welcome to my twisted dick

Nim Chimpsky.

Fucking monkey pun.

And this is in textbooks, in documentaries, everywhere. And everyone just IGNORES THIS GOD AWFUL PUN cause of how important the experiment was. But

There’s a group of very important genes that determine if your body develops in the right shape/organization… they are called the hedgehog genes, because fruit fly geneticists are all ridiculous.  The different hedgehog genes are all named after different hedgehogs.  And then someone decided to get clever and name one “sonic hedgehog” because this is just what fruitfly geneticists do.

Well sonic hedgehog controls brain development, and now actual doctors are stuck in the position of explaining to grieving parents that their child’s lethal birth defects or life-threatening tumors are caused by a “sonic hedgehog mutation”.

So! Today I want to talk about how I got my job in the casual/social gaming industry and offer some tips for artists who may be struggling to find work. This is by no means a foolproof formula on getting a job, and this is only MY experience and by no means does it apply to everyone and their individual circumstances, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. But these are just some things that worked for me and maybe they will work for others too! (And yeah there are a billion other posts like this one but I never get tired of reading them!)

THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD VERY BAD YEAR AND A HALF BEFORE I GOT MY JOB

I went to a private art school in the Midwest. I got good grades, I made some cool work and great friends, and I graduated with my bachelor’s and 100% confidence that I would get an industry job within 3 months.

I mean, 6 months.

… OK, definitely within a year…

… year and a half…?

… Please?

It was 19 months later when I was finally employed with a full-time industry job.

In that time, I was working a part time job for a whopping $10 an hour (which was considered pretty good for my job/my state). The rest of the time I was doing freelance work (mostly for friends and family, which ranged anywhere from realistic portraits to graphic design, I would accept anything if it involved anything vaguely artistic) and doing commissions on deviantART and FurAffinity.

I learned a lot during these 19 months. I learned about communicating with customers, I learned about marketing yourself and target audiences, I learned about ETAs and taking on too much work and working faster and more efficiently to maximize my earnings per hour.

I applied to every job in the area that I thought would vaguely relate to art. Unfortunately the only real corporate art and design opportunities in my city were product design for a major corporation or small (read, TINY, like under 20 people) animation and design houses, both of which I was massively under-qualified for.

I thought I was hot shit in high school, I thought I was hot shit in college, I thought I was hot shit coming out of college, but nothing in my portfolio was appealing for an employer looking for a product designer and there wasn’t enough experience to be hired by a tiny design house only looking for the best. All of a sudden I wasn’t hot shit anymore. I was just shit.

I grew resentful of my school. Why hadn’t they tried harder to get me a job? Why hadn’t they taught me how to market myself? Why was the animation department so lackluster? It must have been my school’s fault. I went to a terrible school. They were why I was failing.

(To be fair, although I no longer blame my school on my failures, I have a much different view of privatized art schools nowadays. But that’s a different story.)

I quickly fell into depressive spirals. Everything was hard from then on. I knew what I really wanted. I wanted an animation-related job in California like I’d dreamed about as a child. I wanted to work at Disney or Pixar, do storyboards or character designs like everyone else. But that was 2,000 miles away in California, a huge and expensive undertaking. There was no way. Guess I was stuck here.

It was only in fall of 2012 when things started looking up. My outlook on life profoundly when I had made some major changes to my personal life which simultaneously raised my self-confidence and permitted me more time to focus and create.

Not a month after making this life change was I approached by an old classmate of mine. I knew he’d been working in California for about a year (he was brave — he’d moved out there with whatever he could fit in his car, he went to the Animation Collaborative and made connections and did everything I was too scared and hopeless to do at the time). He said there was an opening at his company and that I should apply.

Excited, I looked at the qualifications and — oh. Never mind. I don’t think I’m qualified for this job. He insisted I should try, insisted that he would help and send his bosses my information. At this rate, I figured sure, what the hell. I applied, not expected anything but another rejection letter.

And they responded saying they were interested! A Skype interview was scheduled. Following-up happened. A couple weeks later, I had an offer letter in hand. I was going to California!!

2.5 years later I’m still here. I have new skills, a contact web, new confidence, and new life experiences and that was worth the time I spent waiting for it to happen.

So now I’m seeing people going through the same mess I went through. I remember how much it sucks. And I want to help. Hopefully I CAN help.

KAYCIE’S TIPS AND THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE SEARCHING FOR WORK:

1. PRODUCE WORK — ALWAYS HAVE PROJECTS TO WORK ON. Personal projects show that you have initiative and self-discipline. While I was waiting for my dream job to call, I both finished and promoted my Periodic Table of Elements project. I did freelance. I worked on some comics. I had a strict once-a-week updating schedule for my blog. I entered pieces for gallery shows. I re-did old drawings to see how much I’d changed. Sometimes I just did some fan art because why not? It’s fun!

Always have something to work on! Even if the progress is slow - trust me, I’ve had story ideas stewing around in my head for 10 years without ever putting them on paper. You don’t have to work 8+ hours a day on your project (if you have that kind of time though, great!), a little bit at a time is also very effective. Setting self-deadlines can help, but just make sure they’re reasonable (trust me, you may be dealing with unreasonable deadlines once you do have your Big Job, so take advantage while it lasts!)

