The Artist Space Time Continuum

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Artist and writers work on different time scales, continuums, universes. That was brought home to me the other day when I asked my artist when the next set of drawings will be ready. I asked nicely, non-aggressively. His reply was “We only have 30 pages to go, what’s your hurry.”

30 pages to go we’re almost done. OK, it’s more like 70 pages to go (I’m having problems with the length of the story) but we have 130 pages penciled, the end is in sight. The artist still has to ink and color the drawings, but inking is straight forward and with tight pencils does not require a lot of creativity. Coloring may take as long as the penciling but I’m excited we are getting close to a major milestone in making this graphic novel.

Is the disconnect that artists spend hours on getting the line that represents the character’s eyebrow right while he believes the writer just has to spend a couple of hours to dash off a complete 100 page story. I spent years working on this story and in the time it’s taken the artist to pencils the pages I have almost completed a novel and the second volume of the graphic novel.

 

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

Artists don’t respect their customers

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Artists don’t respect their customers. I attended a panel at the recent Conjecture 2014 conference where two artist gave a talk.

I have mentioned before that I find artists are not morning people. The panel started at 10:00 AM yet one panel speakers complained that it was too early. I am on the computer working by 7:00 AM every morning along with other engineers I know. To us 10:00 is time to take a break from work and stretch our legs.

Neither artist brought a laptop to the panel (although one said she had one in her hotel room) yet both artists wanted to show pictures of great artwork to the attendees and did not have hard copies. There’s always problems with getting the laptop to talk to the projector but this is ridiculous. Ended up having to walk to the speakers table to look at their cell phones to see the artwork.

Is this an example of the artist disconnect with their customers or is it artist arrogance where artist believe that people will buy whatever they make because it is art and they are very good. What if people are not buying the type or style of art the artist is producing. Could this be why there are so many starving artists?

Maybe I care about my customers, maybe I care to much? Maybe I’ll always be an engineer and never an artist.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Voltage.

Merry festival worship of Durga

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I have a friend in India who is celebrating  Festival Worship of Durga. So how does one send greetings for this occasion? I wish you a merry Festival Worship of Durga, doesn’t sound good in English. No telling how it would translate. Have a happy Festival Worship of Durga, that doesn’t sound much better. Have a Glorious Festival Worship of Durga? The festival is about getting away from greed. Have a cleansing Festival Worship of Durga. Doesn’t sound to good but has the right spirit.

Let me know what you think and happy Navratra.

 

Write on, draw on.  Professor Voltage.