I've been considering this in context of JMH - he could draw well, but had so many stories, characters and going-on that it would have taken a long lifetime to even start to bring them to fruition. Jim was best known for Skunkworks - particularly porn. He may have like the porn aspect, but I suspect as he grew older, it was more the back stories and similar that became of interest to _him_.
The problem is that we all have limited time (the Clock of Life is would but once, and no man has the power to tell if it will stop at an early or late hour...), so are we best to focus our energy where we get the best result? Or scatter or energy leaving less impact? When JMH largely had just the Skunkworks and some of the AMA characters in the public arena, this focus on his skills and character set built much of the following that lead to his fame. I'm sure there are heaps of great artists, who may draw furry and even porn, but is it themselves they are pushing, or a specific character set?
I'm relatively limited with my exposure (I just haven't followed much on the furry front in the last handful of years), but how many artists are known for a specific character? That special signature character that everyone associates and brings them to fame? Here a few examples that spring to mind:James Hardiman- Skunk sistersMax Black Rabbit - Zig ZagEric Schwartz - SabrinaChris Cooper (Coop) - Smoking Devil, She DevilLis Boriss - Lizardbeth
These artist all drew other characters, though it was their focus on a specific character that made them known. It makes me wonder that if JMH had stuck to Skunkworks, he may have done better in with recognition and story completion. He seemed enthused with Onika, but I'm not sure if the story line was adding anything (but complications?) to the main plot. Caterwaul sounded like it may have been good, but ran the risk of being cliche, as there are probably a million secret service stories out there. Both these things drew attention away from the 'main plot'. Jim was starting to get the stories of Skunkworks together, and if he had lived long enough could then have branched out into Caterwaul and maybe something with the Asza when story arcs got thin.
If you use Coop as an example, he pretty much made a living out of the Smoking Devil and She Devil. They are pretty much the same two characters drawn doing different stuff over and over again. He paid off his house doing that!
To be an expert (and renowned for something) requires laser-like focus. Amateurs diversify, experts specialise. We all tend to think up heaps of characters, but are they just for our own hidden story benefit, versus something that could be recognised and marketable? Of the character sets I had for many years, I only really refer/use a few of them. It is better to be well known for something, than not really known for many things. And we don't live long enough to be known to be good at everything!
How well can you draw any given character? Would you be better to get one character awesome that everyone loves, versus churning out heaps of generic stuff that no one recognises? JMH's Skunkworks characters were all very recognisable. If you see other people's renditions of the Skunkworks characters, they are still easily recognisable.
Coming back to my original point - do what you do do, well and be recognised and appreciated versus dabbling and disappearing in obscurity.
Scrapper, Black Dragon, lack of focus, lack of planning and lack of commitment make me the artist I am today.
Received on Tue Feb 13 2018 - 10:38:17 CST