The Sum of David

While at Bellevue’s wonderful Affogato this week, we were discussing what we did for a living and our various expertise levels in it. My girlfriend mentioned Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that 10,000 hours is a magic number: that it doesn’t necessarily take exceptional talent or passion to get good at something, but if you spend 10,000 hours doing anything you become an expert at it by default.

I’ve heard similar theories. In art school, we were told you’ve got 1,000 crap paintings in you, so you’d better get them out of the way. I’ve also found a similar sentiment about writing — there’s 1,000,000 terrible words you have to write before you’re good. Write them now so you can begin producing quality work.

I have, since college and by rough estimate:

• Spent approximately 18,650 hours designing.
• Spent approximately 1,000 hours making art/illustrations.
• Spent approximately 2,000 hours writing, having written approximately 400,000 words.
• Spent approximately 29,200 hours sleeping.

10,000 hours is apparently a lot of hours. The above are estimates, but I would have guessed I spent way more time making art and writing than I actually did.*

Outside of arbitrary numbers divisible by ten, these rules all have the same idea — practice makes perfect, which is something I can absolutely get behind.

What’s interesting is that my day job is design — the reason my hours are so high for designing is because I’m doing it for 40 - 50 hours a week, for almost nine years. Despite exceeding the magic mark for hours, I would not consider myself an expert. Good, yes… I feel confident that I can solve any visual problem you can throw me. But an “expert”? No, there are people doing bigger and better than I in the land of design. I love it, but if it wasn’t my day job, I doubt I’d get near 10,000.

I haven’t read Gladwell’s book, this isn’t a review. This is simply an observation about a theory presented second-hand. I will say seeing the time I’ve spent doing some of the things I’m passionate about makes me re-evaluate them. Ultimately, as long as I love doing it I will continue to design and write and illustrate.

But I also wonder how much time I’ve spent with family and friends, or on the road to see those friends or family, or waiting for bus or food. Time I’ve spent cooking or working out or online. I don’t want or need to quantify these.

There are 10,000 hours in 417 days. I say a well-rounded life is one spent filling those hours with passions — both professional and personal — even if you never get ground-breakingly awesome at any them.

Let’s have a beer soon.

My my, look at what a philosophical turn this took.

*Not that any number of hours incorporating a comma is something to shake a stick at. And dang, I’ve got mad skills at sleeping. Go ahead, quiz me.

Remodeling
Our handheld miter saw won’t cut the 6 inch baseboards I need to cut for my room. Once those are cut, we are on the home stretch. I’ll post pictures soon. It’s looking pretty good, kids.

Polamalu LeBeau Sager
Our smallest Sager hurt his knee and I’ve been told to “restrict his movement,” which is of course absurd because he is a dog and has been known to run around in circles for no reason. But the Doc says no walks and no stairs. Yes, that’s right — the Doc instructed us that if he must go up and down stairs, he should be carried. But he better not get used to it, the bum.

Drawrings
In spite of my PSI portfolio showcasing a man-crushing cupcake, I am working on a very cool project for an area University. Why yes, bloody zombies and the doom-monster Cthulu totally say computer science to me. Fun stuff.

Josh also sent in his table application/fee for SPX this fall, so I guess it’s official — we’re going. Oh geeze. Even though I currently sell absolutely none of my work online (or in person, for that matter). We had a Meeting on the subject this weekend, and though we have a lot of work to do we are confident we will sell at least 1 thing. I think as long as we play to our strengths — Josh charms the crowd, I hide under the table — we will do just fine. I will meet my favorite webcomic artist’s feet. That won’t be creepy at all. If you are not familiar with SPX, you should totally go because it is the awesomest. Also, you can be the person that buys something from us. I’ll probably pay you back.

More Drawrings
Oh man, I’ve got plans. If I can put together half the stuff I want to by September I will most pleased. Did you watch the Winter Olympics closing ceremony? Oh my. Here is a hint:

Writing Progress?
Shut up.

Pardon me while I continue to bask in the success of my 2009 illustration project.

