Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Random Doodles...
Waaay back in the 1980's when I was in the eighth grade I decided I wanted to be a Professional Cartoonist. I planned on having a syndicated comic strip in the newspapers like my hero Charles Schulz.
Figure this was roughly 1983 and I thought my 30th birthday was far enough away that I could accomplish this in no time.
I studied the masters. I read any book I could on the subject and I practiced. But life as usual gets in the way and my 30th birthday came and went with me in a different career altogether: (Hospitality) newly married with a child on the way. Cartooning was a forgotten dream, shelved until life provided a time for me to make it work.
The front room of our apartment housed my drawing table and reams of paper and pencils and brushes and notebooks and sketches that went no where. A life I had not lived. And while I still felt the pangs of a dream unanswered I was okay with it. (or so I thought)
I developed several styles to draw in but never nailed any one down that I would commit to. A million bad ideas passed through my right hand on to the pages of dozens of sketchbooks and none of them took flight. I am/was...my own worst critic. Nothing I created floated my own boat.
Eventually I noticed writing a daily gag took a lot of work. I started focusing on the writing side of things and learned cartooning, if anything is primarily writing.
"A cartoonist is just a writer who draws" became very real to me. Apparently I had been writing for a very long time and never knew it. So I refocused on writing in general and found that outlet easier to navigate.
Or so I thought.
I still concentrate on writing. (never enough time) and I am starting to redefine my definition of what a cartoon is. I no longer want to write a daily gag cartoon, but if something strikes me as funny I will (or plan to) use it in a cartoon. Inside jokes etc. I need to make myself laugh first.
I was always stuck on wondering who I cartooned for...who or where was my audience? I think the same way sometimes about my writing. Who is going to read it and give two shits about it?
Well, I'm a little older now and I don't care anymore...who or where. I am out to entertain myself and if in the process I make someone else laugh then that's all I wanted to do in the first place.
My wife was sifting through some of my older cartoons from a few years ago when I was just screwing around, she laughed out loud a few times and I found it addicting. I can't help it...that's what I wanted to do in 1983.
So...this blog is an experiment. It's a work in progress and there are no rules.
If you happen across it and find something that made you laugh or...not, drop me a comment. I would love to hear from you.
Thanks
-Scotty.
Figure this was roughly 1983 and I thought my 30th birthday was far enough away that I could accomplish this in no time.
I studied the masters. I read any book I could on the subject and I practiced. But life as usual gets in the way and my 30th birthday came and went with me in a different career altogether: (Hospitality) newly married with a child on the way. Cartooning was a forgotten dream, shelved until life provided a time for me to make it work.
The front room of our apartment housed my drawing table and reams of paper and pencils and brushes and notebooks and sketches that went no where. A life I had not lived. And while I still felt the pangs of a dream unanswered I was okay with it. (or so I thought)
I developed several styles to draw in but never nailed any one down that I would commit to. A million bad ideas passed through my right hand on to the pages of dozens of sketchbooks and none of them took flight. I am/was...my own worst critic. Nothing I created floated my own boat.
Eventually I noticed writing a daily gag took a lot of work. I started focusing on the writing side of things and learned cartooning, if anything is primarily writing.
"A cartoonist is just a writer who draws" became very real to me. Apparently I had been writing for a very long time and never knew it. So I refocused on writing in general and found that outlet easier to navigate.
Or so I thought.
I still concentrate on writing. (never enough time) and I am starting to redefine my definition of what a cartoon is. I no longer want to write a daily gag cartoon, but if something strikes me as funny I will (or plan to) use it in a cartoon. Inside jokes etc. I need to make myself laugh first.
I was always stuck on wondering who I cartooned for...who or where was my audience? I think the same way sometimes about my writing. Who is going to read it and give two shits about it?
Well, I'm a little older now and I don't care anymore...who or where. I am out to entertain myself and if in the process I make someone else laugh then that's all I wanted to do in the first place.
My wife was sifting through some of my older cartoons from a few years ago when I was just screwing around, she laughed out loud a few times and I found it addicting. I can't help it...that's what I wanted to do in 1983.
So...this blog is an experiment. It's a work in progress and there are no rules.
If you happen across it and find something that made you laugh or...not, drop me a comment. I would love to hear from you.
Thanks
-Scotty.
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