DRAWN-Together: Hard Core Clock Action

The Process

Whenever I do a graphic for a commission I like to delve strait into it, headlong and with all my energy and commitment, this is normally at the cost of my family and other things I should really being doing around the house, but I get VERY passionate about whatever I am doing and try and get things done as soon as possible to the standard that is needed for the project. This involves late nights (4am ish) and having to put movies on for my 4 year old Ethan, which inevitably also involve me having to recreate a fight scene or some other nuance from the movie to keep him amused for the rest of the day.

After a few nights of this I have normally completed the commission and happy with the work and I send it off to the people that need to see it so that I can make alterations and have 'closure' on the graphic which has now invaded my dreams... THEN the waiting starts.

• Day 1. You send the graphic by email, which transverses the internet at almost the speed of light




• Day 2. The 'Human' finally checks their email and has a look




• Day 3. One human sends it to the other humans




• Day 4 and 5. The NEW humans finally read 'their' email and respond accordingly




• Day 6. The 'Original Human' or 'Patient Zero' gets the comments from the other humans and emails then to me.




• Day 6+10 seconds. I receive the email on my phone and make any changes needed and send back to 'Patient Zero'.




• Day 7. 'Patient Zero' is on holiday, ill, on sabatical and cannot get their email for a few days, so 'Exhibit B' picks up the email.




• Day 8. This will ALWAYS be a public Holiday, Training Day or someone's sisters - boyfriends - friends wedding or the like and nothing happens.




• Day 10. The whole morning is lost due to people trying to figure out what happened to day nine and only in the late afternoon do the 'Humans' get the new altered graphic for their consideration.




• Day 11. Because they liked the graphic that was sent, the humans have now passed it on to 'OTHER HUMANS' who now have an opinion they want to express.

Basically this carries on for quite a number of weeks with the whole proces repeating more than CSI on TV, until finally I am informed they loved it 'Just how it was' and send it asap as they have a deadline to make and they can't be messing about with things like this as its taken 3 weeks already!!!!!!

This is how 2 days work turns into a full time job.

In Conclusion...

Now I fully understand how 'The Process' and that things have to be cleared, checked, formatted and then passed around the planet a few times... but you would think that in an age where everything travels at near the speed of light in the world of communications, things would actually move faster.

Funny thing is I moved near to London so things would move faster for me, but everything seems to be relativly inversly proportinate to how hard and fast I work.

I blame the fact I am impatient and also an arty person, so have those little moods that artists tend to have. Annoying thing is MOST artists get their fraustrations out by painting a vigious depiction of death, war or more common than not a self portrait made from their own blood and sweat (It Happens, trust me on that). I on the otherhand create fluffy bunny pictures, cute robots with guns for my son or draw myself in ever depressed poses and situations.

The worst part is that whilst the days and weeks can pass, you have had a better idea for the graphic and have decided you hate the one that you created, but seeing as the original design now has gained so many air miles and so many people love it... you have to swallow your pride and smile as you accept their thanks for a 'job well done'.

It's kinda like a microcosm relationship at high speed, first you are all passionate and everything is NEW and exciting, then you take the graphic out and show your friends and they love it too. After a while you start to spot flaws with your graphic and start trying to make small alterations... before you know it you are looking at 'other graphics' and the one you loved so much before is now a withered mess and you loose interest and want to start a new graphic KNOWING that people will love this one even more. BUT YOU CAN'T as the old graphic has met everyone and it is popular, albeit through familiarity which you have now turned into... contempt. Unlike most relationships though I sell the graphic on to the client and then ignore the fact I ever knew the graphic in the first place.

Now I word it like that, I feel sad for all my previous graphics.... I will make them a 'Mix Tape' to explain things better.

I guess the point of the story is this...

Don't have a relationship with your graphics, however much you love their curves and delicate shades, they are just whores at the end of the day and once the glossy veneer has faded you find yourself feeling dirty and used, but at least you got paid for it.

I can see why Dali painted melting clocks now:)

Anyhoo.. back to waiting for me now! and possibly less coffee!

::RANDOM FACT::
Aswell as all this graphics and computer stuff I was also professionally trained as a Bonsai Tree Landscape artists.... nerrr didn't expect that did ya!