A quick follow-up to last weekend’s gig, which went fantastic… especially considering the circumstances (more on that in a minute). It was a solid start to something that I hope will be continued, as the outreach + connection was well worth it. It gives people a chance to see what goes on behind the scenes, put a face to the name etc. all for a good cause: supporting journalism (and in this instance with an extra-special bonus added to sweeten the deal).
The absolute highlight of this entire event was for me more of a personal aside, and that was all the love that was shared. I still haven’t finished processing posts in retrospect following some of the other public appearances over the season, but this was in marked contrast in this one particular way. I’m still really humbled by the comments in support from so many people, many of whom I was meeting for the first time ever. That was so cool, and really, really special – still staying with me inside and will go a mighty long way towards keeping positive energy flowing throughout another long winter ahead.
We had folks from all over come out of the woodwork, lots of friends + fans: Several parents brought their kids to watch the process, and I got to do many demonstrations throughout the day as random people dropped by to see the continuous workflow. I had a condensed set of samples excerpted from my main show & tell portfolio showing the entire process, which I would flip through and narrate after creating another drawing. It was like one of those cooking shows on TV where the chef has several other strategically situated stages ready to pull out as an example. And again I got to meet many people who work with the nuts-and-bolts like repairing deliver trucks to covering breaking news. And a big thanks go out to the staff that helped out here with this event.
Managed to knock out a total of sixteen finished drawings that were given away - last I heard there were approximately 30+ renewals and a handful of new subscribers. I finished up another dozen pieces back home the day after, as there were a few penciled-out ones that needed inking, and seven additional others that needing watercoloring. One complete set went to the archives, and the remainder will get dropped back off at the office for anyone who still wanted a drawing.
They were done on 140lb cold press watercolor paper, with the new pencils, dip-pen + India ink, then Derwent Inktense water-soluble pencils. Actually on the colored squares for the comic-strip section I cheated and used a set of brightly colorful Sharpie markers, as that particular little detail was a speed-bump, and I was trying to keep the time down to no more than 10-minutes per illustration + interaction. Here’s the one exception I made for a custom critter, as it was their school mascot, and it certainly helped make it easier that the fur just so happened to be white.
And yeah, so about the setting for this event: the snapshot of the newspaper front page illustrates the context: when I first saw it the coverage it was like “wow – front page!” and quickly followed by realization of the grim headline. Compounding the existential stresses of putting on a life-is-returning-to-normal façade in the face of collapsing healthcare across the state was a travel advisory/winter storm warning that triggered an exodus from downtown before the proverbial shit hit the fan. Near-bald tires + no heat (intermittently dying blower motor) made for an interesting drive home.
Meta-goals for next time will be to break outside of the newspaper’s normal orbit and reach out to new + different readership. And try not to eat so many hotdogs.
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