Simon Says

Lessons learned from American Idol:

It may come as a surprise to some that my wife and I are regular watchers of American Idol. Sometimes it surprises me as well. The early auditions can be painful to watch as hopeful after hopeful gets hurt in the process of elimination. But I think I’ve learned a thing or two by watching the show.

Over the past several days I’ve been doing something very similar. I was approached on Monday or Tuesday by a London advertising agency about possibly doing some comic book type illustrations. I was very excited by the prospect of breaking into the British market and very confident that I had a shot at this. The only other contender (so far as I knew was Scott Rosema, also at ComicArtistsDirect) and I have no problem sharing the spotlight with Scott, he’s a solid artist.

The agency art buyer sent a couple of scans of what the company was looking for. The images were of The Punisher and The Thing from Marvel. I’m not sure who the artists were there were no signatures on either piece. I have my suspicions but I won’t voice them here for fear of being wrong. They were really nice pieces and I am glad to have the scans for reference.

Anyway the art looked pretty straight forward. Black and White ink drawings that had been composited with color pencil (and maybe a little paste up of patterned paper ). Not that unusual, nor different than what I’ve been doing lately, technically speaking. My stuff is not usually that “gritty” but I figured I could adapt.

I sent back the WW and Batgirl that I recently posted figuring that they’d be able to see that subject matter would have an affect on how I’d draw the proposed pieces.

In the interim I got to watch American Idol. Last night, a very nice girl from North Carolina went to the open call in Austin, Texas. She blew her first shot due to a case of nerves, but was willing to admit that it was a truly awful audition. Due, at least in part, to her honesty and respectful attitude they gave her a chance to “walk off” her nerves and come back later. She did this, unfortunately not doing much better upon her return.

But I was greatly impressed by her attitude. She didn’t whine or complain. She didn’t curse or pout. No attempt at bravado, she simply said “thank you, it was nice meeting you,” and left. I suspect that she will go far in whatever field she ultimately chooses.

Today when I got the response from London; “Sorry, not what we’re looking for,” how could I do less? I wish I’d had as much maturity in my early twenties as that girl showed last night. But maybe now that I’m in my forties I can learn a thing or two.

I have no reason to complain. I’m swamped with work right now anyway. So it’s a blessing not to have to juggle another job. I wanted it, but it was probably not the best time for it. I didn’t go back and say, “Let me send you a better scan! That one wasn’t very high quality, this one has much better detail.” While that would be true, it would simply be a waste of time. They were looking for something different. It doesn’t mean my art is bad, just that it didn’t fit the bill.

I notice that Simon is pretty nice to the people who don’t talk back.