The Power of Social Media

I am fascinated by social media, by the way. It took me a long time to understand what the deal was. I tend to be a little slow to pick up on new things -- not because I dislike them, exactly, but because I like to watch and see how they work and how they're used before I adopt them.

So, because I'm late to the game, I'm still fascinated with the impact social media has on the internet market nowadays. The internet is a powerful tool, and we're entering a new age of independent creators dominating the successful market. (Or, at least, I think so.) And if you want to survive and thrive as an independent creator, you're going to have to be good at marketing yourself as well as your product.

Hence, social media.

Anyway. Most people I meet in real life consider social media to be a continuous stream of word-vomit, and to some extent (maybe a large extent), that's true. But if I examine my own reactions to social media, I know that watching someone else's "word-vomit" makes me feel I know the person better. It makes me more apt to look at them favorably, and to see them as a person instead of a faceless entity.

Companies can do this too, but a lot of them are, frankly, bad at it. I don't want an endless stream of advertisement in my twitter feed. If that's all you've got, I don't want to hear it. But if you have someone behind the keyboard talking to your customers, replying to comments, and making conversation, well I'm much more interested.

Case in point: @SockDreams. They do a minimal amount of advertising when there's a sale, or new products. But they also retweet their customers' comments about their socks, and often reply back to you with conversation. I feel that following them is worthwhile, because I can show my support for a small Portland-based sock company that I adore, and they don't pay me back with endless spam but instead kind words.

And from a business point of view, by getting most of their advertising through being a hub of word-of-mouth compliments and comments about their products, they're increasing the likelihood people will buy from them. It's one thing for a company to say, "We have awesome socks, come buy them!" And a completely different thing for a customer to say, without prompting, "These socks are awesome and I'm glad I bought them!" And, of course, the fact that it's on something as informal as Twitter, rather than a 'testimonials' page or something, helps make it feel more valid. SockDreams didn't manufacture these comments; they just manufacture a good product. The rest seemingly takes care of itself.

But! That's not actually why I started writing this post. Actually what prompted this post is a series of incidents lately with theft, and how Twitter brings the smackdown in a very real world way. You want to know the real power of social media? Observe:

1. A few months ago, Jess Fink (@jessfink) had her designs stolen (again) by Todd Goldman of David & Goliath, a t-shirt company with notoriously cute and quirky designs. In addition, someone on Etsy had traced her designs and was selling shirts on Etsy, while flagrantly acknowledging her theft. Through the power of twitter, the Etsy shop was taken down, and legal action is being brought against D&G. While this is not a particularly mind-blowing case, it's still fresh in my mind, because I loved D&G tees. But, thanks to this, I'll never be buying them again.

2. Cut to yesterday, when holy crap, Twitter exploded over Urban Outfitters thieving an independent creator's designs.

Huffington Post and Boing Boing picked it up. It spread on Twitter like wildfire. My tweets were retweeted hundreds of times. Twitter users alerted me that former “fans” were blowing up the Urban Outfitters Facebook page.

Messages of support for Stevie and her jewelry poured in. Lots of people seemed outraged that they weren’t being sued. Many people seemed downright shocked and hadn’t heard of their previous douchebaggery in ripping off indie artists.

As a result, the necklaces were pulled from stores and UO is suffering a bad PR backlash. If you want an example of how not to handle social media as a company, read what UO did (or didn't do) in that article. You have to put out fires fast nowadays.

3. Still not real-world enough for you? Linked in the comments for that article was an instance of someone using Twitter to get their stolen bike back.

Boulder was full of helpful information, so by the time I went to the police station @WendiTV told me he was known as Dready Dave, @eatullis thought she had seen him on the bike path with a different bike, @bikestohikes had seen him ON my bike at Baseline Liquor, @CDR16 let me know he had seen him multiple times on Pearl St. previously and @thecupboulder spotted him on the bike path under the bridge on 9th.

