NateCreates.com

It’s been 30 days now since I first started a daily political cartoon blog at PixelMarx.com where I draw and post and new cartoon every day, under the name, Irishspacemonk.

And today I’m taking a break and celebrating that milestone.

The idea for celebrating a Blog Milestone came from David Airey. Check out his blog if you’re just getting started. His site has lots of great content.

I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned in doing this little project called, PixelMarx.
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Only 361 Days to Go

On Monday when I started my political cartoons on PixelMarx.com, I felt pretty comfortable with what I’d done. However there’s something strange about posting a cartoon everyday - and that is you learn and improve. Now 4 days later (example above) , I’m tempted to delete my first attempt. It’s that bad.

This brings to question the impulse of a student to want to rush into the marketplace with their work. I’m as guilty as anyone in this area. What do other’s think? How do you know you’re there, or is it better to kick off, splash, and try to swim.

Lessons Learned

If you’re considering political cartooning yourself, I have a few keys I’ve learned in these 4 days (and I’m sure I’ll learn more over the next 361):

• Pay attention to the concept. This is where it all resides. My first attempt I just started drawing.

• Tell the whole story in one scene. This one’s tough, especially with political cartooning, as it usually requires the audience to bring an understanding of current events.
• Always try to do better. Listen to criticism even when it hurts.

I’ve been taking a Graphic Novel course this summer, and while I’ve strugged to remain motivated, a recent assignment unleashed a new interest for me - political cartooning.

If your interested in checking out my new blog, PixelMarx.com, I will be posting a new political cartoon each day. These cartoons are drawn entirely in Photoshop so I’m able to create quickly on the fly, they relate to current political events, and are free to use, so long as they are not resold, or used to make derivative works. Blah. Blah. Blah.

If you’re intrested in the assignment I recently completed (drawing another student’s short graphic novel) you can read the Orange Peel Dreams [PDF version].. (The story is by Devon Delaney, with artwork by Nate.

Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions or ideas that might make a great political cartoon.