I spent the afternoon enjoying the hospitality of two local cartoonists, Troy Little and Brenda Hickey.
As well as being lovely people (whose studio is like The Best Toy and Comic Shop Ever), they are extremely talented — like as good as it gets good. The smooth beauty of the lines they draw, and the dense, lush, giant pages of excellently composed art they produce are just astounding.
The Sufis say (and I constantly remind myself), “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m reminding myself again, because next to them I feel, professionally, like a child.
But then, as James Kochalka said, “Craft is the enemy“: Cartooning is not about how good your line quality or draughtsmanship is, but about what you convey with your lines. Quentin Blake is a great example of someone whose lines are positively ugly, but whose work is irresistibly charming.
Don’t get me wrong: Brenda and Troy also happen to do compelling things with their beautiful lines, so it’s clearly not an either/or proposition.
Okay, I’m officially jealous.
So what can I do with this? Well, keep getting better, for one. And, in the meantime, do what Kochalka says: “What every creator should do, must do, is use the skills they have right now.”
(But, as Lynda Barry said somewhere, don’t just keep drawing cartoons about how stuck you are. So, yeah, it’s time to stop that.)
In related news…
Last night I attended the Charlottetown Comics Club, and this time I stayed!
The folks were really welcoming, fun, and up to all sorts of creative stuff.
So between these two outings, I seem to have found a great community and a huge source of inspiration.