Here’s a VH1 Behind the Music-esque share: the original incarnation of 52ills was actually 365ills until common sense kicked in. I knew there would be days where sitting down to draw just wasn’t going to happen, not when I work full-time AND do some freelance AND try and work on my current novel. Also, @joshsager laughed like a madman when I mentioned it. So supportive, that guy.

Anyway, a weekly project won out.

Here are some people that did (or are doing) what I couldn’t.

• Flying Mouse 365
• Lauren Nassef
• 365 Drawings
• Alanna Risse
• Almost Phony
• Trixie
• And a few more, showcased better than I ever could on my little blog here. Check out Drawn’s 365 tag.

These folks (and the brave souls I didn’t dig deep enough to find) deserve applause, admiration and very probably… a drink.

I got started on a personal illustration project on Sunday morning. Said illustration includes a mountie hat.

The problem: I don’t actually know what a mountie hat looks like.

I mean, I had a good idea off the top of my head — brown with a flat wide brim, some kind of strip around the bottom of a lumpy bowl. However, to keep things accurate, I went and found some reference.

Josh brought up the question of whether this was stealing someone else’s work or not.

It’s a good question. Here’s my take on it, and I’d love to hear other ideas on the subject.

To me, using visual reference — especially from the bottomless pit that is the internet — is a fact-finding mission only. In the case of this mountie hat, I used the above link to see what the hats generally look like: to see what kind of brown they are, how proportionally wide the brim is, what kind of trim they have, and what kind of shape the upper bowl is.

I did not copy any of these hats. I did not copy parts of these hats and assemble them into a whole hat. In the end, I wound up with a hat that looks like a mountie hat, based on the information I garnered from those other hats.

I would never straight out copy someone else’s work, whatever the medium. But what about general info — size, color, where a buckle appears, etc. — is that stepping over the line? What do you think?

Learning to say “no” to people is tough, and can make you feel like a jerk in the moment; but it is oh-so-necessary, in both business and your personal life. If you say “yes” to every project or favor that comes your way, you can set yourself — and anyone you’re working with — on a path toward potential disappointment.

I’ve gotten much better at saying “no” in my personal life. Professionally, I’ve been trying to focus more on the creative projects I want to work on. That means I need to withdraw from tasks that don’t fit into my time table or wheelhouse… which is easier said than done. Walking away is especially challenging when you are short on change and could simply use a few extra bucks. And when a project falls into your lap… why not take advantage of it? Seems quick and easy, right?

Lessons I learned from my most recent project:

• It is never quick and easy. Never ever.
• The client inquiring about your services needs to understand what you provide. For me, I need to point them to my portfolio and make sure that they know what my artistic style is — I don’t do soft charcoals or life-like sketches. On the flipside, maybe ask for some examples of what they like. This helps make sure everybody’s on the same page, and can save time and energy later.
• Be aware of the subject matter. This project was for a religious blog and in this particular case meant detail work. My style tends to be rather simplistic and cutesy — robed Jesus is neither of these, and it was not a natural fit.
• Custom work will always take longer than you think it will. Illustrations will take four times longer than the client thinks they will. I need to charge appropriately for the time involved, even when it scares someone away. My time is worth more money than what I’m usually charging, and I could use that time to do something more personally fulfilling (which could in turn lead to a better paying, more Rachel-appropriate project down the road).

The gentleman I worked with on this project was an absolute pleasure to correspond with, and I believe all parties were pleased in the end. Unfortunately, I now have a final product that will not go into my portfolio, because it is not a style I’d like to do again in the future. Now I know I need to better probe potential clients for what they’re looking for, make sure it fits into what I do, and be brave enough to say “no thanks” if we aren’t both going to benefit from working together.

I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.

I’ve been sitting on The Sum of David for years now — the first draft was completed Christmas of 2006 — and man do I hate putting time into the getting published portion of… getting published. I am totally my worst enemy.

I like the story writing part, not the paperwork. I’m a designer, remember. There’s thankfully little paperwork in design.

Anyway.

This year’s competition has a separate category for Young Adult Fiction, which TSoD falls right into. I’ve struggled with writing summaries of varying length for TSoD in the past, but I guess ignoring the whole process for a year will freshen you up: I threw something down from scratch and Josh said was the absolute best pitch I’d ever done for the story. That’s encouraging. Hopefully the judges think so, too.