In a six hour window, Ellis's social network single-handedly identified the culprit and tracked him down. Ellis and company caught up with the thief, flagged down a police officer, and ... she has her bike back!

These instances may not be typical. But you can't tell me that it's not impressive. The internet is providing ways for "the little people" to be heard and speak with a distinctive and powerful voice against Big Companies. The thing is, Big Companies could get in on this too, if they could just do it right. But until their marketing and PR execs are from Generation X/Y, I think they're sinking in a mire.

While the huge, unwieldy beasts of Big Companies trundle along, in my opinion, the fleeter-footed Independent Creators will overtake them and, in the long run, maybe even completely surpass them -- in large part because of social media.

Time is of the Essence

So, it's late. I should be asleep but I had to drink caffeine for my headache so I'm still awake. And you know when's the best time to write a blog post? When you're blearily incoherent thanks to sleep dep! Hooray!

Mostly, I've been thinking about art a lot lately. I'm accumulating everything I need to apply for Pixar, but it's slow going. Do you know how hard it is to write a comic-ized cover letter? It's like as hard as a cover letter times two. But I'll figure it out and I'll knock it out of the park when I do, because that's just what I do. Take that, self-doubting naggery!

I have now improved enough that I'm looking back at some sketches I thought were amazing less than a year ago and now wrinkling my nose and going, dear lord, get that girl some lessons! That's a pretty cool feeling. But then, that's also what I wrote about in my last post, so I don't think it needs another repeat.

No, instead, I think I'm going to talk about time management.

One of the biggest problem that faces freelancers is time management, you know. Especially when you don't have a separate office to go to, delineating between home and work can be very difficult. Or even non-existent. Doubly so if you work in the comics industry, because comics take a lot of time, work, and effort, and I know most comic artists work day and night, seven days a week, sometimes without sleep. Because we're crazy people! And if you work in comics you have to love what you do, or else...well, you're never gonna make it, kid! It's grueling work. I can't imagine doing it if you don't love it. Eep!

But time management! Right, let's get back to that.

So, with no clear line between on- and off-work hours, being a slave to The Deadline rather than The Workday, and silly things like 'remembering to eat' and 'sleep? what's that?', it can be difficult to keep your time managed. Now, recently, I learned that the very hard way. I worked myself way too hard for too long and wound up making myself sick. After working a few 13-hour break-free days in a row, you know, it kind of takes a toll.

Part of the problem is I love what I do so damn much that, left unchecked, I will happily run myself into the ground if I get to keep drawing. The other problem is that I am absolutely dedicated to meeting my deadlines, and if I forget I already have too many and take on another freaking project, I will sometimesusually pick deadlines over health. This is obviously a problem!

So, I spent my enforced week-long vacation figuring out how to better organize my work day and my work flow so this doesn't happen again. First, I laid down a list of goals:

1. Get at least 2 pages done per week; optimal: 3 (one for buffer)
2. Make sure there's time to do non-page work like thumbnails, or advertising
3. Take breaks
4. Work "normal people" hours (i.e. try to stick to around 8 hours a day -- not 14)

I already work mostly on a schedule, getting up at the same time and starting work at roughly the same time, so that wasn't a problem. I went and asked for advice from people, and was told to aim for a 40 hour work week, and take breaks every two hours.

First off, the breaks every two hours thing did not work well for me. It broke up my creative flow and made it hard to get started again. However, I've discovered a nice little schedule that works well:

1. Try to stick to 40 hours a week.
2. Alternate inking days and coloring days.
3. Take breaks whenever you reach the end of a "stage" or when it's creatively appropriate to put the pen down. Do not skimp on this, do not forge ahead anyways, do not pass go and collect $200.
4. When you've reached 8 hours, you're done for the day. No ifs, ands, or buts.
5. Take at least one day completely off a week. An additional day must be at least partially off.

By alternating inking days and coloring days, I'm splitting the bulk between two days, which should give me about 6 hour days of just working on WoBG. It's also good because I can get at least half a page done for the buffer each week; more if I choose to work six days a week. Plus, the additional hours after inking/coloring is done can be used for those extra tasks of thumbnailing, and so on and so forth.

