Category: Business

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Rockhopper Penguin Totem

This ornery looking fellow is a Rockhopper Penguin, the latest Totem in the series and one of my more challenging paintings to date.  While I usually have a lot of fun with these, this one was a roller coaster of frustration.

The main reason I added this animal to the series at this point is because the Calgary Zoo had expressed interest.  With their recent addition of The Penguin Plunge habitat to their facility, penguins are a pretty big deal in Calgary this year.  While they have already taken a chance on my Wolf and Moose paintings, I’d like to have more of my Totems for sale at the zoo, so the decision to  paint a penguin right now was a commercial one.  I sent the finished image to my contact at the zoo this morning within a short time of finishing it, and it was well received.  They’ve already ordered a significant number of prints in a variety of sizes, so they should be available at their retail outlet soon.  Right outside The Penguin Plunge.

So why was this so frustrating?  Honestly, with the exception of the Ostrich Totem, I find birds incredibly difficult to paint.  Perhaps it’s because their body structure is so different from mammals, a beak instead of a mouth, usually only one eye visible instead of two, also that they’re very stiff looking…honestly I don’t know what it is.  It wasn’t the detail, because the feathers were a lot of work, but not difficult to paint, just time consuming.  When I’m working on a painting, I start at low-resolution, then as more and more detail gets painted in, I’ll bump up the resolution until it’s around 18″X24″ at 300ppi.  When it gets to this point, the painting is really close to being finished, it’s just a matter of painting in a lot of tiny details.  With this penguin, however, I was trying to fix structural issues at full size, something I would rarely do.  But I’d painted so much detail in a lot of places that didn’t need to be fixed, so I couldn’t go backwards without losing that.

My wife Shonna is not an artist, but she has this uncanny knack of looking at a painting I’m working on and instantly seeing what’s wrong with it.  It’s very annoying, but also very helpful.  When I ask her opinion, I brace myself for what I know is coming, because there is always something.   With this penguin, she saw more than a few problems.  The eye wasn’t in the right place, the yellow feathers didn’t look right, the beak was shaped wrong.  It was brutal.

All of these issues were addressed and repainted, adding at least another five or six hours to a piece I’d already been working on for many more than that.  The personality didn’t even seem to show up until the last few hours, which is very unusual.  So while there’s nothing more I could do to this painting to improve it, I had a hard time ‘feeling’ it while I was doing the work.  There were still times when I was really enjoying myself, but not as much as I normally do.  The Bighorn Sheep Totem was like this as well, and while I love that painting now, I didn’t immediately after I’d finished it.

So what did I learn?  Well, sometimes you just have to plow through and git ‘er done, even when you’re not feeling it.  The finished painting may feel a little different to me at the moment, but anyone buying it doesn’t know the frustrating back story (unless they read it here), so it now stands on its own merit.  It’ll either be popular or it won’t, and time will tell.  Also, I took most of the reference photos myself, and they were average.  For the pose and general features, however, they were good enough.  For the fine details,  I decided to go and buy some stock photos.  After reading their licensing agreement that permits this usage for work like mine, I’ll be doing that more often.  Some great closeup detail reference on stock photo sites, and reasonably priced, too.  This is going to make future paintings a little easier for me.

While I’ve been working on commissions the last little while, turns out this is the first Totem I’ve added to the series since the Cougar in January.  I’ve got a couple of other painting projects up next, but I’m hoping to have another Totem done before the end of the summer.  And no, it’s not a bird.

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How much is that doggie in the painting?

Every time I post a new commission piece, as I did last week, people ask me what I charge for custom work.  For some reason, there used to be this grey area among artists about whether or not to post your prices.  I’ve read some compelling opinions on both sides of the argument, but one thing I’ve learned lately is that eventually you have to pick a side and stick to it.  That, and everybody has an opinion.

When it comes to editorial cartoons, illustration work and commercial painting gigs, each one is negotiated individually, because every client, usage, and situation is different.  Commissions for the animal paintings, however, are pretty straightforward, as long as the client is looking for the same style of image that can be seen in my portfolio.  An animal portrait painting, whimsical Totem style or not, is a lot of work, but it’s straightforward and there are usually no surprises.   In the interest of pulling back the curtain, I thought I’d just post the standard commission information.  This will also enable me to link to this post in the future whenever the inquiries come in.  There are always little differences in each inquiry, but consider this the foundation on which all of my painting commissions are built.  These are the current prices and details.  While they’re unlikely to change in the very near future, prices will go up over time, and with demand.

Whether it’s the Totem or realistic style, the price is the same.  For 1 (one) animal, commissions start at $600.00 (CDN), which includes a 16″X20″ signed matted print, with free shipping anywhere in Canada or the Continental U.S.  There are additional costs for other printing options as there is a significant difference between an 8″X10″ paper print and an 18″X24″ framed canvas print, both in production and shipping fees.  The time to complete a commission will vary, depending on my workload, but usually it’s around 4-6 weeks from the time I receive the reference photos.  If you live in Canada, there is GST or HST added to that price, depending on the region.  You can blame the government for that.  I require a 50 percent non-refundable deposit on all commissions once an agreement has been reached, the remainder due upon completion.

One request I’m getting more and more of these days is for the full-resolution digital file.  While I used to be on the fence about this, as many artists and photographers are when it comes to their images,  I now give the digital file to every client.  I still retain the copyright, but these days, clients want to be able to post something like this on a website and social media and maybe print a few extra copies for themselves. As long as they aren’t trying to pass it off as their own work, or sell copies of the images, I feel that’s fair.  They paid for the work, just as if a company might have paid me for an ad illustration.  That way, if they want to put the painting of Fido on their Christmas card that year, they’re free to do so.

