stephen mccranie
Hi, my name's Stephen and I draw comics!
I’m sad how tumblr doesn’t let us talk much. Will you follow me on twitter? I’ll follow you back:
https://twitter.com/stephenmccranie
More comic essays like this can be read at:
Here’s a family portrait I was recently commissioned. They like offroading so I worked that in. I like how it turned out!
hey guys, I I’m trying to learn how to paint! so I made a pagoda temple tree thing…
Hey friends! I’ve been practicing a lot lately, and I’m really proud of these drawings because I feel like they show my progress.
I wanted to let you know that I’m opening up commissions— if you have an idea for a piece of art that you’d like to make into a reality, let me know!
What’s your artistic lineage? I want to hear who inspired you— please join me on twitter!
Hey friends! My new graphic novel, Mal and Chad, Belly Flop! comes out this week! I’m running a fun promotion were you can get prizes. I’m especially proud of the paper craft figurines of my characters I made. Please join in if you get chance!
The details of the promotion are here:
http://malandchad.com/make-a-splash-for-belly-flop/
That’s me by the way— doing the belly flop. It’s part of my book trailer of Belly Flop! Check it out here:
Recently, more and more research is coming to light that indicates talent is a matter of time spent practicing, not a matter of innate ability. The idea that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill is increasingly gaining mainstream acceptance. Personally, I’m a big fan of the idea because it gives hope to people who once believed talent to be a gift they had not been given.
Even though this radical idea has massive ramifications for artists, I don’t think it has properly made a debut in the dialogue about what it takes to become a great artist. We are still asking “How do you draw that?” when we should be asking “How do you get yourself to keep drawing for years and years and years?”
I believe making creativity a sustainable practice is one of the most important and difficult issues an artist deals with. My hope is that my website, Doodle Alley, becomes a platform where artists can share their insights about the long journey to mastery, and that my comics become good fuel for thought and discussion.
Thank you for being here!
This essay is easier to understand if you’ve read these previous ones—
On Immersion:
http://doodlealley.com/2012/10/01/taste-is-your-teacher/
On Failure:
http://doodlealley.com/2012/10/10/be-friends-with-failure/
I’m sad how tumblr doesn’t let us talk much. Will you follow me on twitter? I’ll follow you back:
