Comments on: On Entitlement

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:11:30 +0000

Be fair, Anonymous, he’s probably never MET Vasquez.

The closest I’ve come to this (yet) on the receiving end, was visiting a local cartoonist during Open Studio week, and asking him if he recommended that I take Basic Anatomy classes after I finished the Line Drawing and Composition four semester series. He advised that it would be helpful if I intended to use anything close to a realistic style.

The idea of just picking up a pencil/pen and DRAWING without taking any formal training or classes baffles me. That would be like ‘I really enjoy eating hollandaise sauce, so I’ll get some butter, eggs and lemons and make some! Recipe? Cookbook? What are these strange words you’re using?’ Scott McCloud touched on this briefly at the end of Understanding Comics, when he described young fans who attempt to replicate the surface appeal of their favorite superhero comix without knowing anything of how they’re actually _made_.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:32:19 +0000

“I never met an artist who â€˜broke inâ€™ without formal training.”

Jhonen Vasquez.

By: Rob C.

Rob C. — Thu, 10 May 2007 05:55:03 +0000

Great story Chris. Have you seen her since your critique?
Did she buy vol.2?

By: Amy Kim Ganter

Amy Kim Ganter — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:54:19 +0000

Good job, Chris! The earlier you can tell them the truth the better, I think. I still remember the day in 7th grade when my high school art teacher told me “you can’t copy The Little Mermaid forever, you know.” I don’t remember being hurt, but just confused for a bit while genuinely focusing on improving afterwards. I think when you’re still a growing teenager, your attitudes are pretty malliable. I’m sure she’ll look back on her encounter with you fondly. =)

Also, this is a good reminder for pros that having an open-minded attitude about improving your craft is a good thing. I just really enjoyed this post all around.

By: Ian Daffern

Ian Daffern — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:50:28 +0000

I’m with Jim here man. That was really nice.
You might want to hang onto this one for the memoirs.

By: yaoipress

yaoipress — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:10:29 +0000

Y-you’re not supposed to tell people who submit to you how awful they are? Well. I learned something today.

By: ADD

ADD — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:30:29 +0000

There are many great pieces of wisdom in this — I printed it out and gave it to my daughter, who wants to draw manga, and who I think will have her mind expanded a bit by the good information you passed on here, Chris. Thanks.

By: JohnnyZito

JohnnyZito — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:01:38 +0000

Well done.

A comic shop owner did the same for me when I was 13. While I’ll never be a comic pro; I do get paid to pen to paper (or its modern digital equivalent.)

I shudder to think what might have been if someone didn’t tell me I sucked.

By: Jim Munroe

Jim Munroe — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:38:40 +0000

Nice narrative structure to this piece — the slow reveal of her unravelling confidence. Engaging even to someone who’s never struggled with drawing hands or had a portfolio review.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:24:31 +0000

and the moral of the store?

ALWAYS COMPLETE THE SALE

I’m proud :)

By: Stuart Immonen

Stuart Immonen — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:32:58 +0000

A great and tragic tale, well told, Chris.

I recognized it immediately as typical (!) of a convention portfolio review, of which I’ve certainly conducted my share. You’re absolutely right in that most people do not actually want to hear anything but praise. You did well by this young person.

Oh, and you’ve met me– apart from a year a York, mostly spent at the pub, I’ve never had formal training– so maybe it’s 1 in 2000.

By: Scott Bieser

Scott Bieser — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:16:55 +0000

You did that girl a huge favor. She was at a point a lot of young would-be artists get stuck at, and often don’t ever get past. She needed a kick in the pants, just hard enough to knock down her defenses, followed by a bit of encouragement and some constructive advice.

By: Bitter Matt

Bitter Matt — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:27:35 +0000

Well-done. Really well-done. I am a graphic designer, the same age as you, and last year I found myself giving portfolio reviews to college students for a day. Some of them, as it happened, were awesome, and left me with a haunted feeling of thankfulness for whatever connections and experience-advantages I may have, since their portfolios looked significantly better than my own.

A few students, however, from the smaller colleges, needed a lot of work; one poor little young woman from the community college had a portfolio that was probably on par with an average self-taught high school student. I felt like a complete brute as I attempted to allude to that reality and gently point out some areas to work on.

The portfolio reviews are coming up again next month, actually, and I will probably be thinking of this post.

By: Kat Kan

Kat Kan — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:25:54 +0000

Hey, she didn’t leave in tears, she bought the book you suggested, she actually listened to you. You just may have done her the best favor anyone could have.

By: Joe Infurnari

Joe Infurnari — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:51:16 +0000

As difficult as it was to hear at the time, the people who’ve been honest with me about my work have helped me the most and I really am thankful now for their input. It’s great that you did that for this aspiring artist, Chris. That was a good post. As an aside, I really DO want to hear what you actually think. ;)

By: Michael May

Michael May — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:32:46 +0000

Awesome story, Chris. Thanks for sharing it.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:06:51 +0000

That’s great Chris! A lot of people are just bitter or smarmy about doing portfolio reviews (which can be entertaining when you’re not on the receiving end). But you’ve gone and given us the layered humanity behind this with a touch of hope too. Very nicely done!

[...] And Christopher Butcher relating a case of delivering the harsh, critical truth is as sympathetic as anyone could be, but it still has those elements – the artists’ hubris, the terror of subpar-to-terrible art (with the animation portfolio links), criticism of a stylistic influence. Butcher, though, sounds like the best kind of critic you can run into though, given how much he still constructively helped the girl. And I know it’s hard to give honest criticism if it hurts, I had trouble commenting on the work of my peers in all the workshops and classes, trying to be as nice and supportive as I could. [...]

By: Keath007

Keath007 — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:27:03 +0000

This reminds me of the time I took my portfolio to the first ImageCon in California back when I was in college. I pounded out a couple pages of Cerebus and some generic action/spy type character and managed to get several artists to look at it. Most of them were encouraging (one agent even expressed interest but I lacked the dedication to follow up with him) but I don’t remember what any of them said. I do, however, vividly remember one of Leifeld’s house artists tearing into my pages (respectfully though). He told me flat out “You’re going to walk away hating me but I want to help” and then proceeded to call me on pretty much every fault on the page, some I knew about and some I didn’t (despite years of reading comics, that day was the first I’d ever heard of an “establishing shot”). It was brutal but it was the most beneficial thing that I’ve ever done.

So yeah this girl will probably hate you for a long, long time but what you did was a lot more important and meaningful than if you just said it was great and moved on.

By: Ray Cornwall

Ray Cornwall — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:26:02 +0000

Actually, I thought you helped a young person with drive but no education start on the path to get better. If you didn’t force her to come to terms with her current skills, someone else would have, and it might have come too late to do her any good.

By: Paul Bazinet

Paul Bazinet — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:17:31 +0000

Chris, that was a great, you rock man!

By: Gus

Gus — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:24:38 +0000

Man, reading that just about broke *my* heart. Poor kid. But that was absolutely the right way to handle it…

By: Jonathan Ellis

Jonathan Ellis — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:36:01 +0000

Lovely… but you forgot to mention the owl’s

BTW – You. Me. Dinner. Soon.

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Mar. 28, 2007: Sexual predators and Indian food

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:07:12 +0000

[...] In a lengthy and astute essay, Christopher Butcher discusses mediocre art drawn by aspiring cartoonists, and why they seem to always go together. [...]