While no photos are ever part of the paintings, I can’t very well paint those little freckles you love so much on your cat’s nose if I don’t know what they look like, so I need good photos to work from  Some of my clients have been photographers.  As a result, many of the reference photos I’ve had to work with have been great.  Since not everybody can be a photographer, it’s often a challenge to find the right photos.  The better the photos I have, the better the painting will be.  In a perfect world, the photos should be sharp, good lighting, fairly close up of the face of the animal, a straight on or 3/4 pose, at eye level, and looking at the camera.  The more photos to choose from, the better.  Problems that occur with some animal photos is that their eyes are highly reflective, and a flash can completely wash out the detail.  If your dog or cat looks sad in all of the photos provided, it can be tough to make him or her look happy, without the risk of losing the likeness.

Let’s use fictitious Fido as an example.  Fido is a shaggy dog that is dirty and in desperate need of a haircut.  Can’t see his eyes, he’s looking elsewhere, it’s dusk, the photo was taken from far away, and the only copy available  is a 4″X6″ low resolution image on Facebook.  The client’s instructions are, “his hair is usually a lot shorter than that, he has big brown eyes.  When we go to our cottage in the woods, he always likes to put his paws up on the window and look out, so I’d like to see him like that.”

Based on this, I’m going to ask for more photos and negotiate that pose.  If this were all I had to go on, I would decline the opportunity, because the client wouldn’t be happy with the finished work, anyway.  Having done a number of these commissions of people and animals over the years, I can usually tell quite quickly if it’s going to work out or not.

Suppose, however, that the client has given me fantastic photos of Fido to work from, great lighting, sharp detail and is flexible on the pose, but then adds, “I’d like him to be wearing his collar with his name tag on it.  He also likes to sit with his favorite fifteen stuffed animals and toys.”

The collar would be no problem and would not affect the cost.  The same would apply to maybe sticking a bow-tie on Fido, or even a comical pair of glasses if that’s what the client wanted.  Some of that I can make up, and  I would consider that part of the foundation.  All of those toys, however, very specific toys, well, that’s going to definitely be an added cost, as would any other additional specific details that the client would like to include.  Any additional animals would also affect the cost.  While a few have asked, I decline the opportunity to paint a person and an animal in the same portrait.  My styles for both are very different, and they just don’t go together.

Painting these animals is a joy most of the time and I find that I like hearing the ‘back story’, too.  We sure do love our animals, and hearing folks talk about the personality of their furry, hairy, or feathered friend is something I enjoy very much.  I’ve no doubt that it helps me paint a better likeness and hopefully capture some of that personality in the painting.  One of my favorites was Chase, the happy German Shepherd with his titanium tooth.

Chase

I’ve been hired to paint a couple of memorial portraits of furry loved ones, too,  and the importance of that isn’t lost on me.  Titus the cat, who lived to the very ripe old age of 24, sitting in the scrap paper bin he apparently enjoyed so much at their printing business.  I’m told the painting now hangs above the bin.  Then there’s Gilly the Pomeranian who passed away last year.  The client told me his wife cried when they got the painting home, but they were tears for happy memories.  I guess I like the stories after the paintings are done, too.

I enjoy these commissions, and will continue to do them as long as folks keep asking me to.  If you’ve been thinking about a commission, or just have any questions that weren’t addressed here, please do drop me a line, either on Facebook or by email, and I’ll be happy to answer.

 

 

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How To Succeed with Social Media!

Hi, My name is Patrick LaMontagne.  I draw pictures and colour them.  But more importantly, I’m on social media.

Anybody who is self-employed these days, especially if you’re a freelance creative type, knows about the importance of social media.  How do you know?  Because everybody is telling you that you MUST be active on social media.  Not just on social media, no, you have to be on every conceivable platform of social media.

You need to have a Facebook page, and not just one, but a business page, too, and you have to be on Twitter.  Heaven forbid you’re not on Twitter.  Then there’s LinkedIN.  Doesn’t matter if you haven’t found a use for it, you still have to be on it.  And of course, the latest thing is Google+.  If you’re not on Google+ already, you might as well go get a job working for somebody else, because you’re probably too late.

Did I mention Pinterest?  That’s where you post a bunch of pictures of other people’s stuff to tell people what you’re interested in, but don’t post pictures of your own stuff because that’s not being genuine, it’s just trying to sell people stuff, and people aren’t stupid, so they’ll see right through that.  Posting pictures of your own stuff just tells people you’re interested in making money, and that just makes you a bad person.

See, it’s not enough to be on social media, but you have to know HOW to be on social media.  There’s etiquette you see, or as the kids say today, netiquette.  Get it?  Net, internet, moving on.

It’s important to be yourself, but don’t really be yourself, because sometimes you might be grumpy and complain about something, and if you complain about something, then people will think you’re a whiner and nobody wants to work with a whiner, so don’t really be yourself.  People want to work with positive people, so you always have to be positive.  Big smiles, happy all the time, fist bumps, high fives, and thumbs up.  You have to be Tony Robbins, 24/7, 365 days a year.  And you can do it, because YOU are a winner!

Most importantly, be supportive.  If you’re not supportive of your fellow creatives and people in general, then you’re just selfish and nobody will want to be around you, which means they won’t want to work with you.  The whole reason you have to do all of this stuff is so people know who you are, and that they like you, and you can have a successful business, but nobody wants to be sold anything, so you have to be clever.  Share links, advice, motivational quotes, funny pictures, don’t be critical, don’t bully anyone, play nice, don’t brag or talk too much about your life, work, or successes, and once in awhile, if you’re really careful, you can post a link asking people to buy your stuff.  But when you do, make sure you apologize for it.

