校友
’16
你目前是做什么工作的?
我现在是一名全职自由职业者! Right now my bread and butter is a graphic novel I'm working on with Mariko Tamaki (这个夏天，脱脂) for First Second, as well as an upcoming independent project that I can't say much about yet. Those two things make up about 75% of my work week, and the rest gets filled up with whatever smaller projects come along. 我为BOOM公司工作过! 工作室和DC漫画公司, 以及编辑插图, 为漫画和报纸做封面, 自定义screenprints, 等.
What is your favorite thing about your work?
I'm not being at all disingenuous when I say there is next to nothing about my job that I'm not absolutely in love with. 我以画漫画为生, 这本身就是一种奇妙的特权, but the fact that they're comics I believe in and stories I'm proud to be telling is more than I ever could have asked for. I've gotten to collaborate with people whose work means the world to me, 这是我从小就崇拜的, and I feel astonishingly lucky to get to call them colleagues.
Why did you choose your major and what were your major classes like?
I chose MCAD because I had decided very early on that I wanted to do everything I could to try to make this whole comics thing work out, 还有学校的位置, 项目, and facilities seemed like they'd be perfectly in line with what I needed. The biggest gift my major classes gave me was the ability to take my work apart and look at its anatomy to figure out how it works, 为什么它不起作用, and how it can be the best version of itself. There's a degree of fluency in the language of comics that you can only really get from fastidious inspection, 喜剧课程绝对允许这种情况发生.
Did MCAD prepare you for life after graduation?
My professional life right now depends on my ability to balance multiple deadlines with as much grace and accountability as possible, 这是我完全归功于MCAD的技能. I wouldn't be able to do what I do if I hadn't learned how to work efficiently under stress and manage more than one project without losing focus.
Best thing you ever got/saw on the free shelf?
Got: Two little framed portraits of horned owls. Saw: A cartoonishly large box full of ham sandwiches.
How do you find inspiration when you are feeling stuck?
我回到了那些东西(漫画), 书, 电影, anything) that have struck a chord with me in the past and reminded me of what I value in a story or a drawing. That same spark is usually still there and gets me so eager to get to the point where I'm making work that good that I start drawing again, even if there's still some mire to wade through.
当前困扰?
卡莉·雷·杰普森和 冒险区就像其他独立漫画家一样.
What advice do you have for art and design students?
Make the work that you eventually want to be paid to make. 如果漫画是你的目标, 以简短的开头和结尾, self-contained mini that shows off your strengths and interests, and get it in front of as many folks as you can. 申请每一个公约, 保持网站更新, have accounts for yourself and your work across as many social media platforms as you can and use them frequently and with care. Be kind and polite, and focus on making friends rather than networking. Don't judge your journey based on anyone else's; they aren't comparable things and as long as you're drawing, 你在前进.
Where did you intern and can you briefly describe the experience?
I did in an independent mentorship with fellow MCAD grad and high priestess of comics Caitlin Skaalrud ’11! 她帮我创造了, 从脚本到完成, 绑定的书, a twenty-two-page mini comic (the longest I had made to date) over the course of a summer.
你从师徒关系中得到了什么?
I owe my entire working relationship with First Second to the comic I made with Caitlin. 在MCAD大三的时候, I tabled at MoCCA (a comics festival in New York) and sold a copy of that comic to someone that showed it to the woman who is now my editor. 演出结束后她来过我的桌子, 给了我她的邮箱地址, and told me to get in touch with her whenever I was ready to get into the industry. It's a little surreal to think of it in those terms, but some of the best things that have ever happened to me happened as a result of making that comic and showing it to as many people as I could.
离开MCAD后，你的工作有进步吗?
I have probably drawn more pages of comics in the couple months I've been out of school than in the four years I was at MCAD put together (劳拉·迪安 单是265页), and one of the coolest things about drawing is if you do it a lot, you just kind of get better without really realizing you're growing. I can make better work faster now, which is a gratifying combination.
说出你从MCAD得到的最大收获?
我可以选两个吗?? 我选了两个. My work ethic and the community of folks I'm lucky enough to get to call my friends and peers.
