Chewing Pencils

Name: Gregory Kogan
Age: 19
Location: New York City
URL: Cartoon Tutorials, Cartoon Portfolio & More from Gregory Kogan
How long have you been drawing cartoons?

I’ve been drawing forever, but I gained a specific interest in cartoons around the age of 12.

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

Randy Glasbergen’s book, “How to be a Successful Cartoonist.” A long-time friend sent me one of his cartoons, I went to Randy’s site, and it all went from there…

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

Yes, I graduated from an art high school with an art diploma. However, I never took the “humorous illustration” class that was being offered. I took a “children’s book illustrations” class instead, because I thought it was pretty much the same thing.

Where was your first cartoon published?

Does the internet count? No? Oh, uh… If I remember correctly, the first time I’ve had my cartoons published was for a set of stickers for the Singapore Police. It’s funny, because you expect to start off with clients like your next-door neighbor or the small business owner down the street, not the Singapore Police! 

 

What materials do you use to create your work?

I still draw everything by hand. I use regular mechanical pencils, Sakura Micron pens or brush pens, and Prismacolor markers. Once in a while, I color my cartoons digitally (in Photoshop), but the client has to request it, as I prefer drawing by hand.

What hardware and software do you use?

Nothing special… My computer is nearly four years old, yet it’s still better than most of the ones out there. I just bought a basic tower which was made for businesses (so it didn’t have all the useless games and pre-installed applications), then improved its RAM and several other components. As for software, I use Photoshop CS2, primarily.

From where so you draw your inspiration?

(Good job on the pun, Matt!)

Matt: Yep - I’m even funny when I don’t mean to be. I probably should be a cartoonist or something…;)

Reading (New Yorker, newspapers, etc.), conversations with friends, and every-day occurrences.

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

My dad always supported my interest in cartooning, and he’s always glad to give me advice and suggestions. As far as books go, Glasbergen’s book is the only one I’ve read on this subject, so I don’t have much of a selection to answer this question from.

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

“Act like a professional, and soon you won’t have to.” Nobody told me that, but I derived it from reading about how if you believe in something for long enough, it’ll come true. So the way I looked at it is if you act like a professional and do things in a professional manner, you’ll become one soon enough. If you keep acting like a beginner and think “Well I’m just starting out, so I can take it easy and relax, and not take this so serious,” then you’ll be stuck at that stage for a long time.

The worst advice I’ve been given was from a younger friend, who said, “You’re so busy all the time. You should live like you don’t know where you’ll have your meal the next day.” In other words, he suggested I live day-to-day and not worry about the future or bother to plan things out.

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

Take out my notebook of gag ideas and see which ones I haven’t used yet. Do a couple of sketches to decide how I’m going to portray the gag in a cartoon, as well as the composition. Draw it in pencil, then ink it with a brush pen. Take out a set of gray Prismacolors (I like the warm gray set), and color it.

Once it’s dry (and I’ve erased the pencil lines), I scan it at 300dpi. I add a caption in Photoshop and resize it. Then I save each cartoon twice: One version for printing (300dpi, 6″ width), and the other for web (72dpi, 400px width).

And finally, I upload the web version onto my custom-made cartoon database, which automatically stores it, gives it an ID number, and sorts it by topics. (I’m currently writing a multi-part tutorial on making your own cartoon database, and soon I plan to release a ready-made database system for all cartoonists to use).

How long does it generally take to create one piece?

About 30 minutes.

What do you find the hardest to draw?

Animals (except snakes… they’re pretty easy).

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

They like it and support me. My friends always ask for free cartoons.

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

Being paid for drawing cartoons. Also, chicks dig it.

Anything else you’d like to say….

Just keep your eyes and ears open all the time. I once had a teacher who always had an interesting story to tell every day. One of my classmates once asked him how he knows so many stories, to which my teacher answered, “Interesting things happen around us all the time… It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open and realizing that they’re happening.” You’ll never run out of ideas for cartoons if you just keep your eyes peeled.

Matt: Sounds like a great teacher!

Thanks to Greg for being this weeks Friday Feature Artist. If you’d like to feature here one Friday, send me an email and we’ll take it from there!