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.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, titled Outsource Your Life (June 2, 2007), brings home (quite literally) the concept of outsourcing. Of the seven outsourced examples from the story, only tutoring didn’t involve some sort of design.  

Yes. It’s a tough pill to swallow…or is it? Where there’s a threat, isn’t there opportunity? While I contemplated ways to integrate outsourcing into my own design workflow (who wouldn’t like to be able to take on more work, be priced more competitive and not work nearly as hard), I suddenly realized what this meant for all of us designers out there who, in addition to our day jobs, and side jobs, get these other job requests. Suddenly outsourcing sounded good.

These other job requests typically come from a relative wanting a logo for their business idea (not yet launched), and they only have $50. Or a mechanic your mother knows, also sells car parts, and wants to get a web site up. Oh and they have an idea, just needs someone with skills, and it shouldn’t take but two hours (since they know web design). “Say, does $150 sound good?” (more…)