But how much social media is too much, or worse yet, how much is not enough?  You have to learn how to do it right.  You have to read a lot of books, buy DVDs, watch videos, attend conferences, host hangouts, take classes, and watch webinars all about social media to learn how to use social media effectively.  Experts will tell you to only post at certain times of the day because that’s when most people are online, others will say you have to be monitoring it all day because you could miss the opportunity of a lifetime if you’re not watching at just the right moment.  But, all you need is 10 minutes a day, or is it 10 minutes every hour?  10 minutes every 10 minutes?  Are you writing this down?

Social media is also about being social.  You have to hang out, chat with people, give an LOL for today’s viral YouTube cat video, give sympathy for their troubles, kudos for their successes, and encouragement for anything and everything they are currently trying to accomplish.  Even if you don’t care, you have to pretend to care, because that’s what positive people do.  And YOU.  ARE.  POSITIVE!

It’s all about networking.  That’s so important and networking means getting to know people without trying to sell them stuff.  Well at least not now.  You can try selling them stuff later after you know them.  Of course, then they’ll want a discount.  Anyway, successful business people know how to network.  And even if you’re not successful, you have to convince people that you are, because that’s how you become successful.  Chicken, egg, you understand.

So get out there!  Share, Post, Link, Like, +1, Comment, Tweet, Retweet, Message, Direct Message, Watch, Read, Hangout, and LOL as much as you possibly can.  Your business, nay, your life depends on your being able to master social media.

At some point, you’re probably going to have to get out and actually do the work that you’re in business for in the first place, but that’s not really very important, because if social media has taught us anything,  having something to sell is not nearly as important as having people to sell it to.

Why are you still here?

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Prints and Painting Demos

This is the half page ad that will appear in this week’s Rocky Mountain Outlook, for the launch of the four new Totem paintings.

On Friday, I picked up a very large print order in Calgary, a mix of matted paper prints and canvas prints.  While the majority of these were the four newly released Totem paintings, there were also a number of replacement prints for ones that have sold, and prints for online orders that I’ll be packing and shipping today.

For the matted prints, they come assembled and in a plastic sleeve.  All I have to do is insert a bio sheet into each one, sign it and seal the packaging.  For one or two, it doesn’t take much time.  For ninety-five, however, it took a couple of hours, and thankfully, no issues with the paint pen.  Paint pens are finicky.  I’ve tried a number of them and just when you think everything is going well, they can spontaneously spurt a couple of drops of paint on a print, essentially ruining it.  On a matted print, it’s a disappointment.  On a canvas print, you end up holding back tears.  I test the pen on a scrap piece of paper before I sign each print and make sure there is no excess paint built up around the nib.  You only have to lose one canvas (and I have) to never make that mistake again.  And even with the utmost care, it can still happen.

I’ll be signing the limited edition canvas prints today.  In addition to that, I have to print up numbered certificates of authenticity for each one, and enter each on a ledger.  When you’re offering limited edition prints, it’s very important not to double up the numbers.  People are expecting that the number they buy is the only one with that designation, and it’s up to the artist to ensure that nobody ever buys the same print number.

The new prints look incredible, and I’m very pleased.  All of the proofing that I did last month with my printer was well worth it.  While I know that I can always improve on my work, I love these paintings.  It’s been over two years since I painted the first one, the Grizzly Totem, and it’s still one of my favorites, and not just because it’s one of my best sellers.

With a number of critters waiting in the wings, there will be more paintings coming this year, all of which I’m excited to get started on.  The current Totem-in-progress, a Rockhopper Penguin, is well past the halfway point, and I’ll be working on that this Saturday at Two Wolves.

Painting demos are kind of fun.  Not only do I get to educate people about digital painting (“no, I am not manipulating photos”), but I enjoy the company of the people who work at Two Wolves, and just talking to the customers and answering their questions while I paint.

I don’t get out much.  It’s a nice change.

 

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And the award goes to…

Over the past week, I’ve received some pats on the back from a few people I’ve run into, in addition to emails from readers and editors congratulating me on my second place for editorial cartooning for the Canadian Community Newspaper Association awards announced recently.  This is not about my syndicated work, just the local cartoons that are published each week in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, here at home.

While I simply said, “Thank You,” and went about my business, I’m going to be politically incorrect and honest about how I feel about it.   Second place is not winning.

I’m sure an Olympic athlete who has won a silver or a bronze medal would disagree with me, and while they’re entitled to their perspective, I don’t share it.  In our current short-sighted cultural climate where every child gets a participation ribbon, competition is discouraged in case our fragile selves be scarred in some horrible last place finish in a potato sack race.  When did the topic of winning and losing become so taboo?  People don’t celebrate the team that almost won the Stanley Cup or the politician who almost won the election.  With the exception of CEOs who get bonuses just for waking up, the corporate world doesn’t reward or function on ‘self-esteem before profit,’ despite what we’re teaching in our schools.

Only one team or individual can win in any competition.  Everybody else loses and is invited to try harder next time.

Even though I enter very few competitions, I do like it when I reach the finals.  Two of my paintings have qualified for Ballistic Publishing’s Exposé 10 book due out in June.  As a digital painter, this is a very prestigious book to be in and I’m thrilled that my work is being considered.  It’s also great for business, because of who sees it.  I want this, but being a finalist doesn’t mean a damn thing if the book comes out and my work isn’t in it.  Aside from the fact that I’ll be encouraged to submit again next year, qualifying or a nomination just means graduating to a higher level of consideration.

