Creating in Your Spare Time

First off, a quick thank you to everyone who came out to the SF Etsy Sampler Trunk show! It was awesome, and we had a great time hanging out with other team members and meeting a lot of great people! More on that Wednesday!

Many inquiries have been made about some tips to help one draw more. Without a doubt, I'd recommend going over to Michael Nobbs' website to check out his free guide called "75 Ways to Draw More." While this is a great starting point, we figured that we'd do more than just link Michael's great little starter kit, but we'd discuss a bit of how we stick to our priority of drawing every day.

So Seal's work is a bit more straightforward. She is working as an freelance concept artist, so her day job is to create. For Monkey, who works in a retail shop (granted, it's a huge paper and crafting store) it's a bit different.

So Monkey used to just bring a sketchbook to work, but soon he wanted a change of pace. Thus, he brought some ink, pro-white, cheap watercolor paper, some brushes, and an old tofu box (as a palette) to his work to set up a mini-studio for his lunch breaks.


While if he brings his lunch and is feeling it, Monkey will work on some pen and ink studies (like this) using the magazines other people bring to work as reference photos. However, Monkey realizes that many people might not have the space/tolerant co-workers and/or boss to bring a bunch of art supplies to work.

In that case, it's a matter of getting creative. Monkey used to get caught up in having to be in the "perfect" conditions to make art. To make a long story short (this whole mental hurdle deserves it's own post), Monkey thought he needed the best paper, the best pens, the best whatever, in order to really make good art. After a lot of art school and reading lots of books and having long therapy-like sessions with Seal, Monkey is now the complete opposite. He tries to make art with whatever he can whenever he can. Got a sharpie and a plastic cup to wash your brush in? Draw on it.
Did you just unpack shipment? Have an empty box lying around and a minute to kill on your break? Draw on it (see first photo). Got an extra flyer for an event that's already passed and a pen? Draw on it (the character is not based on an actual customer, just the general vibe we sometimes get -_- )


Basically, you don't NEED fancy stuff to make art. I know a lot of beginning art students that all draw and paint on Rives BFK because James Jean uses it. Now don't get me wrong, it's awesome paper, but if I don't have any more, or can't afford the $5 sheet, I always have large cardboard boxes from work. No sketchbook with you? You can do a lot with a pen and the back of an envelope.

No, not all of these methods are archival, and you probably shouldn't be framing envelopes for gallery shows (or maybe you should, if that's your thing), but the point is that don't get caught up with what your teachers, or the pros are using. That stuff is great to use, but if you don't have it, can't find it, or can't afford it, there are a lot of options. The main message here is: don't let yourself make excuses why you can't create. Anyone else have some great tips to share about creating every day?

Microtasking in More Time Now

Monkey recently read Dave Navarro's More Time Now manifesto - it's a good read, but only if you want the earth-shaking kick in the pants to stop wasting time and to take action to realize your goals. As Monkey + Seal constantly discuss, Dave's tone is a bit brusque, which works okay with Monkey, but is a bit of a turn-off with Seal. That said, there is one thing that we'd like to highlight that is one of Dave's best tips.

That is the idea of microtasking. When you have a large goal that seems rather large, it pays to find something small (almost embarrassingly small) to do every day. For example, if you want to change your current behavior of leaving huge piles of dishes in the sink, instead of saying to yourself "I'm going to wash all these dishes and never let the dishes go unwashed" you're setting yourself up for failure. It's the reason diets are so hard. You're basically going cold-turkey, which usually doesn't work for most people.

Instead, you need to take a graduated approach. If you want to break you bad habit, prioritize washing one dish every day. Or just a utensil. Something small. Do that for a week, and eventually, you'll turn it into a habit. Then, slowly and surely, you'll start doing a second fork, since you're already doing one. And then maybe a dish or two, since it's easy once you're already going. Eventually, you'll just start doing your dishes on autopilot, and burn through the stack no problemo.

