Friday Feature Artist: Steven Smith
Published by Matt Glover July 20th, 2007 in Feature Artist
NAME: Clangnuts/Clang/Steven Smith
AGE: 36
LOCATION: Bedfordshire, UK
SITE URL: www.clangnuts.com
How long have you been drawing cartoons?
Since I was about 8, with a huge break for 15 years in between. Started drawing again April 2006
What made you start to think more seriously about making some money out of it?
Hatred for my day job!
Have you done any formal training? If so, what and where?
No formal training. Did art at school which I failed miserably (cartoons are not art apparently)
Where was your first cartoon published?
POOT Comic, which went bankrupt 1 issue later! (not my fault, honest).
What materials do you use to create your work?
Cheap printer paper, cheap pencils, Pentel Brush Pen, Rotring Tech pens.
What hardware and software do you use?
Creaky old laptop computer (Windows XP), Canon Scanner, Photoshop (for coloring and lettering), Fire Fox and Blogger
From where so you draw your inspiration?
Everywhere! Things people say, things I find ridiculous, stupidity (especially my own), weird news stories. My precious notebook with all my random notes.
What are some of the resources you’ve found most helpful?
Google Image search. So useful to find reference pictures for things I’ve never drawn before.
What is the best piece of advice you have EVER been given? The worst?
Best: Keep it simple, make it funny.
Worst: Give up, you’re a failure!
Take us through the process you use to create one of your drawings:
I have a notebook (not a sketch book) which I jot down 100’s of ideas (most of which go nowhere). I rarely draw in this book, just words (captions) mostly. When I stumble upon an idea that I think I can make work, I then draw a pencil draft on A4 copier paper. Sometimes it works straight off, sometimes I might draw the same cartoon 4 or 5 times. I then ink over the pencil with my Pentel Brush Pen, add hatching and small detail with my Rotring pens. I then scan the drawing into the computer, remove the pencil lines with the levels tool, and shade/color and add text. Spell check the text, save in a screen friendly 72dpi, post the image on my webspace and then update my blog.
How long does it generally take to create one piece?
All depends on what I’m drawing. From 30 minutes to 2 hours on average.
What do you find the hardest to draw?
Horses and similar animals.
What do your friends and family think of you being a cartoonist?
They laugh at the cartoons that even I don’t find funny.
What do you think is the best part about being a cartoonist?
Making people laugh.
What has been the standout post on Chewing Pencils for you? Why?
Creating Great Cartoons with your Pencil and Computer. The tip about adjusting levels and not using a pencil erasure will stay with me forever.
Anything else you’d like to say….
I’d just like to thank everyone who has given me good advice and encouragement over the last 15 months.
We didn’t go bankrupt. We just stopped publishing it because people stopped buying it - probably because they realised that it wasn’t very good. Amazing that it took 20-odd issues for them to work it out, really. Don’t remember your cartoon, but I don’t suppose it was any more puerile than ours.
Jon Marks
Former co-editor Poot! Comic
(Now occasional cartoonist for not much money.)
Jon, I bought 6 copies of POOT when you published my first cartoon. Wasn’t that enough?
Since leaving the post above back in August 2007, we’ve actually relaunched the comic! Full details at http://www.pootcomic.com . Contributions from cartoonists welcome.