to the school that took 45 minutes took 2 hours. Instead of washing clothes in a washing machine, clothes are washed in the river.
I’m trying to imagine finishing school under these circumstances.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of news cycles, the situation in Puerto Rico has largely gone forgotten by the world. There are problems that can’t be fixed in six months and the effects of this hurricane will be felt for years to come. This leaves the people left cleaning up the mess to feel even more isolated and marginalized.
At CTN Samuel asked me if I had any words I could send along to his fellow classmates. Anything positive that might inspire them to keep going.
At Samuel’s request I’ve written this letter to offer a message of hope in the face of such hardship:
To the art students of Puerto Rico let me first say I’ve never had to face mountains like yours, but I’ve had my own mountains that have tested me. In those times I’ve had to remind myself this:
You need to create.
Your community needs you to create.
The world needs you to create.
There’s a reason you chose art as a career path. It is in your nature to create and share. That’s because you have stories, images, characters, and experiences inside of you that need to get out. Leaving those things to wither and die inside of you is not an option. The act of creation is also an act of healing. It requires your mind, your emotion, and your body to make something. Engaging all of those at once provides an outlet for your frustrations, but also elevates you out of your situation for a moment, and shows how things can be. For your own well being you need to create.
As your country rebuilds it needs healthy communities who live and work together peacefully. Your art can be a part of this by showing your community an ideal by which it can strive for. Your art can be the language in which your community uses to understand each other. As your community comes together there are experiences it might not necessarily fully understand or know how to express. You art can help share thoughts, ideas and a vision of your community that may not be able to be articulated any other way. In order to thrive your community needs you to create.
Lastly, artists are on the frontline of culture. They give us tools to understand our past, what we are dealing with now, and most importantly how things can be. Throughout history the world has been changed forever by small groups of artists who dared to create in the face of uncertainty and instability.
Think of Picasso’s Guernica which brought the horrors of the Spanish Civil War to the attention of the world. Or the impressionists which showed us that art shouldn’t just be a representation of what we see, but also of what we feel. Or Disney’s Snow White which showed that animation wasn’t just for gags and laughs, but could be used to tell meaningful, emotionally impactful stories. Your art could be just as provocative. What you create in this situation could just be what the world needs to see right now. The world needs you to create.
Now, telling someone to create, and actually creating are two different things. I understand that making a work of art falls to the bottom of the list of priorities when most of your energy is finding a way to feed yourself that day. Don’t let that stop you from doing these two small things:
Make something every day.
Be 1% better than you were yesterday.
It might be one drawing on one page in your sketchbook. Or a scribble on a napkin. Or a journal entry. Or a quick sketch you made on the bus. Whatever it is, make/draw/write something every day.
It might be that today you spent one more minute creating than you did yesterday. Or you started a second drawing and the day before you only did one. It might be that instead of having a moment of feeling sorry for yourself you took one moment to feel gratitude toward some thing. Whatever you’re doing, try to just be one percent better today than you were yesterday.
Both of these compound. They are small, but after weeks and months of doing these seemingly insignificant things you will see change happen. Something bigger will start to come from your small, consistent acts of creativity and self improvement.
First you will see change in yourself.
Then you’ll see it in others around you.
One day the effect will be noticeable in your community.
In time, it will be felt around the world.
And that’s something you, your community, and the world need right now.
-Jake
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10,000 Minutes
Been thinking about the 10,000 hour rule.
Malcolm Gladwell popularized it in his 2008 book Outliers. Based on studies of elite performers in a spectrum of disciplines Gladwell proposed that people aren't born geniuses, but arrive there through hours upon hours of practice and work.
He contends that “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness." He backs that up by giving examples of greatness, and how Bill Gates, Mozart, and the Beatles achieved mastery by combining their nascent talent with 10,000 hours of practice.
Whether you're learning to code, play piano, illustrate, or wrangle dinosaurs, Gladwell says it'll take 10,000 hours of practice to master it.
10,000 hours of hard learning is daunting. It can be insurmountable for anyone over 40, and it is crippling to a teen. How can you live a balanced life when 5 hours of free time a day for 8-9 years is spent holed up in your room practicing?
Here’s a question: Maybe you don’t need to be a master in order to be successful?
Sometimes to be successful at something you just need to be above average. Maybe even just 1% better than the next guy. Mastery can come later if you want it. In fact, I think if you spend 10 years practicing at an above average level, mastery will be a nice side effect.
Let mastery happen on its own schedule, In the meantime just strive for being above average.
To get to above average you’ll need a lot less time than 10,000 hours. How about we see what you can learn in 10,000 minutes?
10,000 minutes as about 167 hours. If you attack this full time, and spend 8 hours a day, for 5 days a week, you’ll get your 10,000 minutes in a MONTH. I don’t think that’s healthy. Do not try it.