To take this approach to art, Monkey has found that microtasking really works! He started out his "post art every day" in order to get in the habit of making art at a more consistent pace. Now, he finds it difficult when he's not making art. If you look at his personal blog, you see him start to post things like drawings on envelopes, or quick digital sketches. Now, while he doesn't always make the time to do a longer digital illustration, he's definitely producing more and more, and not everything is making it onto the blog.

My making "illustrating" a habit, Monkey is slowly but surely taking time away from surfing the web and playing Bejeweled Blitz and spending more time creating. He highly recommends it! Start small, and you'll end up changing everything.

How We Got Started Organizing Events

Monkey here. So as you may or may not know, as Monkey + Seal has slowly grown from us selling buttons and a few zines to organizing the 2009 Holiday Handmade Ho Down Urban Craft Fair and creating Paper Hat Productions to organize gallery shows. Additionally, I help the ever-talented Francois Vigneault of Family Style organize the SF Zine Fest.

When people hear about the events that Eve and I help curate/organize, etc. people usually ask me how we got started. The cool thing I could say is that "I just got involved and did it," but that doesn't really help anyone out, so since we're all about helping people out here, the real story is that it actually started back in 2001.

In 2001, my freshman year at UC Berkeley, I started volunteering for the student chapter of CalPIRG, or the California Public Interest Research Group. There, I learned about grassroots organizing and helped organize a corporate accountability fair for the school. It was mildly successful, to be perfectly honest.

Later, I join Theatre Rice, Berkeley's Asian American theater group, and after a few years, ended up running the show (pun totally intended) as the Producer. I was fortunate to have the guidance of the awesome previous Producer, Chris Dong (btw, he's running for a cure for blood cancer, so help a brother out and he'll even bake you some cupcakes which I can guarantee will be amazing) and the support of an awesome committee. I learned here how to organize a cast of 30-40 some actors, handle logistics of light rentals, budgeting, auditions, promotions, and managing people. It was easily a 40+ hour a week job on top of full time studies (which, as you can imagine, took the sidelines).

After a year of that, the next organizing I did was when I was asked by Francois to help out with the Zine Fest. After helping out that first year in 2008, I've stuck around, and then moved on to help do the first SF Etsy Handmade Ho Down show (and was greatly helped by the lovely ladies of Mini Marzipan productions) and then set off with Eve to make Paper Hat Productions for our March 2010 Out of Place show.

Eve learned a lot about marketing, press releases, and the outreach side of things first from Cal where she worked with Sun Chen of Vermillion Orange. Later, she picked up a lot while working as a Program Associate for Bay Area Wilderness Training, and then from Joel Hornsby and with her position at VIZ Pictures.
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That sort of felt like this quick resume-type listing of what we've done. Really, I'd be happy to go in-depth into each of our experiences, but that would take forever. The main point, is that although it may seem like we just exploded onto the scene organizing 2500 people events and 300 people gallery shows, it's been a lot of time invested. We're also fortunate to have met so many awesome people along the way, and we most definitely could not have done it without them.

If you are interested in organizing an event - I always advise going out and finding other people who are also interested in the same thing. Organizing takes a LOT of time, and it's always easier when you have people you can spread the work out with. That said, the one thing I can advise is that you want to make sure that the other people you're organizing with have the same enthusiasm and commitment to the hard work that's going to be needed to get the event off the ground.

If you want to really just jump in - I say do it. There are tons of ways to make an event successful without spending a lot of money. Want to put on an art show? Find someone with a cool yard, score some wood on Craigslist and make A-frame to stand paintings up, and get all your friends to post about it constantly on Facebook. List your event on Going, Thrillist, Criagslist, and everywhere else that has free calendars to post on. Voila, instant event.

Granted, it is a crapload of hard work, long hours, but it is a labor of love. That said, you should definitely check out our next event, Alien/ation, a group illustration show put on in collaboration with Hyphen Magazine. It's going to be Saturday, July 10th, so mark your calendars and we hope to see you there.

If any of you have any questions about organizing, or are in the process of organizing your own event, let us know! Post in the comments! Go go go go!

