my weekend really sort of began last wednesday, when my school threw a free pizza/portfolio swap night. thrown as a collaborative effort between illustration and advertising, it was a chance for people to network, and possibly find matches as far as projects go. admittedly i figured it was going to be a dud, having heard so many horror stories of previous pizzafolio nights. i remember showing up to one a while back and there were stacks and stacks of cold pizza, no advertising majors, and a very displeased Chuck (director of illustration). ive heard stories here and there of payment disputes, wherein some advertising kids will ask illustration kids to draw something for them on the house, only for the illustrator to find out that it was a paid job.
after making a few adjustments, i think they definitely got it right this time:
-leveling the playing field by insisting that all collaborations must be just that: no payment of any kind.
- to make things interesting, actual art directors who WERE looking for artists to pay were brought in, without anybody’s knowledge.
- advanced classmen in both majors were “required” to show up.
the last point made it a HUGE success, actually. more than 100 people filled our tiny little ballroom, eating pizza, having fun, and through it all, i actually kind of got a taste of what it’s like to shop my portfolio in an ACTUAL setting, sans pizza. i felt like a kid on training wheels, and it was a very important learning experience, considering what happened in the following weekend.
alright, so onto WonderCon. for those of you who do not know, this is my first comics convention of any kind. my inner geek basically was the kid in the candy store, the bull in the china shop. not ONLY did i get to meet Dave Crosland and Jim Mahfood, my most favorite artists of all time, but i also got to hang out with them for a little bit. i was already running around on really borrowed time as it was, so instead of making them both mixtapes as i had heard they’d enjoyed, i just grabbed a couple of vinyl records from my collection and gave one to each of them. i gave Dave a Star Trek storybook, and Jim a Frank Zappa. they both geeked out. it was awesome.
aside from the sheer entertainment value, i also had a semi-business approach to the whole thing. i had plenty of tearsheets leftover from my pizza/folio night from school earlier, so i just brought all of those and began handing them out to whichever booths would take them. by the end of the day, i had none left.
the lone official portfolio review came on the first day, when Lucasfilm was holding a session. THAT was an interesting experience. they had us all in one room, waiting in line, and the Lucasfilm people were sitting right there at a table, roasting everybody publicly. it was intense. the best thing about these “live” interviews was that i could observe how the Lucasfilm peeps acted, what they liked, what they didnt like, and i had plenty of time to make adjustments mentally and mechanically (tossed a few bad portfolio pics out). everybody was REALLY nervous, and spoke very timidly to mr. Lucasfilm man, so i made it a point to project my voice when i got up there. seeing everybody so stressed out made me very aware of my surroundings, and made me feel like i could do better, like i had an edge. in the end it was a good experience, the guy noticed that i was a bit more loose than the others, and thus gave me less of a hard time, and more insightful feedback.
“you’ve got plenty of talent,” he said, “but you clearly need more direction.”
after three days of nonstop action, i decided to call it a complete experience early on Sunday, as i was completely exhausted from basically walking for 5-6 hours straight a day all weekend long. i am definitely considering going to more Cons in the future, PARTICULARLY COMIC-CON in san diego, as many of the publishers/vendors are hosting more portfolio sessions down there (why not up here?!? makes no sense). maybe not so much to geek out as much, but to really do some more portfolio shopping, and get that art down to a science. i have to say, that im glad im getting into this culture NOW, rather than a couple years ago when i had essentially nothing to show anybody folio-wise, and woulda just been a sucker spending 300 bucks on comics. not that i didnt do that THIS time. UP NEXT: FU MANCHU @ SLIM’S, Birthday Parties this weekend, etc. later.
-jon
February 26th, 2008 | comics, friends, life, misc., school, star wars