Let’s look at something a little more doable: 2 hours every week day (weekends off) gets you your 10,000 minutes in just 3 months.
That’s way more manageable. You can still have a life while doing this. Which is important for having a well stocked creative bank account.
But not all hours drawing are created equal. Just drawing for fun 2 hours a day isn’t going to get you to above average. You need to make those hours really count.
In order to make this the most effective use of your hours here’s FOUR things you need to do.
1) Define the micro skills
Being a great artist means mastering 40+ different micro-skills. These small skills are stacked on top of each other and make it look like the master artist doing magic, when really she is just doing 40+ small things all at the same time.
Some of these skills are:
Line weight
Tone
Proportion
Silhouette
Light
Shadow
Design
Concept
Form
Composition
Color
Value
That’s a good list to start with. If you want to know more, study up on some of your favorite artists. Perhaps ask them what skills they think are most important, then add those to your list of micro skills.
2) Deliberate Practice
Now that you’ve got the list of micro-skills you need to learn set out to learn each one individually. You do this through deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice is seen as one of the most effective ways to learn because it’s about narrowing in on specific sub skills and mastering those first.
For example, line weight is the first on the list there. What you might do is print out a line drawing that someone has already done, then you’ll trace over that drawing trying to copy the line weight exactly. Repeat this as many times as it takes so that you learn when to do thick heavy lines and when to do thin light lines.
Once you’ve gotten good at that, do the same with tone. Copy drawings that are excellent examples of tonal structure. And try to match that with your drawing.
Repeat this for all the micro-skills one-by-one.
Note: this is hard. Professionals who practice this way state that they can only concentrate for, at most, 4 hours every day on learning one specific micro-skill.
So don’t get frustrated if you can only do this for 30 minutes at a time at first.
3) Establish a feedback loop
One of the best ways to spot your problem areas and identify ways to improve is by creating a feedback loop for yourself. For some skills you’ll be able to track your performance by yourself. Just by comparing your line weight to the line weight of the drawing your learning from you should be able to see where you nailed it and where you need improvement.
But some skills are a little more subjective, or you haven’t learned enough yet to know what’s working and what isn’t in your studies. For that you’ll need to either find a mentor or find a community to show your work to. A place like the SVSlearn.com forums is a great place to share your progress and get feedback.
Showing a teacher or a professional is also a great way to get feedback. Many online schools offer access to their teachers in live classes. Schoolism, CGMA, and SVSlearn.com all have great options.
4) The 1% Rule
Just try to be one percent better today than you were yesterday. I learned about this from James Altucher who writes about this here.
Do this and you’ll see your expertise compound. Don’t worry about making giant strides every day. Just look at yesterday’s work and try to make it one percent better than it was yesterday.
Do this for 167 days and that 1% becomes… 167% better? I don’t know exactly. I’m not very good at percentages, but you get the point.
Get Started!
So that’s it, forget the 10,000 hour rule and see what you can accomplish in 10,000 minutes.
I’ve seen massive gains in my abilities by doing these four things. Check your own learning regiment and see if introducing micro-skill tracking, deliberate practice, feedback loops, and the 1% rule make any difference in the next 3 months.
I’d love to know how it goes for you.
Also, let me know what other learning techniques you do that have proven super effective. I’d love to try and apply those to my learning as well.
Thanks,
Jake
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The Pre-History of SkyHeart
As I get close to wrapping up this first volume of SkyHeart I thought I'd share the development history for this project.
It all started here:
My idea Journal, started in 2001
I remember having tons of story ideas and I'd keep forgetting them, so I decided to write them down as they came to mind so I'd never lose them.
One of the first entries was for an idea about a planet that had been hollowed out and was now crumbling. I had no idea what to call it so "hollow planet" seemed to work for the time being.
These first few entries were just about world building, not thinking of characters or stories just yet. I wanted to figure out what the parameters of this world was before delving into who my characters were.
First entry for SkyHeart, then titled "Hollow Planet"
Not long after my initial journal entries I started sketching out ideas for the characters and the world they lived in.
I believe this is the first drawing I ever did of Airth. It's not dated, but it was in a stack of drawings from 2001 so it's from that year.
I knew I wanted it to be about animals in flying machines. But what animals? What kind of flying machines? Here was one of my very first explorations:
One of my first drawings for what would become SkyHeart. A group of crazy animals flying around in a gunship.
As I thought more about the idea and the world I wondered what would a typical day be like for an explorer of this planet. A scene came to mind, not of perilous adventure, but of the mundane act of refueling and stocking up on supplies:
It's been a lot of fun looking at these OLD drawings now. I wish the Jake that drew these 14 years ago could see what became of this little idea.
The idea simmered in my imagination for a year or so, until I was asked to be a part of an anthology book called FLIGHT. I thought this would be a great time to dig in to this world I was building, figure out some characters, and start crafting a story.