Tons of web updates and press!

A few weeks ago Monkey was interviewed for a new blog highlighting Northern California called Northern Focus. It was a big honor to be the inaugural interview! You can check out the interview over at http://northernfocus.wordpress.com.

Additionally, we relaunched a new format for our website www.monkeyandseal.com. We added a navigation bar, some new content, and more! It's also the soft launch of our new consulting for people who want to be more creative in their lives. We'd love to hear feedback on the site! Also, we'll be working to integrate this blog into the site itself, but that's a much larger project than what Monkey + Seal can handle for right now, but keep your eyes peeled - it's in the works!

Also, Seal has been working hard to teach herself a bit of html (Monkey currently does the coding for our site) so she's started by updating her art blog at www.artriot.blogspot.com. Congrats Seal!

Thanks so much for growing with us, and we're always working to bring you better and better content, layout, etc. Anything special you'd like to see? Leave your suggestions in the comments! Thanks!

Portfolio, Industry Recruiters, Life as an Artist

Last week, Seal attended her art school's senior industry portfolio day, where big-name industry recruiters such as Laika, Pixar, Dreamworks, Illumination, Lucas Arts, and Blizzard were conducting one-on-one interviews on the spot. There were many recent grad students like myself who were vying to break into the animation/film industry. The students were filed into a small room and waited to be sent to the various industry representatives for their respective interviews. As soon as an industry stated what they were looking for ("we're looking for 1-2 concept artists"), all students with the "right" portfolio were called in. Sometimes the line to see a certain company snaked around the corner and your peers could hear your every exchange with the rep during your interview.

Although Seal is very grateful and she personally had a lot of fun, she also noticed a downside for her fellow artists. Unfortunately, these kinds of situations breed what Monkey and Seal calls a "mentality of lack." What I noticed was that many of the students around me were thinking in terms of limitation. Many felt that this "one day" is the only one shot to their dreams, the "be all, end all" moment. Rumors started spreading around, "they are looking for only one artist, etc." Although it may be true for a company to state such a thing, it does not mean that perhaps they will not be looking next semester or even a month from now. I can see negativity in the students' demeanor. One guy in the elevator (whom I did not even know) randomly asked me, "so, . . . how many interviews did you get?" I (don't like thinking in terms of numbers) replied, "I don't know, I wasn't really counting" and he scoffed at me, "I was called into six of them." It saddened me to think that this "artist" defined his craft and himself by how many interviews he had.

It shocked me to see that so many of my talented peers, whom I aspire to, and consider my friendly rivals, were downgrading themselves. They defined themselves by how well their portfolio was received, or how many interviews they had, not by how far they have come, where they want to go, and what they need to do in order to get there.

Although it was intense, I had a lot of fun. I heard a lot of good feedback regarding my work and also how to improve it. I now have a direction to evolve my art. I was so happy to be able to speak with creative directors/ and artists from the all the different companies and had the opportunity to pick their brain and experience. Their knowledge, time, and feedback is invaluable. After all, some of these folks have worked in the field 5-20 years. Although I understand that everyone is looking for a job, would like a job, and would like to be recognized for their artwork, the one-on-one feedback from these creatives for even just one minute - was the most rewarding and important piece of the entire experience.

With all due respect and perspective, when these experienced artists of 5-20 years, see a "recent grad student's" portfolio, they probably come to similar conclusions: "I see potential, but needs polishing."

In these kinds of situations, an artist must have pride in their work for what it is, but also see into the future of their growth. One day, I will throw away everything that is in my current portfolio because I will have grown, my work may change, and I need to move forward and constantly experiment in new ways to best express the images in my head.

There were plenty of people who had talent and a kick-ass portfolio, but the people who really did well that day, who seemed as if they shone above the crowd, were people who believed in their own potential, accepted the situation as it were, and at the same time, had the generous heart to root for their comrades during such an intense situation. A couple of people came to mind, but I was thinking specifically of my friend, Nathan. He was giving everyone the thumbs up, reassuring his colleagues, really, genuinely, was wishing well to all of his "friends and simultaneous competitors." His personally was gold. And the industry recruiters could see that. I'm happy to congratulate him on his new work in the animation industry.