In the grand scheme of things, awards are good for two things.  One, they’re validation of a sort that you’ve achieved a level of recognition placing you at the top of your profession, if only for that moment, in the eyes of whomever was judging for that year.  A panel of people come to a collective opinion that your effort was the best of the bunch for that moment in time, and still only compared against the other people who entered.  The other value in an award is that it’s a great marketing tool.  As far as the CCNA awards go, it is in the Rocky Mountain Outlook’s best interest to publicize the 2nd and 3rd place finishes awarded to the staff because it establishes a reputation for being a newspaper of achievers.  That sells advertising and that’s how a newspaper makes money and stays in business.  While I chose the cartoon to be entered in the CCNA awards, I wouldn’t have bothered if the Rocky Mountain Outlook didn’t want me to.

The first awards that I considered significant enough to celebrate were the Guru Awards at Photoshop World in 2010, where one of my paintings won the Illustration Category and another won Best In Show.  Regular readers already know about this, I won’t bore you with more details, aside from saying it meant a lot to me only because I consider my Totem paintings to be my best work.

Let’s be honest, though, it was two years ago.  The moment has most definitely passed and if I were still posting weekly updates and screen shots of those paintings with the express purpose of  bragging about the awards as if they were yesterday, it would be time to consider some serious therapy.  That being said, I’ll put the words ‘award winning artist’ in every promotional bio I write from here on out.  From a marketing perspective, I’d be stupid not to.

There’s a line I love from the movie ‘Superman Returns,’ where Daily Planet editor Perry White says, “Lois, Pulitzer Prizes are like Academy Awards, nobody remembers what you got one for, just that you got one. ”

That’s how I choose to think of the Guru Awards today.  Winning the awards put me in contact with some influential people, resulted in some lucrative commissions, and opened some big doors, but it’s now my job to keep them open.  I realized last year that I don’t need to win another Guru Award.  While I was nominated in 2011,  I didn’t win, and nobody cared.  Seriously, nobody really cared that I didn’t repeat the win, including me.  Doors didn’t close, and people didn’t suddenly stop returning my calls or emails.

As long as my business keeps moving forward, I keep making decent money at it, and I enjoy the work, then I’m happy.  Of course, an award once in awhile will certainly put a shine on the day.  I haven’t yet met an artist that doesn’t enjoy an ego boost.  But I’m not unrealistic when it comes to their importance.   If I win an award, I’ll very likely tell you about it, because that’s what you do when you’re in the business of self-promotion.

Second or third place, however, you’ll most likely hear about from somebody else.

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Risk and Reward

Bighorn Sheep Totem

Fortune favours the bold or err on the side of caution?  Will fast and furious win the race, or is it better to be slow and steady?  These are the constant internal arguments of self-employment.

Freelancing for a living is a risky proposition in the first place.  There is an inherent illusion of security with working for somebody else and a continuity that most people thrive on.  The paycheck twice a month, two or three weeks of vacation every year, and if you’re lucky, a benefits and pension plan to make some of life’s expenses a little easier.   Despite what many aspiring entrepreneurs think, especially creative ones,  just being good at something is not reason enough to quit your job and go into business for yourself.  As much as people complain about their jobs, having somebody else make the decisions is a safety net that most people rely on.

A short time ago, I decided against getting a booth at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, which starts today.  The justification for doing so was two-fold.  First, the cost was pretty significant for the inventory I would have to buy and bring with me, and second, I really haven’t done enough research in order to know what I’d need in my booth so that I didn’t come off looking like an amateur.  My wife and I, along with a good friend of ours will be heading to the event today and tomorrow to check it out, both for enjoyment and to gather information.  I’m still not convinced it’s the right venue for my Totem paintings, so I need to get a better look at some of the other merchandise being sold.

This event is going to be huge this year.  Somehow they managed to get the entire principle cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation to attend, the first time they’ve done so as a group in 25 years.  With those and many other big name guests, they’re expecting 50,000 people this year.  While I’ve never been one who goes after celebrity photos or autographs, I still expect to be standing in a few lineups this weekend, for everything from entering the event each day to using the bathroom.  That’s a LOT of people at an event like that.

Cougar Totem

The questions that have popped up in the last couple of months more than once are, “Did I make the right decision by not getting a booth this year?  Am I missing out on a big money making opportunity or was I smart not to overextend myself?”

These are the types of decisions freelancers are constantly faced with, and the choices made can make or break a business.  On one hand, I could have doubled my workload over the last month, and spent close to four thousand dollars getting and stocking a booth, sold out everything I brought and made a tidy profit.  On the other, I could have come home with a ton of inventory that would sit in the basement, selling over a much longer amount of time in the galleries.  Meanwhile, the debt incurred buying too much inventory all at once would be shrinking my profit margin on each painting until it was paid off.

This week, I placed an order for the largest number of prints to date from my supplier in Calgary.  For a Spring launch of four new paintings, (the ones you see throughout this post) into the galleries in Canmore and Banff, I needed to buy new canvas prints and matted paper prints in various sizes.  The cost was fairly significant, 70 prints in total, and it is inventory that may or may not sell quickly.  We’re approaching the busiest season in this area, however, so this is a risk well worth taking.  My work is already selling in the Bow Valley, and the style of work is proving popular with tourists and visitors.  Past evidence shows that there is a market for my paintings in this area.  While the money spent on this inventory isn’t necessarily a ‘sure thing’, it’s an investment that shows more promise than a brand new venue with a much different demographic.

Magpie Totem

The money spent on the local inventory was still a bit of a financial hardship, but it’s also funds I can recoup relatively quickly, and it doesn’t cripple my other plans and obligations in the long term.  With a couple of new computers to buy in the next few months, my budget will have to stretch, but it won’t snap.  Had I added in the more significant expense of the Calgary Expo on top of that, and sales didn’t materialize, the bills would still get paid, but it would be a very stressful year and other plans would be sacrificed.

But then again, if I’d had great sales, it could have made the rest of the year a little easier and broadened my customer base, too.  There’s just no way of knowing.