One of the first things I drew was this:
Sometimes an idea just hits you and you go with it. In this case it was a boy riding a flying whale with a winged pig at his side. The idea grew on me and a developed the character designs even more:
As I was drawing these characters I started asking myself questions: What are their personalities? Why are they together? What were they riding in the sky for?
The answers started coming and soon I had a story. It was epic, and had many moving parts. I had no idea how I would ever draw this story, and besides it wouldn't fit in an anthology where I only had 14 pages I was allowed to fill. So I wrote a little vignette about a day in the life of these guys. It was called Hugo Earhart and here's a couple pages from that:
I loved putting together this little story. It was only 14 pages, but it alluded to the much bigger world I was developing. I started fleshing out the world even more.
Here's some more sketches I found:
And here's a few development designs for a side character in the story; a sky-elf. She would evolve to become a main character in SkyHeart, but I had no idea she would become that when I was designing her for this story.
After writing more ideas about the story I decided I wasn't up to the task. It would be too hard for me to draw it and write it. I just wasn't good enough.
I decided to shelve it for a few years as I focused on my Missile Mouse Graphic novels.
A couple years after MM, I launched a Kickstarter for a book that would collect all my short comic stories that I had drawn. It was called The Antler Boy and Other Stories. One of the stretch goals was for me to add a new Hugo Earhart story to it.
Here's a few pages from that story:
Crafting this story rekindled my love for this world and I started to think about it a lot. I thought about how I had grown as a storyteller and as an artist. I thought about what I could do with this story and where I could take it. But I still didn't feel like I was ready to tackle an entire graphic novel.
So I did what I do best: world build!
I decided to mix some more fantasy elements into it and began figuring out the mythology of this universe. Here's some concept sketches of the new direction:
It was this mix of fantasy and diesel-punk tech that made me feel like I was really onto something.
But then again, the world and story overwhelmed me and I decided to shelve it again when I thought I'd be ready.
For three years distracted myself with Lord Balderben, SkullChaser, Rocket Raccoon, and Little Bot. In those years I felt like I got much better at my craft, but I knew I would need a real kick in the pants to motivate me to overcome my fears and doubts with drawing SkyHeart.
That kick in the pants came in the form of Kickstarter. That Kickstarter got me to finally put me in a place where I HAD to do SkyHeart whether I was ready or not. I talk all about how doing the book helped me overcome fear and doubt here.
This post is already way too long, so I'll stop. The SkyHeart Kickstarter had it's own development that I'll share in another post. Like, how Hugo went from being a boy to becoming a fox-like character named Wake.
Thanks for reading this far. See you next week.
-Jake
The SkyHeart book is coming soon!
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Why Do You Create?
I was asked this question on the SVS forums several months ago and it has stuck with me. I think about this a lot.
Before I start unpacking this, there’s another (maybe even more important?) question:
Why does knowing why you create even matter?
You need to figure this out because knowing why you create informs everything you do as a creator.
Knowing why you create helps you stave off feelings of inadequacy, frustration, and imposter syndrome that often come with putting your creative self out there for people to see, judge, and respond to.
Knowing why you create motivates you to improve your craft, and sets a foundation for you to build a career on.
Knowing why you create gives purpose to your art, and by extension, to you.
Knowing why you create is key to being a happy, satisfied, and more creative person.
I think there’s three reasons to create. There might be more. If you can think of others, please share in the comments.
A particular act of creation can satisfy one of these reasons, or all of them. I also think that all of these reasons are the right reasons. And you shouldn’t feel bad for being predisposed to one over the other.
But I think these three just about cover everything.
So, why does a person create?
Reason 1: Personal Fulfillment
This is the most basic and primal reason for creating. This is why little children pick up crayons and fill sheets of construction paper with colors. This reason satisfies one of our most innate desires: to turn raw materials into something organized; to turn imagination into reality.
I had a knack for drawing early on...but I admit, when I look at my early drawings they look no more special than any other kid who liked to draw. However, I got a lot of positive reinforcement from my parents and classmates, and that gave me confidence to to improve.
I remember getting a rush when I would create things, sometimes with my art, sometimes with LEGO, sometimes it was just combining my toys into new creations. I loved putting something that had my creative fingerprint on it out into the world. I began to crave that feeling and I found myself in what I call my “creative rush” cycle:
- step one: put myself in a position to get the creative rush
- step two: feed off the rush creating something as awesome as I could create
- step three: get positive feedback and reinforcement from parents, teachers, and peers on the thing I created
At every step I was feeling good things, and that's why I did what I did, to feel good. To keep those feelings coming I kept repeating the cycle.
What happens when you do something a lot, over and over and over again? You get good at it.