I like to consider myself a realist (doesn’t everyone?), so I’m not holding out extraordinary hopes. I indulged myself with a single day dream in which I won the whole shebang, but even in my fantasy I hung up on the person, jumping on them for making such a cruel joke of someone’s passion.

Maybe I’m not a realist. Maybe I’m a full-blown pessimist.

Whatever the outcome, I will  be exceptionally pleased with myself if I can make it past the first round… wouldn’t that be grand?

Amazon is accepting submissions through February 7, 2010 at 11:59 pm, or until they have recieved 5,000 entries in each category. If you have a finished novel sitting in a drawer collecting dust, now would be the time to break that baby out and give it some air.  Best of luck to those submitting!

I did some screen printing on Tuesday night. It was my first time printing on fabric, and my goal was to do a pillow design that would compliment the mural I painted on the wall in my studio. The mural is a bunch of birch tree trunks.

You know, I don’t even like orange that much as a color. It’s kind of obnoxious most of the time if it’s on its own. However, I wanted a room that would pop, and a turquoise/white/orange combo will do just that.

Of course, now the pillow needs put together. Need a button sewn on? I got it. Split your dress pants doing some heavy lifting? Not a problem. You would like refined straight seams that construct something that will fit a pillowform?

Oh my, aren’t you funny?

That’s why it’s nice to have friends like Val, who has offered to teach me how to use that mysterious voodoo box that makes cloth stick together. I don’t trust it, I tell you.

I am 100% introverted. If I see you In Public and come off as a turd, I apologize. I am not being a jerk (or weird) on purpose, I am simply overwhelmed with the situation.

However, in complete contradiction, I also love to play host.

Josh has a Man Weekend coming up, and I am trying to figure out what to do with this sudden Rachel time.

Possibilities that have crossed my mind:

1) Host a Girls’ Brunch at our place. (Social!)

2) Take a road trip with my dog. (Isolated + Social!)

3) Write like my fingers are on fire. (Isolated!)

Oh, bother. I don’t know. In reality, I’ll probably end up wasting it watching the Jurassic Park movies.

Rawr!

I guess this is like the newsletter that some families send out with their Christmas cards. Except it’s on the internet.

I’m from the future.

52ills
I can’t say that I succeeded in producing an illustration every seven days, but I’d happily commit to “weekly-ish” success. When the last week of 2009 rolled around, I was only three behind. Josh has mentioned I could technically go back and change the time stamp on the blog entries, and make me look like a real champ, but that part isn’t really the point — the whole idea of 52ills was to see if I could complete it in the first place, and as of December 31st, I had 52 ills. Go me, and I want some pie.

As an exercise, it was an excellent experience. I learned more about Illustrator and due to the volume of pieces, I was able to reach beyond my comfort zone and usual material*. I’ve happily settled into a colorful, cute style. I kind of knew that already, but practice makes perfect and all that. I also developed some good habits: composing via silhouettes, utilizing interesting textures, and grounding subjects with some kind of background element.

I’d love to get some (or all?) of them into a gallery this year, but if nothing else, I have some new portfolio pieces.

*Although there are still quite a few zombies and robots.

Writing
I did embarrassingly little writing in 2009. Even my blogging decreased in frequency. The remaining 82 pages of my last manuscript have been sitting in my parents’ living room for the last year, so I am proceeding without my mom’s trained-but-unavailable eye. My apologies to the next editor in line. I am using January to comb through the 2nd book again before I hand it off, and a first draft for the third and final David book will be complete by June 30th, 2010. That’s right, you heard it here first. Only 180 days away and counting.

Geeze, when I write it like that, it sounds downright terrifying.

Studio
First things first, however. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on Pittsburgh’s South Side working on my creative projects. When we got our dog, we decided we wouldn’t be away from home as often as we have been in the past. I technically have my own studio room, although it’s been pretty junked up for a long time. So: I’ve resolved to redo the room in a way that allows me to go in there and work until my eyes fall out, while not neglecting our new pet, plus saving gas and time and money.

The room is 1/3 of the way done, and I’m very excited. I estimate it will be complete in early February, and I can’t wait. It’s going to be amazing to have my own space. Woo.