You occasionally hear of those entrepreneurs who risk everything and the wheels come up all 7’s on their gamble.  Director, writer and actor Kevin Smith financed the movie ‘Clerks’ completely on several maxed out credit cards, and it paid off very well for him.  He now says that wouldn’t work in today’s movie industry, so it was very much a matter of his timing, too.  But for every one of those, there are thousands of people who lose it all.  Some research shows that 8 or 9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first two years, and half of those remaining businesses fail in the first five.  Those individual stories don’t make the news because nobody wants to hear them.  We want to be inspired that just having a dream will guarantee success.

Great Horned Owl Totem

The harsh reality is that motivational  quotes won’t carry you through the dark times when you’re wondering if your mortgage is going to get paid or if the noise outside one night is the repo man coming for your car.  Each person has to make their own decisions about how much they’re willing to risk, despite the frequent unsolicited advice from friends and acquaintances who think nothing of saying, “you should just go for it.”

Those folks are usually working a 9 to 5 job with weekends off, by the way.

For my own part, I seem to be taking enough risks that my business does better every year.  As I’m now in my seventh year of full-time self-employment, and have beaten the start-up odds, I’m obviously doing something right.  I sleep at night, the bills get paid, and I move ahead.  Still, there are times when I wonder about the really big gambles, the ones that could pay off huge, if only I had the temerity to step up and put it all on the line.  There is a massive grey area in between the unknown blackness of total risk and the bright white light of safety.

The best and worst part of it is that with every decision you make, you’ll just never know if you missed the boat or dodged a bullet, and you have to make peace with that.

 

 

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Cartooning on Election Day

Today is the day after the Alberta provincial election.  To set the stage, there were four parties, the right-wing Progressive Conservatives who’ve been in power for 41 years, the Wildrose Party, a very new party even more right-wing than the PC Party,  the Liberal Party and the Alberta New Democrat Party.  The last two didn’t really stand a chance of winning, and all of the polls were indicating the the Wildrose Party could not only win, but might get a majority.

Alberta’s election was making headlines nationwide, because this province has huge deposits of natural resources which makes it a very wealthy province in that department.  Many in Canada were watching this one closely.  For example, a cartoon I did about Danielle Smith, the leader of the Wildrose Party, a couple of weeks ago was published in a number of my Ontario papers.  I didn’t expect that.

Again, ALL of the pollsters were predicting that the Wildrose Party was going to take the election in a big way.

Without getting into the reasons why, the results last night had the PC Party win their 12th consecutive majority, taking 61 seats.  The Wildrose Party got 17, making them the Official Opposition, the Liberals and the NDP each got 4 seats.  It wasn’t even close and nobody saw it coming.  There is an article in the Vancouver Sun this morning (obviously gone to press before the results were in)  by Andrew Coyne that reads, “Unless something astonishing happens, the Wildrose Party will form the next government of Alberta.”

As a syndicated cartoonist, my job yesterday was to put out cartoons that would cover almost any reasonable outcome.  Many of my papers publish weekly, and a number of them publish today.  They needed to have a cartoon to put onto the editorial page at the last possible moment, right before going to press.  No time to draw something once the results were in at 9:00 last night, so I had to anticipate different outcomes, knowing that most of these cartoons would end up in the trash.  Considering this led to a 12 hour day at my desk plus a couple of hours on Saturday when I was taking a weekend off at the cabin, I worked for very little money yesterday.

It’s part and parcel of the profession, however, and while none of the cartoons addressed the sweeping majority, there were still a couple that would have been ‘good enough’ to do the job, even though I don’t consider them really ‘good.’  Let’s take a look at what I sent out yesterday.

This cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with the election.  Even though Canada was watching this one, many of my weeklies in other provinces were wanting a cartoon on something else.  I knew this without their having to tell me, so this went out first to cover them.

There was some talk that there could be a minority government, and if that happened, there had to be a cartoon for it, because the others were all talking about who won. This cartoon went out second.

A lot of people were doing a lot of talking over the past month, and everybody sounded like they were sure of the outcome.  Happens in every election.  The day after, however, stories change and everybody boasts that they knew it all along.  That’s about as predictable as politicians breaking election promises.  This cartoon was pretty easy to swap out.  Change the name and…

…this is one of the cartoons that works.  Premier Alison Redford is the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and won her seat, so any of my papers could have put this one in and it would have been appropriate.  Not a great cartoon, granted, but if I’m being honest, I was more concerned with it being right than great.

If the Wildrose Party had won, I would have liked to have seen the above cartoon printed in a number of papers.  I kind of like it.  Seemed an appropriate theme for our western province, especially if a Wildrose win upset 41 years of rule by the previous ‘brand.’  Unfortunately, this took me a couple of hours to paint and nitpick, and the results rendered it completely useless.  That being said, I didn’t want to see the Wildrose Party win, so I’m fine.

This is the last cartoon I sent, just after 5:0o yesterday evening.  Danielle Smith, the leader of the Wildrose Party had promised (there’s that word again) to give every Albertan a cheque for $300 from the Alberta Energy Dividend Fund once the province was boasting a surplus again.  It was dubbed ‘Dani Dollars’ by the press and ended up being a significant part of the campaign, one met with mixed reviews.  This cartoon works for today as well, although I’m not sure how many papers will actually use it.

As an Alberta citizen and voter, I was relieved with last night’s results.  As an editorial cartoonist, I know I didn’t hit any home runs with the usable cartoons. More like base hits.  But my papers were covered, so I did my job.  I’ll still do a couple of post election toons this week, but none will be wasted as we now know the results.

It was an interesting election and I don’t say that often.  Most importantly, voters were involved and I’ll be anxious to hear what the official turnout numbers were, because it’s expected to be significantly better than the dismal 40% from 4 years ago.  That being said, I’m glad it’s over, as my illustration contracts and painting commissions have had to simmer on the back-burners this past month.  I’m happy to get back to those this week.

