R. Sikoryak visited CCS this week, and I literally just stepped out of our Visiting Artists Seminar class. He had a lot of very interesting things to say about parody and dealing with copyright, but the most telling of what he had to talk about was in regards to cartooning in this modern, often foggy economy.
Having been working as an illustrator now for over 20 years, he’s seen highs and lows in publishing both in comics and magazines, where most illustrators and cartoonists found work since the dawn of publishing. He’s recently found himself working more and more in animation, having been featured on The Daily Show with John Stewart a few years back, and it’s been a steady money maker and fun creative outlet for him.
With the explosion of web comics since 2000, I find a lot of the more accomplished cartoonists like Spike and Meredith Gran, have a background in animation to some extent, be it working in the field or formal education. As I’m in my last semester here at CCS, I often find myself wondering just what I’m going to do after graduation, and many signs are pointing to exploring animation further.
I’ve got a good head start, however, as I’m currently doing some storyboard-ish key-frames for my good buddy Mazedude’s web design company, for a client of his. It’s fast and fun, and it lets me play a lot very quickly with layouts. I hope it will lead to more of such work in the future!
-RD
