Chewing Pencils

NAME: Kate Manson
AGE: 28
LOCATION: London
SITE URL: pinkhalf.blogspot.com

How long have you been drawing cartoons?

Since I could pick up a pen and make a mark - my parents were pretty cool and allowed me to draw my favourite cartoon characters on the walls of my bedroom. The walls were white, so it was a perfect surface to practice on.

What made you start to think more seriously about making some money out of it?

For a while at college I had a strip cartoon called “Cantab” that ran in the Cambridge University newspaper. I enjoyed the buzz of drawing, and people seemed to enjoy reading it. After I left college I didn’t think cartooning was a proper job and became a lawyer - after five years of that, I decided it was more important to do something you like, rather than for money. Also being a lawyer if you are creative person is like death by a thousand paper cuts, so it is generally be avoided!

Have you done any formal training? If so, what and where?

I’m doing some training at the moment, at City University, with Stephen Marchant, a professional cartoonist. Stephen is amazing and very encouraging. He works a lot with the Cartoon Museum in London, which is worth a visit. His classes are great, and often finish with a pub seminar, which is an essential part of cartooning!

I can also be found at Central Saint Martins on Wednesdays, doing life drawing. Any kind of drawing is good for your work, its not just the fact the models are naked. Honest.

Matt: Hands up all those who believe her about the naked model thing. I thought so…:)

Where was your first cartoon published?

School magazine. It generated a lot of complaints, which I took to be a good thing.

What materials do you use to create your work?

Dip pen and indian ink, and sometimes a Pentel brush pen, which gives a great line.

I can really recommend the brush pen, which is more commonly used by Japanese Manga artists. The pen gives you the benefits of using brush and ink without the downsides as the flow of ink is much easier to control. Unlike indian ink, the Pentel ink also dries very quickly.

For ink blotches, I have pot of white paint which covers my mistakes very well. If anyone knows of a quick drying indian ink I would love to hear where I can get it. This morning I picked up a drawing that I inked up last night, took the pencil off with a rubber and there was still a smudgey blur afterwards! Infuriating!

What hardware and software do you use?

I have a HP scanner, and a WACOM tablet. For WACOM, I use Photoshop, but find it rather like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - there should be a bare bones cartoon package. I also use some cartoon letter fonts which are available to download at http://www.blambot.com for free. They have great styles, currently I’m using Whoopass which is both fun to use and to say!

WACOM is fantastic, with the right sort of nibs for the pen, you can find it as natural as using pen and ink. It’s also a lot less messy.

From where so you draw your inspiration?

The street. In London you often see something interesting, that’s the perk of living here, there will always be something happening. I take my pen and paper wherever I go, furtively drawing when I get the chance. People seem happy to be drawn, I’ve never had an objection.

I also like to include people I know in my cartoons, and use them as stock characters. At least one of my former bosses has become the “mad scientist”, due to his enormous glasses and uncontrollable mop of red hair.

What are some of the resources you’ve found most helpful?

Chewing Pencils is great, and also the UK Cartoonists Club message board. The least helpful are those “Learn How To Draw Cartoons” books - all that happens if you use those is that your style gets messed up.

I think reading any comic or cartoon is helpful to your work. You can always get inspired by other cartoonists work, and also see how they put their images together, which can feed into your own stuff later on. For comic strips and “graphic novels” I can recommend Read Yourself Raw, at http://www.readyourselfraw.com/.

There’s also the comic equivalent of MySpace, at http://www.comicspace.com/. You can upload galleries of your work there, and its a good way to promote yourself.

What is the best piece of advice you have EVER been given? The worst?

Best advice - draw every day, wherever you are.

Worst advice - work for free in order to get “exposure”.

This is akin to making yourself a cartoon intern.

Take us through the process you use to create one of your drawings:

Normally I’d be doodling around an idea. Sometimes the ideas come to me spontaneously but most of the time the idea comes from the process of drawing. I’ve found I can’t shortcut the process - to have an idea I must be drawing. I have had one occasion when a cartoon came to me in a dream, perfectly formed, but this is very unusual.

I’m not super confident, so on occasion I’m still pencilling a rough sketch, then transfer the rough to a lightbox, when I ink up on bristol board.

How long does it generally take to create one piece?

I typically produce around 3 to 4 cartoons a day, I find I get faster as the day progresses. So if something took me all morning, then by the afternoon when my pen’s warmed up, a cartoon might take 20 minutes. The ideas come more often if you keep going.

What do you find the hardest to draw?

Naked feet. The toes end up like a bunch of bananas! Very few of my cartoons have sandals in them as a result.

Matt: Perhaps you should concentrate on the feet in your life drawing classes…**blush**

What do your friends and family think of you being a cartoonist?

They dig it, and give me work!

What do you think is the best part about being a cartoonist?

Seeing people looking at your stuff - that gives me the biggest buzz, even if they don’t like it. If I’m doing something satirical, I like to get a reaction.

What has been the standout post on Chewing Pencils for you? Why?

I think it has to be the Top Ten Tips. For years I’ve been noodling around with my cartoons, and that post encouraged me to see that there’s a way to pull it all together. The post has now become a checklist, so that I’m looking at all aspects of being a cartoonist, as opposed just drawing and expecting the world to come to you!

Great stuff Kate! And sorry for being a bit cheeky about the life drawing stuff. I’ve never been game enough to try it myself (the drawing, not the modelling) but it is something that many experienced folk in the industry recommend all cartoonists do. Perhaps one day…