Drawn

Hugh MacLeod (more about him here), approaching the 10th anniversary of being “the guy who draws cartoons on the back of business cards,” shares what he’s learned along the way. Here are the first 12 of 45 points:

1. I came up with the format in early December, 1997 in Chicago. I moved to New York about a week and a half later. But the format didn’t really gel till I got to the East Coast, a couple of months later.
2. At last count I had done over 5,000 of them. That was over two years ago.
3. I never really experienced the “One Big Moment”, the Tipping Point etc. The schtick just built up slowly, day by day.
4. When people ask me what I do, I never say, “I’m a cartoonist”. But the other day a friend of mine made a compelling case for me to start doing so. Not sure what to think yet…
5. I never expected the cartoons to get successful.
6. The way most cartoonists make a living utterly horrifies me.
7. Constantly setting new goals, artistic or otherwise, is harder than it looks.
8. Not caring what other people think is harder than it looks. Especially AFTER you get successful.
9. As I get older the temptation to “tone it down” grows stronger every day. I’m glad I still can resist it, most of the time.
10. My favorite cartoonist for the last while has been David Shrigley, long since before he was hired by Hallam Foe to animate the title sequence. I first met him in Glasgow in the early 1990s. He’s a really lovely guy in person.
11. Musicians have always inspired me far more than other cartoonists, with perhaps the exception of Charles Schultz, Saul Steinberg, Ralph Steadman, Ronald Searle and Edward Gorey.
12. Instead of carrying a portfolio around, I just keep a couple of hundred images on my iPod. Seems to work well enough. Luckily my format is well suited to the device.

Don’t miss the link at the bottom either, to Hugh’s first list: How To Be Creative.