OK so I exceeded the two-thousand word point on my last entry so it's time to write my manifesto and wrap this (and my trusty napkin) up...
Let's see here, ok well we'll start with...
On Aesthetics...
- To always create fully fleshed out, plothole-less concepts, which will provide answers to questions the viewer may not have thought of yet.
- To have my artwork communicate fully with my audience on a self explanatory basis. The Characters define themselves, the panels show what is happening clearly and concisely, the story and dialogue should provided further clarification, while at the same time illuminate subtext for those who wish to find meaning for themselves.
- To acknowledge, early on, that one should play to their strengths and venture down the path that flairs passion in the heart of the artist. Mine for example would be to stick to pencil and ink, as this is where my strength lies. To use digital mediums to place text and colour onto my work, for my strengths lie not in the realms of traditional media or typography. To embark down a path for the sake of diversity at the cost of the quality of the artwork is, in my humble opinion, a fools errand. Which only caters to the whims and personal preferences of others, not to the soul and integrity of the artist.
On Ethics...
- To stand by a moral code and never sell out for a buck. I would rather wait tables till I die than cater to the whims of others. The artists should create art for himself before the audience. The subject material should entertain him/her before it entertains others. They are after all, the ones who will slave over it for however long. If the subject matter is not one of personal importance or of entertaining value to the artist, how can he/she throw all of themselves into it without a sense of restriction? The feeling of someone elses thumbprint on the page? To create art under the impulsive inclinations of others is, in my opinion, as tedious and laborious a task as inputting data to a spreadsheet. Did we not become artists to express our innermost thoughts and desires? Our personal stories be they fact or fiction? I know I did. So if the world of freelance is about forever redesigning other peoples characters and creations, you can count me out.
- To focus on the inevitable conclusion that in a few plus years all paper will be replaced by an LCD screen. To embrace this fact and hop on the band-wagon express to the digital frontier. I will always buy a hard copy of a novel or graphic novel where I can, the reason for this being that reading from a book allows you to lean back, to read from a screen one must lean forwards. However we live in an age of i-pads and kindles and soon the hunching over a screen to read will become obsolete. So in favour of our mother earth and her environment, and being of the generation I am, I vow to maintain a digital presence over paper, I mean, I use enough trees drawing the things let alone printing them upon completion. And should there be a call for hard copies, I'll be damned sure to use a renewable source of paper and ink, you have my word.
In Conclusion...
I essentially want to draw for myself before anyone else. Drawing was always remained a form of escapism from being about 6 or 7 when I'd draw and cut out my own versions of the action figures my mum wouldn't buy me from the Argos catalogue. Right up through school and work to subsequently to attending university. One of the many things I've learned since attending university at Glyndwr, along with a vast progression in comic composition, story structure and character development amongst other things. Is that I don't respond well to other people's briefs. My tutors (Dan I presume you're reading this) shouldn't take offence to this. It's my own problem, I spent my childhood and subsequent adolescence drawing maps and creating my own fantasy worlds and characters, with no constraints or obligations to anyone other than myself.
With a varying degree of success I might add, the successes in technical ability and concepts coming the older I got and coming on even further since I've attended Uni. But the drive to composite my own universes has always been what I've taken pleasure in. When I came to university and received briefs akin to those we would receive in the freelance world, it soon dawned on me I'd never do too well working for someone else.
That's not to say I haven't enjoyed any of them. I've enjoyed some of the challenges provided by a great many of the projects set in the three years I've been here so far. But the drive to complete them within their constraints and objectives begins to dwindle from the initial release of the brief, to the point of the deadline. With my own projects however, I can bend and ply these to my own desires and that creative freedom is what has always driven me to put my pencil to paper continuously. Which is why I'm desperately looking forward to the third year...
This will probably be viewed as a selfish, even immature and unrealistic view point of the creative industry on my part, by my respective tutors. If that is the view you take of my stand point then all I can say is I've tried it your way, and it's clear that I don't respond too well to it. Now maybe I'll realise my dream by sticking to my guns, and somewhere down the line I'll get published with my own material. Or maybe because I didn't attempt to break into freelance and make the right contacts I'll die a penniless waiter with a plethora of rejected comics filling up his bedsit room.
Who knows? It could go either way, the point I'm trying to make is, if I'm willing to take that chance, to hold on to faith that someone, somewhere along the line will be interested in my own stories. And if I'm satisfied with being a waiter up until that point. Isn't that my right as an artists and a creative?
I understand the need the tutors impress upon us to carve our way into some creative market by the time we leave, to have developed a style thats NEVER been seen before, and forge our way into the industry. But I'm a hopeless romantic who hopes that one day, he'll be discovered for his own work as opposed to work done for somebody else. Besides there's much more money in creator owned stuff that in being someones corporate monkey, pencil pusher, no matter how creative that company may be.
Does this mean that should I ever receive a job offer from a game company to design characters, or the opportunity to create concept art for film or television, that I wouldn't leave my six table section at T.G.I Friday's and jump at the chance?...
I honestly don't know. I think my soul might die a little bit each day if I did though. Drawing is my refuge.
You can have a rotten, arse-hole of a manager at the restaurant or store where you work, but if you can come home and draw for yourself, you can escape from the reality of a situation and create whatever you want. But what happens when that manager now has a say in what you can draw or create? When their personal opinions suddenly matter more than what's in your heart? Then what happens to the one thing that always provided comfort and security, when its waters get muddied with the opinions of someone higher up? I've found the tendency is to find a new refuge, form the old one. Which inevitably turns out to be a far less productive use of time i.e games or television.
This is not a rebellion against criticism of my artwork, that is how we progress by the observations and suggestions of viewers, critics, and the audience and I welcome them. But when there is someone in the position of a "head office" sending down strict instructions on how you should develop aspects of your story or characters from the ground up. That's where I draw the line.
I'm all for a fresh set of eyes on something that has an already formed foundation spawned from the mind of the creator. "have you thought about doing that, this way?" or "What if he came from here instead of there" etc. Much the same way our tutors currently provided advice. But the idea of a finacial party, holding my purse strings, being able to say 'yea' or 'nea' to any aspect of your story or creative process. No sir-ree that's not for me.
All I know is the more time I spend drawing for other's the less time I spend drawing for me, and as a result I think my artwork suffers for it. I have my own ideas and concepts that I'm unable to act on because I have a mountain of (usually overdue) projects due for other people, sat in the way. So I procrastinate till the eleventh hour, trying to find a new refuge in games or t.v, that drawing used to provide before it became a stress zone.
Then feverishly rush to complete the projects I just want out the way, and who wins? I turn in half grade stuff to the "client" and don't complete my own stuff before the next project lands on my desk. I believe I produce the best results by drawing what I love, and I intend to stick to that method from here on out because that's what works for me.
That is my manifesto...
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