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Cartoons and Catastrophe

Somebody asked me if I was going to be doing a cartoon about the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

It’s important to understand that the Titanic has long been one of the most overused clichés in editorial cartooning.  Although I’ve never actually drawn the iconic ship, I’ve put a Prime Minister at the front of a ship referencing the ‘king of the world’ line.  in 2004, I put a submersible at the bottom of the sea, with lights illuminating the words Liberal Popularity on the hull,  talking about the difficulty of raising it.  The ship obviously wasn’t the Titanic, but the reference could be interpreted that way, so I’m willing to concede that as ‘a Titanic cartoon.’

There are many clichés in editorial cartooning, another being ‘the pearly gates’ cartoon.  Somebody passes away and they’re almost always drawn exchanging words with St. Peter at the gates of heaven.  While I have been guilty of picking the low hanging fruit from the idea tree, and using clichés from time to time, I’ve never actually depicted anyone at the pearly gates, and it’s doubtful I ever will.

I’m very fascinated by the story of the Titanic, and have been ever since I was a kid.  While skiing in Kitzbuhel, Austria on a family vacation, (we lived in Germany for many years) my father, sister and I were stranded at the restaurant/chalet at the top when a wind storm rendered the cable car unsafe to take skiers down the mountain.  I think I was 13 or 14.  It became a party atmosphere and we ended up skiing down by torchlight later, but I remember sitting with some very kind University students from Southampton and being fascinated that they were from the same place that had launched the Titanic.   Where the interest came from, I don’t know.

I’ve been to the Titanic exhibit twice, once in Las Vegas, and again when the traveling exhibit came to Calgary.  I’ve seen a number of the movies more than once.  I’m one of the few guys who will admit to seeing the movie in the theatre, not once, but three times.  It just fascinated me to see it all unfold on the big screen, and I’ve always enjoyed James Cameron as a film maker.   While I’m not obsessed with every detail of the story, I do know quite a bit of the trivia.   I’ve got the DVR set to record all of the National Geographic specials this week, and watched James Cameron and crew dissect every last detail last night on how the ship ended up on the bottom looking the way it did.  A forensic archeological  deconstruction of the event, that even had him admitting he got a few details wrong in his larger than life movie.

The London Bombings, July 2005

When bad things happen, it’s difficult to draw cartoons about it.  Even worse is the pressure to get it out quickly, because after all, the goal is to be published in that empty space before a competitor can snag it with another cartoon, one they’re also feverishly drawing at the same time.  I often feel like a vulture picking over the fresh carcasses of whatever unfortunate souls perished in the news event.  Sounds pretty morbid, doesn’t it?  That’s how it feels, too.   How does one draw something appropriate, respectful, and sincere with very little time to mull it over?  When the disaster or event is fresh and acute, that’s the time to get the cartoon done.  I remember drawing a cartoon about the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, because it was big news.

Hurricane Katrina. Found out later that Bourbon Street was largely spared.

If it’s a big enough disaster, like Hurricane Katrina, there will be many cartoons in the days and weeks following, but that first cartoon is the most difficult.  The other goal is to avoid the ‘yahtzee’ as it’s come to be known.  That’s when two or more cartoonists come up with the same idea for the same situation at the same time.  When the twin towers fell on 9/11, a number of cartoonists drew the same images.  The towers as the number 11, with smoke coming from them was one.  Another was tears in the eyes of the Statue of Liberty.  Two of Quebec’s most celebrated cartoonists, Terry Mosher (Aislin) of The Gazette and Serge Chapleau of La Presse, drew the very same image.

I began my syndicated career at the end of September, 2001, so I never had to draw a cartoon about 9/11.

Situations like this, people are hurt, suffering and dying, and I have to draw a cartoon about it.  It’s never supposed to be funny in a situation like that, but the goal is that it be moving, if only a little.  If it’s a major news story, if an editorial is likely to be written, then an editorial cartoon needs to be drawn.  It isn’t something I want to do most of the time, but it’s part of the gig, one I dislike very much.  When somebody famous dies, I have to make the unenviable distinction between whether it’s newsworthy enough to warrant a cartoon.  Was this person important enough that a newspaper will want to highlight it?

These are not my proudest moments.

So what about the Titanic?  The disaster itself was one of the worst of its time.  It shook the world and haunted the news pages for a long time.  Countless books have been written on it, and historians still debate to this day, what happened on that night in April, 1912.   But let’s be fair.  It was 100 years ago.  Had the ship made it to port in New York, everyone would still be deceased today.  A tragedy, yes, but one that needs to be put into the proper historical perspective.

Each year, I have to do cartoons about Remembrance Day, to commemorate the Canadian men and women who’ve lost their lives in this century’s armed conflicts.  It gets more and more difficult with each passing year.  It will often be a respectful image, perhaps of a cenotaph or other memorial, an image of a poppy, and a quotation or a couple of lines.  Over a decade of Remembrance Day cartoons and I’ve realized that I am unlikely to come up with anymore original ideas.  It feels incredibly insincere, and definitely not the tribute owed to the sacrifice.

Remembrance Day, 2011. The cenotaph in Victoria, BC.

If I have a hard time mustering the sincerity for something as important as that, due to the fact that it has become routine, anything I draw to commemorate the Titanic tragedy, will simply be paying lip service, and rehashing imagery that others have already thought of.  If you don’t believe me, do an image search on Google.  I still have a lot of interest in the story, the details fascinate me, but not because I feel anymore for those people than I do for those who perished on the Hindenburg or in the Civil War.  It happened a century ago to people for whom I feel no connection.

