Hugh ‘Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards’ Macleod’s Gaping Void (Usual disclaimer about language etc etc) is another of my regular internet reads. I found this post, ‘How to be so-so creative‘ to be one I particularly related to:

“I drew cartoons there quite obsessively for about a decade; but I’ve slowed down a lot in the last year or two. In retrospect, it’s not difficult to see why I worked so hard at it. A wee voice told me this was my ticket out of the dreary and nebulous world of Madison Avenue. An obsession born out of desperation etc.

Sometimes I miss it.”

Absolutely. Creativity is very difficult to sustain. I too find that as time goes on it becomes more difficult to draw cartoons, though I think the reasons are rather different in my case – I only had about 43 or 44 ideas to begin with and I’ve now drawn 42 of them.

But, somehow, when push comes to shove ‘the deadline was an hour ago’, the ideas do come. But it does seem to be getting harder, which is why when someone sends me a list of ideas or cartoon subjects I really am rather pleased. Not that I promise I’ll draw all of them of course.

But then sometimes the ideas just come. Today I’ve drawn three good cartoons and I have one more top notch idea waiting to be done. I’m pleased.

Posted by Dave at 9:44 pm on October 23, 2005 and filed under Cartooning, In-depth analysis, Starting a Business.

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Cre8d asks How many ways have you got to be interrupted?

In my case quite a lot. There’s still a huge amount to be done for the launch of CartoonChurch.com at the Christian Resources Exhibition, and although I’m slowly getting there it still seems like quite a mountain to climb. Heck, I nearly missed ‘my posting every day’ midnight deadline.

Posted by Dave at 11:57 pm on April 27, 2005 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Starting a Business.

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I went to the Design Museum yesterday. It was worthwhile, though not spectacular.

At the moment I’m looking for inspiration regarding design for CartoonChurch.com, both the website and my business as a whole. And yes, I am fully aware that with only a few weeks to launch I should have got that sorted out ages ago. One thing I noticed at the Design Museum and have observed at numerous other modern art galleries is that very clean lines and sans serif fonts seem to be the standard as far as designing signage and logos go. Yes, I know there are exceptions to this, but as a general rule of thumb it seems to be the case.

It’s not easy to see how my handwritten, slightly haphazard look fits in with this very clean-lined ‘prefessional-looking’ approach. The header on the cartoon blog is a first attempt to be going on with, but it’s not the finished article by any means. The difficulty with a cartooning business is that one needs to be taken seriously, but doesn’t want to be taken too… seriously.

Posted by Dave at 3:29 pm on April 20, 2005 and filed under Art, Cartooning, Starting a Business.

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Today is my first day as an officially self employed person.

I woke up determined to get going in an efficient and productive manner. I’ve been at Maddie_C’s house as it has been her Easter holiday but I was all set to return to my house this morning. So, I jumped into the van, turned the key and… nothing. Like a fool and an idiot I had left the parking light on for 3 days so nothing was happening. I summoned Maddie_C and we pushed the van back and forth to turn it around, discovering that a VW van really is quite a heavy beast when you have to push it. Fortunately with a slight incline it did jumpstart ok and I was able to be on my way without further ado.

I have put this post into a new ‘Essex Life’ category. I don’t know what other items will join it. Perhaps nothing, we shall see.

Posted by Dave at 12:11 pm on April 18, 2005 and filed under Campervans, Essex Life, Starting a Business.

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One of the great things about starting a business is ordering stationery and office supplies from a business catalogue company. I had looked forward to doing this for some time. Well, the day finally arrived yesterday, so I have an absurd number of pens and enough A4 paper to draw a cartoon a day for the best part of 7 years.

But… I have the wrong envelopes. And yes, I think it was me rather than the catalogue company.

I am an idiot and a fool, and will be writing unusually small business letters for the rest of my life.

Posted by Dave at 2:31 pm on April 5, 2005 and filed under Starting a Business.

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