The following blog was written by my buddy, Nicolas Rix. Nic is a South African artist who I came into contact with some time ago on redbubble.com and not only do I really love his work we tend to think a lot a like when it comes to art and our philosophies on art. This entry was originally intended as a comment to the blog I wrote on webcomics.com yesterday but with Nic’s permission (and because it definitely warrants your eyeballs attention) I’m putting it here. After you’ve read it go check out his blog. It’s also worth your eyeballs.

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Nice read man. You know I will always have your back cuz I think we kinda think similarly on issues like this.

I have not seen webcomics.com. Mostly cuz I close sites that charge cash for something I think won’t help me,
and I’ve never heard of it . Plus there is so much help out there for free.

I just wanted to add to the conversation with some what of a rant / inspiration:

There is one phrase I live by at the moment: “Garbage in. Garbage out”.
If you constantly look at shit work. You will put out shit work.

I had a similar situation a few years back. I really wanted to get better at drawing. I thought I was fairly good.
I wanted to get involved in the local scene. I participated on a local south african forum. The people were great
and the enthusiasm was high. That was the good thing. But no one was really that good. Myself included.
I hung around I participated in competitions. I didn’t do too bad.
It was a place to be the best of the worst.

When it came to creating an actual comic of 9 pages. I struggled. The site that was aimed at south african’s
creating comic books locally with little focus on the basics of nurturing people’s ability to understand story telling.
Which I believe is the basis of comic books. The story is like 99% of the deal. Even an x-men comic can suck
with a bad storyline. No matter how well it’s been drawn.

That said. I eventually left the forum. Or ignored the vapid conversations that was just fan talk really. Plus a lot of
the work there was not great and I wasn’t learning anything. There were no mentors there to lead. Critique went
something like this, “Rad! Awesome sketch. Keep it up. Love how clean your lines are. Nice colors.”

Baisc deviant art type comments.
“Her left hand is a little small. Her head seems too small for a her body.” That’s a bit better. But…
When you’d look at those same dude’s work. It was at a kindergarden level in comparison to my attempts.
How could I take them seriously.

It was no conceptart.org or cghub. There should be an equivalent out there for comics. cghub have mentors,
tutorials form conceptart. Challenges judged by professionals in the field. Not votes.
Guys and gals who talk the talk and walk the walk.

I eventually got a job for about 1 year penciling comic books. Badly written comic books but I still did it.
Despite the fact they were bad. They showed me how badly I drew comics. I was however with some of the
best guys in the local industry who were there to help me and nurture me (mostly ripped me off till the point
that I might burst out crying or kill someone).
People that weren’t gonna tell me my girls looked hot when they didn’t.

My environments sucked, my body language was horrific. Don’t get me started on my anatomy.. All before this I thought I was the shit. Seriously.
I had to complete 2 to 3 pages a day. THAT is working in comics. I’m not saying to be successful in this you have to be
super fast to get somewhere but it helps. What I’m trying to say is. It’s really hard work. Drawing that much changes you.
Either you start hating to draw or you get better at it.

My own advise to myself right now:
Start at the bottom and work your way up. Everyone sucks at drawing for a long time then suddenly something will happen.

Only look at good work. Dissect that good work. Learn real anatomy (it will help your cartoon style you like A LOT, believe me).
Realism IS overrated. But if you are making mistakes in your anatomy they should be on purpose.. if that makes sense to you.

Do life drawing. If you can’t. Get photos and draw an interpretation of them. Study the anatomy of their pose. Get the gesture.
Get the expression. Change the expression. Think about how they might move after what they’re doing. Watch actual moving
cartoons. Study some 2D traditional animation. Think of camera angles. Look at concept art. Environments. Architecture. Interiors.
DISSECT DISSECT DISSECT. Or just draw lots of different shit. Shit you’d never draw. If you must draw a pinup. Create a story.
Think about why they are there. What they might be saying. What could happen next. Tell a damn story with pictures.

I have literally stopped doing finished illustrations because of that very reason. I sucked on so many other levels while the wrong
people were telling me I was great. It’s ok to suck. You have to suck for a while – You will eventually not suck.

Like Rhys has said. Don’t worry about marketing and business side yet. Making money out of it should not be your driving force.
Doing good work should be.

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Just remember, there is no shortcuts, hard work will get you where you want to be. So start fucking drawing.