The way I like to look at it is this: There are jobs for each and every artist, it's just about finding the right fit.

Your portfolio, your current skills, who you are as a person right now . . . it is what it is, but ultimately, it can be molded into anything. In the end, you are not defined by your art portfolio, but your character as a person and an artist.

Fighting paralyzation

Monkey here, to talk about a recent experience of mine fighting fear/inaction, and how I got out of it.

So the other day (on my day off from my retail job), I was sitting around compiling my list of things to do, and it sort of got overwhelming. It was all great stuff, but I also tend to put huge projects on my to-do lists, which I find I need to stop doing. My list was looked like this:

-rebrand Little Yeti
-finish Hyphen paintings
-digital illustrations
-card designs
-zine fest reg. update

Now while all this stuff sounds good, besides the "zine fest reg. update," these are all quite hefty projects. "rebrand Little Yeti" probably consists of at least 10 hours of design work, 5 hours or so of photo editing, and about a week's worth of me stumbling through html and xml trying to hobble together a working website.

Note to self and to everyone else: don't put items like this on your to-do list. On top of that, my enormous students loans are going to start coming into repayment, and my retail job definitely does not cover them, so I'm going to have to figure out some way to make more money pretty quickly. This anxiety, plus a monstrous to-do list did not bode well, and it just stressed me out and made me sit and stare at the computer screen.

Thankfully, Eve was around to let me talk things through with her, and then I quickly just had to start doing something. I started by throwing away the to-do list and just working on a digital speed paint. Even if it was just a quick little in-color sketch in photoshop, it was the act of creating something and finishing it that sort of broke me out of my slump.

I know I'm extremely fortunate that I have someone supportive that I can talk to. If you don't have someone you can share with, talk it out in the comments below, or stop by our facebook page and drop us a note. We will certainly do our best to send some positive energy your way and some encouragement.

If you don't feel comfortable reaching out, we highly suggest keeping a journal, or writing it out, or finding a quiet place and talking it out to yourself. Just getting all your anxieties and fears and worry out is the first step to overcoming them. When you can "get it all out" and really go back and realize that it's probably not as fatal as it seems, that's when you can push forward and start doing small actions that will help propel you forward towards big actions.

Take things in bite-sized chunks. Although I'm not going to completely rebrand Little Yeti tonight, you can be sure that I might just double-check the typography in one design, or I might make a little tweak here and there to another. It sounds stupid, but really just putting one foot in front of the other works.

Anyway, I hope this helps and keep on keepin' on!

SF Etsy Sampler

Hi everyone! Happy Memorial Day, and we just wanted to announce our selection into the SF Etsy Sampler! This event is a trunk show (with free refreshments) that was curated by the owner of the gallery. From their website:

Special Event: SF Etsy Sampler (Trunk Show)

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010
Time: 1:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Artist-Xchange
Street: 3169 16th St

http://sfetsy.blogspot.com/

We are excited to announce that the Artist Xchange will host the SF Etsy Sampler, the first-ever SF Etsy Team Trunk Show!

Nibble on free refreshments while sampling the superb work of 20 talented Etsy artists from the San Francisco Bay Area. At the SF Etsy Sampler, you'll find an assortment of awesome art and irresistible handcrafts -- delectable jewelry, terrific textiles, fun accessories, beautiful home decor, fabulous fashions, and yummy bath and body treats.

There's something for every flavor in the SF Etsy Sampler: sweet, spicy, a little bit nutty, rich, dark, or thoroughly decadent.

Artist Xchange Gallery 3169 16th St. San Francisco
June 12th from 1-6 p.m

Anyhoo, we hope to see you out there as we love meeting people face-to-face! We are definitely excited as we'll have some new stuff that's not yet up in our Etsy shop. Wooo!