Allergy To Originality

When I was a child, if I created a good drawing I would run up to my dad and try to show it off. His first question was always,”Did you trace that”. The second question was, “Where did you come up with the image”.

If, for instance, I drew an image of Spider-Man. An original image, not traced. He would tell me that it wasn’t my drawing because that character was someone else’s. If I drew a drawing while looking at a real photo he called it copying… Copying, tracing, borrowing from other people’s work all meant I didn’t get the praise I was so desperate to have.

The result is I have a hard time creating art without feeling like I am doing something wrong. Trying to find a project that feels completely original is an impossibility and therefore it is better to embrace the fact that we can not create anything that is 100% original.

Side Note: My dad was a loving and supportive father, he just didn’t understand art.

Kickstarter: STRIPPED a documentary for WebComic Creators

I was recently introduced to this Kickstarter Campaign and had to share it.

comics quest from Frederick Schroeder on Vimeo.

What a great use of 8 bits graphics and Regular Nintendo nostalgia.

Kickstarter Video:

Marketing using someone else’s Brand with 5 examples

Princes and the Beast

Looking for a quick way to promote your comic, blog, or other project?

An easy way to create a little buzz is to steal I mean borrow someone else’s brand.

If you look at huge franchises such as Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, DC, etc, etc you have people who are just crazy for these characters.  You have people that want to see everything and anything related to them even if it isn’t from the companies that own those properties.

If you create works of art that feature these characters, you have an opportunity to build up viewers and possibly convert some of them into fans.  Just creating copies of your favorite characters isn’t going to bring in a flood gate of people; your art has to have some distinct qualities.

Those are:

It ‘s a Boy

A Halloween Trick.

My wife is due on November 24th (less than a month away) so I posted these photos on facebook as a joke.

As you can imagine it caused a little confusion but I found it entertaining if anything else.  I guess this is what happens when I spend too much time in the office alone.

I assume some of you would enjoy the Halloween joke.

The image on the left was originally from me holding my niece while visiting family several years ago.  The big baby body was from an image of one of the biggest baby’s ever born (I found it on the internet).  The face is my best friend Jeff Lang.

I used photoshop to create it.  The image at the bottom of the page I animated once for a video about myself I created for my youtube channel several years ago.  You can see it here.

What I should have done was put a caption in the image like all those memes people are using on facebook with my website at the bottom. Since I already posted it, I probably will not do that.  Also, because it is so personal and created for my friends that know who I am and what Jeff looks like it might not be as funny to those that don’t know Jeff or me personally.

At the very least I hope you enjoy it.

You can see the facebook image and comments HERE

bad call at Packer game (funny)

Living in WI I have been flooded with people talking about the bad call made during the NFL game by the 2nd string refs. I figure this image says it all!

The truth about my addiction