By the time I was in high school I was the best artist at the school. I was known as the kid who was good at drawing and was sought out to draw things for people. I designed a bunch of t-shirts, I was president of the Art Club (and we went on to win club of the year that year). I won the artist of the year award my senior year. Drawing and art was a central part of my identity.
It is this very personal reaction to creation that I think drives many people to pick up a pen and make something that wasn’t there before.
Reason 2: Reciprocation
This is creating as an act of mutual giving and receiving. You create to receive something beneficial in return. Sometimes this is a job or contract work that you’re financially compensated for. Sometimes it’s not for money, but for exposure. Sometimes it’s to build out your portfolio, or to learn how to do something better. In the end, your act of creation facilitated the means to receiving something that benefited you.
When it was time for me to go get a job and make something of myself I realized I wasn't qualified, nor interested in doing anything that wasn't creative. In my early 20's I found myself working for an animation studio, getting married, and having a kid all in the space of 3-4 years
Now my reasons for creating meant doing the thing I was good at to get a steady paycheck. Personal satisfaction would have to take a back seat. For about 12 years I grinded at different studios working on projects that I was sort of interested in (I wasn't super excited designing foliage for background environments in talking animal movies full of fart jokes). But I was getting better at my craft and supporting a family.
I was creating to support a family and a lifestyle, but I still craved the rush from reason 1, so I did a lot of personal side projects that allowed me to go through my “creative rush” cycle. I posted on forums, then blogs, then social media, then got work published. I got the rush of creating things I thought were awesome. These were things that I wanted to create AND got a lot of positive reinforcement from my peers.
Reciprocation is the reason so many things you love were put in the world. Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Spider-man all exist because people had rent due at the end of the month.
Reason 3: Societal Enrichment
This reason for creating is based on a selfless need to put something good into the world. This could be because the creator feels indebted and wants to pay back the community. Or a creator sees a need and tries to fill it with something only they can create.
If you’re a storyteller, you hope that your stories strike a chord with an audience, and that the audience is changed by your creation. An artist hopes that her art adds to the conversation that society is continually having about how we should behave and think. The teacher is motivated by his student’s success in their application of his teachings.
While the rush and the financial support are still a part of what I do, I’m finding myself more and more motivated to share what I do with others as a way to improve their life on some level. That’s why I like teaching, I like making youtube videos that unpack issues/problems facing creative people. I like drawing things that have a story to them; they aren’t just pretty pictures, but hopefully they make someone stop and take someone to a place in their imagination.
If I have a mission now, it’s to help elevate people’s ability to create good things. I want people to have that awesome feeling you get when you make something, I want them to get positive feedback from peers, and I would love it if they could someday turn it into a career or a way to supplement their income.
Whether it’s the impetus or a side-effect of a creative work, societal enrichment is a beautiful reason to create.
As I look at these reasons through the lense of my own creative life it’s interesting to see what was driving my decisions at different times of my life.
At first I was drawing because I wanted to do what was good for me.
Then that turned into drawing because it was a means to do what was good for those I was immediately responsible for.
Then that turned into drawing because I want to do what is good for the larger community.
Creations that have the biggest impact in the world satisfy these three reasons. They fulfill your needs, they fulfill the needs of your responsibilities, and they fulfill the needs of the community.
That said, not everyone sets out to impact the world with their art, and that’s perfectly fine.
If a drawing puts a smile on your face, that’s reason enough.
-Jake
Blogging Again
Recently, I had to research something for a project I’m working on which required me to use the wayback machine to track down some dates on my old blog.
I got sucked in and started reading 10 year old posts I wrote.
It was incredible to revisit old artwork and be reminded of my thought process back then. I may have gotten a little nostalgic, but more so I was reminded of what an engaging medium blogging is to to tackle subjects and share process.
I began to wonder why I ever abandoned my blog.
Then it hit me, I stopped blogging around the time I started using Instagram.
I exchanged the ease and glitz of social media for my lame-o blog that didn’t even show how many followers I had, and couldn't tell me if people liked my post or not.
Social media has been great, and there’s a bah-jillion artists on there to follow. But I’ve been feeling this urge to engage in deeper ways with people online that I’m not getting that with tweets, grams, and status updates.
I think social media values and promotes the superficial and easily consumed. Because of that, creators are trained to create work that fits those needs. As a result everyone is interacting in increasingly smaller ways with increasingly more people.
A blog post asks a person to settle in. Whether you’re sharing your process, unpacking an idea, or telling a story, you’re asking for a more captive audience. You’re requiring more attention, and the audience that accepts that invitation is more likely to build a stronger bond with you and your work.
That’s why I’m blogging again. I know only a small percentage of my online following will read my blog posts, but I’ll know that those that do are my people. They are the ones who will want to connect on a less superficial level.
To my blog: Sorry I tucked you away in a little box and abandoned you. I'm back now, and will never leave you again.
- Jake