So far, this has worked beautifully. I'm feeling a lot less harried, and a lot less burnt out. Today, I got to leisurely map out and ink an old secretary roll-top bureau for page 21 without feeling pressured, because I don't feel like I have to finish a page a day. (And thank goodness because these pages are monstrously time-consuming.)

Also, it bears mentioning that we decided to drop the schedule back from twice a week to once a week for this month, while I build up a buffer. I expected criticism for this decision -- lord knows I've heard enough complaining about this in the past -- but actually we got some very supportive comments for it. We have the best readers!

Anyway, that's my thoughts on time management. Have you guys implemented any tips and tricks for managing your time? Freelancing can be so crazy!

Tips on Drawing

Okay so people keep asking me for tips on drawing. I will compile what I have learned into this post! Hopefully!

1. Study your anatomy. Real, traditional anatomy. I took two anatomy and physiology classes, and a few life drawing classes. I would take more in a heartbeat. The more you know about how these things work together, the more you can predict what will happen when you smoosh the body /just so/. I admit, I have a ways to go with my anatomy thus far, but the more I practice, the better I get. I recommend drawing a lot of naked people, including shading. Also Dynamic Anatomy is a good buy to understand how the muscles work together.
2. Study real life. Even if you’re not drawing, observe. Right now I’m staring at the moving boxes that are opposite me on the couch. The bottom one has been deformed by its contents, and it has creases and dings in the top left corner. If I were painting them, I’d be putting stark lights versus stark darks to show the sharpness of the creases. Some of them aren’t so sharp. This kind of observation helps you understand how things are truly put together in the real world, as well as how you might portray them via technique. Things are just various planes of lights and darks smooshed together somehow. It’s your job to figure out how.
3. Study color.  I’m still working a lot on this one. Color theory is complex but fascinating. The more you know about how to make color work for you, the better it’ll be. A corollary: something that has served me well in the past is the knowledge that whatever color you’re coloring, the shadows should have at least a hint of its complementary color. And (white) skin tends to look much better with purple added into the shadows. (Brown skin thus far has looked better with blues and reds, for me. Still experimenting.)
4. Draw. Seriously, don’t stop drawing. Doodle all over your school notes. Draw every day. The more you draw, the more you start to understand. The better you get!
5. Think. This is kind of like what I was talking about before. Think about what you’re drawing. Think about each piece as you’re working on it. I often have to sit and think about how the light will be hitting this or that piece, and the contours of the skin, and how the pose will deform the clothing attached and create these or those wrinkles. How the weight distribution will affect this or that part of the body, how gravity will pull on the figure. It’s a puzzle. The more you think about it, the better you’ll get at predicting and the less you’ll have to think — but never stop thinking.
6. Perspective is a bitch. Just keep drawing it. There are some good books on it — I am particularly fond of Vanishing Point, which is a dynamic comic artist’s look at perspective. It’s very well written. To get a better handle on it, take a lot of pictures. Of buildings, of people, of things in your house. And then draw it. Trace it. Anything you can do to get better at it. I’m definitely still new at this one and working hard at it.
7. Tutorials are a great source to go from. Look at deviantArt for good tutorials on color and structure and everything under the sun really. I use them aaaall the time.
8. And lastly, Learn from real life first. You will have a much better foundation to be able to go from if you want to draw cartoons. Like the old adage, you have to know the rules before you can break them. Seriously, it will make your work look so much better if you understand anatomy *before* you deform it.
9. Texture! Everything has texture. If you want your picture to look more realistic, focus on texture. Giving a tree its bark, or clothing its weave, etc etc, is a good way to bump up the quality of your picture. It is often tedious, and it harkens back to observation. The more you observe how texture is “portrayed” in real life, the more you can figure out how to portray it in the medium of your choice.

And that’s about it. If I have more, I will add it in another post later!