The Value Of art

Recently an old friend contacted me about helping him with his logo. this got me thinking about how to place a value on art. I'm not talking about the moden art that is completely over priced, and may or may not actually be art. I'm talking about commercial art. I'm talking about a client hiring an artist to create or modify a design for use by a Comercial business.

I left the art department I used to work for because at 28,I was maxed out on the pay scale for any position in the dept. I loved the job, but I could not continue working at the same hourly rate for the next 40 years. I accepted a positsion in the quality department, and then the it dept. What makes these two positions more valuable then that of the graphic Artist? If corporate America places such low value on the job of an artist, how can I justify charging more than $13/hr for any freelance work I do?

I hate the human face

I hate the human face. Not any face in particular, I hate every face. I love art. I love everything artistic. I used to think I had some talent when it came to crating art (see the Legion poster in my earlier post). Then, my computer graphics instructor assigned us a project creating a human face digitally. Mine looked like my children’s kindergarten finger-painting. You know, the first one they attempt that looks like a cross between the remains of a slaughter house, and an ink blot test.

When the project was assigned, I thought “cool, I have never attempted this before”. I like to be challenged when it comes to computer graphics, and I thought I would have a half way decent piece that I wouldn’t mind showing my 10 year old. If I showed him this piece, he would give me the look usually reserved for you teenage kids when you show up to the mall in much too reveling cut-off shorts and a Def Leopard T-shirt stained with mustard and motor oil.

Now, I could blame my results on the fact that I did not have a lot of time to work on the project. I could blame it on a lack of instruction. I could even blame it on my 6 year old computer badly needing an upgrade. The truth of the matter is, I have no skill with drawing people, especially on a computer. The plus side to all of this, besides self awareness, is that I had to do this project while my kids were still young enough that I can tell everyone they did it.

What I Read

Most of what I read online is from either a news source, people I know, or cartoonists. So here is the short list of what I read:

Pinkerton, by Mike Witmer http://www.th3rdworld.com/web-comic/Pinkerton

Pinkerton is one of the most undervalued web comics today. Mike has a great sense of humor that tends to show up in the short blog under every strip as well as in the comic itself. The comment section expands on any topic in the strip and/or blog, and usual veers off into left field and ends up in the loony bin, all the while bringing a smile to your face.

The second most under-appreciated web comic would have to be:
Imagine This, by Lucas Turnbloom http://imaginethiscomic.com/

Like Pinkerton, Imagine This has developed a large group of devotees who make the comments section almost as much fun to read as the comic strip itself.

Sheldon, by Dave Kellett http://www.sheldoncomics.com/ is not quite as under valued. Dave manages to make a living with his web comic, but that has not hindered his ability to create quality material in the strip and in his blog.

Feel free to let me know what quality blogs I might be missing out on.

End of the world

In order to complete an recent project, I had to research the movie "Legion". This is an upcoming survival horror flick in which God sends a legion of Angels to destroy earth. The trailer for this movie stirred within me some deep philosophical thoughts. Thoughts such as "Is humanity in such a state that God would be justified in destroying us?" "How would I fare in a fight against an Angel?" and "Who was lucky enough to impregnate Kate Walsh? But most importantly it got me thinking about "What would I do if the world was about to end?" I would love to say that I would pick up a shotgun and fight 'til the end, but I don't think that would happen. While I never reached an exact answer as to how I would handle the end of the world, I am pretty sure it would involve vodka, video games, Jell-O, and as many Hooters girls as my wife will allow.

Blogging?

I'm a very private person, so I don't know how well this blogging thing is going to work. I have a feeling most of my posts will be about random subjects that pop into my head, and are too bizarre to admit to anyone I actually know. Some might be posted simply for shock value, others might be posted only to meet the requirements of a tech writing class, but I doubt any of them will be truly intimate.