The hubris of those involved in the Titanic’s conception, construction and operation caused the demise of the ship.  There is a lesson we’re supposed to learn from the arrogance of believing we can ever conquer the forces of nature.  Aside from a few changes to maritime law, those people died in vain, and therein lies the real tragedy of the event.  We continue to choose to ignore the lessons of history.

I did wrestle with possible images on the subject.  An image of the name of the ship in dark water with an appropriate memorial quote, something nautical perhaps.  Maybe the flag of the White Star Line and some cautionary words about humility.  Took me a couple of days to realize that everything I came up with made me feel like a hypocrite, trying to create an image to stir emotion about an event for which I feel none.

While I don’t always have the luxury of ignoring a news story,  I think I’m just going to let this one go.

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The proof is in the printing

Spent a couple of hours at ChromaSurge in Calgary yesterday morning.  This is a small business print shop that handles all of my canvas and matted paper prints.  Kelly (the owner) was recommended to me by another Canmore artist.

There’s a lot to learn about printing, even when you’re not doing it yourself.  There are so many different types of machines, canvas, paper, coating, stretcher materials, and frames.  As I have no interest in trying to be a jack of all trades, I don’t do any of my own printing.  Recently, my printer (the guy, not the machine) bought some new equipment, canvas, paper, and inks.  Part of me, the part that doesn’t like change, was thinking, “Hey, my prints looked great, why are you messing with the formula?!”

The other part of me, however, was thinking, “He who refuses to adapt, dies!”

That is true of so many professions these days, and I plan to be doing this for a long time.   I made an appointment with the printer (again, the guy, not the machine) to reproof all of my current prints, and set to seeing how I could make them better on my end, in preparation for them being better when they came out of the printer.  One of the things I noticed with my prints was that some of the shadows were a little too dark, not something many people would notice, but when you spend as much time painting the details as I do, you don’t want to see them lost.  So I lightened them all up a bit, just some simple adjustments in Photoshop.  The lighter versions don’t look the way I want them to on the screen, but they look just right on paper.

Many digital artists and photographers become frustrated that their images don’t look the same in print as they do on their screen.  No matter what they do, they can’t make it happen.  Even with a professional color calibrator, the right printer profiles, and technical adjustments up the wazoo, it never quite gets there.  The reason is that a screen is back-lit while paper and canvas are not.  Therein lies the difference and it’s a HUGE difference.  Took me years to make peace with that.

As in all things, you do your best, and you make compromises.  You get your images to look as good as you possibly can and let go of perfection.  Those of you who know me well probably don’t believe I can do that when it comes to my paintings, but when it comes to prints, I actually can.  I know that nobody sees the imperfections the way I do when it comes to my own work, and that’s true of almost every artist I know.  We’re our own worst critics.  That’s a good thing, because it means you’re always going to try to become better at what you do.

One of the ways I try to compensate for the back-lighting  issue while painting digitally is that I have two monitors.  For Photoshop, one is my painting screen, and the other is for all of my tool palettes.  My Wacom pen is set to just go between them, so it actually acts like one big monitor.  The painting monitor is calibrated.  I use the Eye-One calibrator but there are others out there just as good.  The brightness on the monitor is also set to 13.  Yes, that’s 13 out of a possible 100.  If that seems way too low, trust me, you get used to it.  It minimizes eye strain for long periods of computer work, and also allows me to paint in more subtle shades and tones because I’m not dealing with harsh contrast.   When a painting or cartoon is done and looks good, I’ll often move it over to the other monitor, which is set a lot brighter and is NOT calibrated.  This way, I know how it’s going to look on other screens.

It’s a cheat, and one that works very well for me.  Because of working this way, there is much less of a screen vs. print shock.

My printer (the guy, not the machine…do I need to keep saying that?) takes the time to make sure I’m happy with the product he’s delivering, and good service is worth paying a little more for, especially now that it seems so rare.  When I told him that I wanted to reproof everything, and that I wanted to do it while I was there in his shop so we could talk about the results and I could ask some questions, he was fine with it.  I had all of my current paintings copied and pasted to one image that measured 18″X36″, which meant each image was around 5″X7″, just large enough to see what I needed to.    First it was printed on canvas, after which Kelly spray coated it so I could see what it would really look like when it was done.  Then he ran the same file on paper, because I sell matted prints in the galleries as well.

The difference between the two materials is that canvas has a natural texture to it.  It’s bumpy because of the weave of the fabric.  That adds a little more light and shadow, as does the protective coating.  The colours appear more saturated and richer, and there appears to be more depth in the image as a result.  I love my work on canvas, even more than on screen.  The paper prints have a flatter look, and although there isn’t a ‘shine’ to them like canvas, the quality is great, the colours are very nice and I’m very pleased with them.  With a sharp looking black mat, they pop.  But canvas is better, which is why it costs a fair bit more, both for me to have printed and for the customer to buy in the gallery.  And neither of them look like the other or like they do on screen.  Not better or worse, just different.  This photo doesn’t even capture what the canvas really looks like.  It’s just something you have to see.

I was very pleased with the prints and glad I took the time to go in and get the proofs done.  Cost me a bit of money for the ink and materials, not to mention taking the morning off from drawing and painting, but in the long run, it was a valuable use of my time.  My printer (really?  again?) also knows for a fact that I’m happy, so that likely makes him feel that he’s done right by his client.  Even better, he printed off a copy for himself so that whenever I order prints, he now has an approved standard to compare against, and so do I.  We have a baseline with this canvas, paper, ink and machine.

Like I said, I was already happy with my prints, but these new ones have just a little more spark in them.  I doubt that others will notice it, but I do, and that matters because it makes me feel better about the product I’m selling in the galleries and to my commission clients.  When new and better materials come along, we’ll have to do it all over again, and it will be worth it.

