From The Sketch Book

Cartoon Friends

scottnelson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:20:52 +0000

Although I’ve blogged about this before, social media has allowed me to meet cartoonists and illustrators I would have never been able to talk to. I’d like to start sharing links here of artists I admire or enjoy the style of. For starters… here’s a real funny one. http://putzcomicstrip.blogspot.com/ Subscribe to this blog and get treated each day with a real dose of funny!

MeeGenius Author Challenge

scottnelson — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:06:49 +0000

I entered one of my short rhyming stories in the MeeGenius Author challenge ( WWW.MeeGenius.com ). Manuscript applicants try to make it through the “popular vote” first round and onto the judges second round of voting. I’m very proud of this story and feel it might make a great early reader or certainly a good bed time story. Would love for you to check it out at http://www.meegenius.com/challenge/my-day-today-by-scott-nelson .

Hallmark Card Winner. 4×4 Baby Stroller

scottnelson — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:28:51 +0000

After spending way too much time entering the Hallmark Card contest, I’d like to report that I finally won. ”Yay!” What’s interesting though is the monster truck baby stroller design that won is so two dimensional and basic that it doesn’t come across as my usual style. This got me thinking that I might need to rethink how I draw things so I’m relevant in an ever-changing market. In my opinion the car salesman concept on the right is drawn better and a bit funnier. Yet it wasn’t acknowledged by the judges at all. Since the card market itself has been so tough lately, this win has oddly caused more confusion in my card creating ability then confidence.

Art Education

scottnelson — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:03:36 +0000

I’ve been instructing at the Worcester Art Museum for the last six years and I really love it there. The location allows me to break up my studio time by teaching AND it places me in a location that I can be inspired by world-class artwork. From painting classes and cartooning classes to pen & ink and drawing classes, I’ve taught a bunch of great student. Amazing amount of talent they all have and some of my returning student’s work has really stepped it up a few levels. Art is looking good in central Massachusetts.

You Tube Art

scottnelson — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:47:40 +0000

Although my picture quality is never awesome (I think because of the lack of white balance on my Flip camera), I really enjoy making drawing videos. Here’s a recent quick one and if you like it, check out more on my website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DngQ8hydg

A little bit of press.

scottnelson — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:23:14 +0000

Nice Interview about me by the fine people at The Visual Story Tellers http://vsschat2.blogspot.com/ Thanks Jill.

Welcome to Scott Nelson and Son. May I take your order?

scottnelson — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:17:27 +0000

When I was in public schools, I was typically instructed that there is one correct answer to a problem. No variables. Just start here…and end here. This is right__This is wrong. But for me, art has variables that need to be considered. There really isn’t a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things in my book. And as a teacher now myself, all I care about is the end result and did the student learn something along the way. Not sure if I’m doing them a disservice with that approach but I think creativity can’t be limited AS the process is happening. Sure, structure is good but not if it’s so limiting that the student feels reluctant to push the brush and make things happen. What would be worse than having someone leaning over your shoulder saying “Oh, I wouldn’t do it that way!” Yes, I might not do it that way but maybe their way is actually better. And that’s what makes art fun for me. Realizing that each day you can learn something new from not only yourself but from those around you.

With that said I’d like to talk about the following drawing. It breaks all my own rules but in the end I was pretty much happy with the outcome. I was recently commissioned to illustrate a multi person caricature. Included in this image I was asked to draw a Theater, a few signs and a public fountain/sitting area. Considering the fact that many of these elements were not located next to each other in real life, I knew that drawing this street scene would be daunting. I broke my own rule and pretty much completed the entire background before I finished the figures in front. Now as a teacher I would NEVER tell my students to illustrate that way. I would normally ask them to work all over the drawing so you’re creating equal values and light balance. But truthfully, I was actually scared to draw that way because if I messed up on the street scene, the figures in front would have been a waste of time. Below is my process_ right or wrong. In the end did I learn something. Yes. I learned that I can’t draw windows. So that’s a good thing.

Stir

scottnelson — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:37:31 +0000

Nothing like adding a bit of caffeine to a situation in order to STIR things up.

When good ideas go bye bye. Stickman Productions

scottnelson — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:58:25 +0000

When I relocated my business from a swanky highrise office location to a home based studio, I recall that at the time I was felt like I was going backwards in my career. As it turned out, it was the best decision I ever made (a story for another day.) What made the transition easier though was during the MOVE I was in the middle of doing work for a T-shirt business startup. The product line was called Stickman Sports and the idea was as follows….

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. A VERY BASIC looking Stickman frontman character would be depicted individually on three different T-shirts. For example, if your father was a good golfer, you’d give him the Good Golfer stickman shirt. If he was a Bad Golfer, you’d give him the Bad Golfer stickman shirt. And if your Father was an Ugly (angry, hot head,whomp his clubs against a tree kind of guy) you’d buy him the Ugly golfer shirt. I think we did 10 different sports and for each concept you had 3 different choices. A lot of drawing and a fun project.

But what happened to Stickman Sports? I never found out. I knew my customer was selling shirts at a local mall but then I never heard back from him. Usually I know what happens to concepts over time but the failure of this product still bugs me to this day because it was only a few years later that the Life is Good Character took off. So the L.I.G. company should have been ME!!! Lol. I’m not saying that they were the same concepts. Life is good looks nothing like mine. Simply saying that the market was ready for a basic looking stickman character at that time yet it just wasn’t to be. Anyhoo– keep me in mind if you have any T-shirt line concepts and keep your eyes open for a retro Stickman sports shirt. It could be worth money.

Photo showing black and white Stickman soccer flyer (difficult to see product quality.) Second photo shows one of the images on a mug closer to the quality depicted on the shirts.

Hire an Illustrator

scottnelson — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:29:16 +0000

A long-long time ago I read that an artist should market him or herself at least 75% of their work week. “Total dribble”, I though! “When would you have time to actually draw then if all you did was market?” Well years later and after suffering through many, many, manyyyyyyy months of this poor economy, I’d just like to say that whomever wrote that dribble is the smartest person who has ever walked on this earth. Sure it took about 43 years and many falls from a skateboard on my head for it to sink in but I finally realized that you REALLY do need to market your work 24-7 all year-long. But marketing doesn’t have to be pound on a door and force someone to look at your portfolio every day. It should simply just be part of your day to day life. Make it fun and if possible, don’t treat it as work if you can help it. Using tools like social media can help keep it light and regular advertising channels are fine too. But don’t forget to simply chat with people. Word of mouth really does work. And oh yes…don’t just don’t bla, bla , bla about yourself for hours. People see through that quickly and you can actually ruin a good thing. The soft sell works!

I’ve joined a bunch of on-line sites who will promote your work for free or for a fee. I recently joined the awesome artists at Hire and Illustrator .com and am very impressed with them. Not only do they have a professional site, they’re diligent about emailing ANY question you have and they’re nice! Nice is good in my book. So check me and the over 300 other artists out at http://hireanillustrator.com/i/scott-nelson .