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Much ado at the zoo

With my focus on painting animals the past couple of years, my thoughts are often on trying to figure out the best way to sell the prints and the images themselves.  While I’m pleased with where the paintings are sold here in Canmore at Two Wolves Trading Co. and at About Canada in Banff, I’m now looking for venues in Calgary and for licensing opportunities.

With that in mind, I sent off an inquiry email to the Calgary Zoo.  I figured if there was one place in the city that people were looking for animals, that would be it.  While it took me a few tries to get to the right person, I eventually did get a meeting yesterday morning with the Retail Manager who liked my work,  and I learned a few things.  First, they don’t currently license images in the manner in which I was hoping, so for the time being, that one is out.  Second, they’re just beginning to sell art prints like mine in one of their venues.  I had brought in a 12″X16″ canvas print of the Wolf Totem, a small wolf matted print and a large moose matted print as samples.  To my surprise, I was asked to leave them there on consignment, which is a pretty standard arrangement for art for many venues.  I honestly didn’t expect that right away, or I might have brought more.

So, my foot is in the door and a small sample of my work is now for sale at the Calgary Zoo.  I mentioned that I was going to be painting a penguin or two as part of the series, and chances are that when it’s done, they’ll be hanging one or two of those as well.  Penguins are very hot (cool?) right now at the Calgary Zoo as they just opened their ‘Penguin Plunge’ habitat, right next to the store where my art is hanging.  For purely commercial and obvious reasons, my next Totem painting is going to be a penguin.

Throughout my career, I’ve often had things turn out better than I’d hoped by not getting exactly what I wanted.  I have a good feeling about this first step, and I think it’s going to lead to something very positive, even though I have no idea what that will be.  I’m certainly pleased that I took the shot, which leads me to the other shots I took at the zoo.

It’s no secret that I find photography frustrating.  Aside from enjoying capturing moments and memories with point-and-shoot snapshots, how I feel about the technical aspects of photography is close to how I feel about doing my taxes.   It’s very clear to me that I already know how best to express myself with images and it’s not with a camera.

I know a little about what it takes to be a photographer, mostly because I hang out with a lot of them.  I see what they have to learn, how much dedication is required, and how very much more it is than just pointing a ‘good camera’ and pressing a button.  Still, I naively headed for the zoo thinking I’d get some really great reference photos, because I just needed decent light and  sharp detail, not great composition.  My buddy, Joe, gave me an old zoom lens of his recently, because it has sand in it, so a few grains end up in shots.  Bad for him, fine for me.  Attaching it to my very basic Nikon D60, I figured the lens would make all the difference.  The actual difference was that my shots were worse than they normally are.   I couldn’t use auto-focus, I had it fully extended with no tripod, was using a flash, and there was one other thing…oh yeah, I have no skills with a camera, whatsoever.  A common joke among photographers is people who shoot with the automatic setting.  That would be me.

A little sidebar here.  I spent a beautiful morning watching animals.  The new penguin habitat is a wonderful addition to the zoo, and I got there early, so no lines to contend with.  Had a great conversation with one of the staff about the care and feeding of the penguins, and wandered around in the sunshine for a couple of hours.  Despite what follows here,  I really did enjoy myself.

I shot over 250 shots of the penguins, a giraffe, a meerkat, and red pandas, all with the intent of getting GREAT reference to paint from.  After pressing the delete button far too many times in Adobe Bridge, I ended up with about 5 good shots of the penguins and one of the meerkat.  Not great shots, not even very good shots, but good shots.  That means, good enough for reference, not good enough to publish anywhere except here.  It was a very humbling experience.

Like I said, I already knew that photography was difficult.  This being my first time using any lens but the one that came with the camera, however, I learned the hard lessons you only learn through experience.

When mentioning my tale of woe on Facebook yesterday, a number of my supportive photographer friends chimed in with advice and observations.  Here were two of my favorites.

My talented photographer friend, Christine, said, ” Practice, practice, practice. I remember a post you put out the other day about the same concept with your paintings, and the work involved.”

My friend Lu Douce, whose husband Craig is another talented photographer, right here in Canmore said, “250 photos? There’s your problem right there! Craig would have taken at least a thousand!”

Both of them are absolutely right.  A real photographer will often take many more shots than I did just to get ONE good one they can use.  My 250 was nothing.  And when I read the comment about practice, I thought, ‘touché.’  Why I expected to get great (not good, but GREAT) reference photos first time out, just because I could zoom in closer with the lens,  is beyond me.  Chalk it up to enthusiastic shortsightedness.

A few others on Facebook graciously offered advice on shutter speeds, lighting, stabilizing the camera and other helpful tips that made me realize that even though I have no interest in photography, I should still  learn a lot more of the basics if I want to take my own reference shots.

I’m a good painter.  I’m confident that I can say that without it sounding arrogant.  The reason is that I love doing it.  It’s fun, it’s a challenge, I feel at home while painting.  I’m very passionate about my work, and that’s why I’ve gotten skilled at it, because I don’t know how NOT to put the time into it.  This is also the reason I am unlikely to ever be a good photographer.  Passion is a key ingredient to becoming good at any creative pursuit, and I just don’t have it for photography.  The spark is absent.

Up until now, I’ve relied on buying or trading for reference photos from photographers who really know what they’re doing, with great appreciation.  That’s unlikely to change.  But I anticipate many more trips to the zoo in the coming year, trying to learn more of the basics and about my camera.  While I have no ambition to be a photographer, I am willing to put in some book learnin’ and practice time to become at least good enough to take some photos that will help me with my paintings.

To my photographer friends out there who do enjoy their work, and have that passion, you already had my respect.  Now you’ve just got a little more.