BONUS – Try to do projects that you can tangibly hold once you’re done with them, like a book, or a print, or a series of buttons or stickers. Something that can be seen in a context larger than “I drew this to put on the internet”. A reaction to a physical thing is PROFOUNDLY different to a reaction of an image on a computer screen. We see that stuff every day. If we can hold it in our hands, or own a copy of it… it’s much more professional AND much more personal.

2. PRODUCE WORK YOU LOVE — it’s cliche, but focus on what you like to do, even if you don’t think there’s a job for you in that field. An aspiring comic artist might get hired for storyboards. A graphic designer might end up doing UI design. If you produce work you love, it shows. And that’s really the whole point, right?

If you have the option, try new things but don’t drown yourself trying to do something because you think it’s trendy or desirable — best case scenario is that you end up doing that job and eventually resenting it because it’s not what you really wanted to do, but now you’re stuck in that field because that’s all you’re qualified for (i.e., wanting to be an animator but pursuing a career in graphic design — not because you love it, but because it’s less competitive and pays more). Be true to yourself and what you love!

If you don’t know what you want to do yet, that’s OK! (I’ve been at my job for 2.5 years and I still don’t really know what I want to do.) Keep trying new things to find out what you like most!

3. RESEARCH – If you really want a big fancy industry job with health insurance and vacation time, find out what’s out there and plan your attack accordingly. I had no idea that social games were even a remote possibility before I got my job because they didn’t teach us about games in college. It’s the perfect culmination of what I was looking for in a job - animation, illustration, and character design! Find out where your ideal industry “hotspots” are. Figure out where in the country/world those places are and what it would take to get there. Find out if there’s anyone you know that lives there or anyone THEY know that lives there that you could talk to. Your network will build.

But, that leads me to my next point…

4. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE IN THE AREA TO GET THE JOB/BE SUCCESSFUL — there’s this belief in the job industry that you have to be there to get it. While this can sometimes help, THIS IS NOT ALWAYS TRUE. I got a job in CA while I was still in MN. There are many artists out there like me who relocated for their jobs. Faith Erin Hicks doesn’t live in the comics capitol of the world, and yet she’s an incredibly prominent figure in the comics universe (she even wrote a post about this). Technology has blossomed in the past decade, and many preliminary interviews are conducted over phone or Skype.

Honestly, I could have moved out to California and peddled my portfolio around, and maybe I would have ended up like my classmate and gotten a job. But the main reason I didn’t move out to CA because IT’S RIDICULOUS EXPENSIVE. Like, apart from maybe Honolulu and Manhattan, the Bay Area is the most expensive place to live in the entire country. I lived in MN with my mother for over a year for free because I made peanuts, I was paying student loans, and I didn’t want to live in a 5x5 room in a strange state with 4 random strangers. I know not everyone is in my situation and not everyone has the luxuries that I had, but I’m 99% confident that I would have run out of money if I had moved out to the Bay Area without getting my job first. (When in doubt, ask about relocation opportunities! Some companies WILL pay to relocate you!!)

5. USE SOCIAL MEDIA — post your WIPs and finished products! Get a Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, Facebook… if your favorite artists or people you’d want to hire you have an account and are actively using it, get one! Post every day on at least one site. Need topic ideas? Talk about art! Talk about your favorite artists! Feature your friends and have your friends feature you! Talk about things you like that aren’t art! And above all, USE HASHTAGS! Yeah they’re kind of annoying to read and don’t go overboard but they DO HELP!

BONUS! Posting images (instead of just text or links) helps! Twitter especially has this annoying thing where if I share something on it from Instagram, it will post a link to the photo but will not embed the actual photo. Upload the photo separately with the link! Nowadays people scroll past things so quickly you really need to catch their eye right away, so images will help you do that!

BONUS! Beware what you say on social media if you expect professionals to see it. On the one hand, it’s social media and you can say whatever you want, but if you encourage potential employers to view your social media sites (i.e., leave a link to your Twitter in your resume or on your website), you’re inviting them to read everything you’ve ever posted. If I’m scoping someone for a job recommendation and all they post about is how lazy they are and how they should be doing art but they’re too tired, that’s a red flag for me and I’m going to be hesitant to recommend that person. (I also tend to shy away from people who have perpetually negative attitudes, but that’s just me.) Instead, consider getting a “personal” account as well as a “professional” account.

6. DON’T BE A SUCK-UP — we’ve all done it, we all know people who have done it, and some people have been successful doing it. But for the most part, it’s pretty obvious when you’re brown-nosing. Sure, make as many connections and learn and ask as much as you can of peers and elders, but make sure it’s all genuine and not out of desperation. And above all, don’t bribe them with gifts or try to do them favors and expect to get a job recommendation because you were nice to them. Earn their respect by being yourself. It’s OK to show that you’re interested in what they do or where they work and how they got there, but if they say “sorry we don’t have openings right now” or “sorry, we’re looking for someone a little more experienced”, be prepared to tone it down a little or back off for a while.

Remember, a job rec reflects directly on the person doing the recommending. It’s always a bit of a gamble bringing in someone you don’t know or have never worked with before. They want to be sure you’re a good fit, not just in skill set but in personality, or it may reflect badly on them.

7. DEALING WITH REJECTION — Sometimes, you won’t be the right fit. Your work may be good, but sometimes it’s not what an employer is looking for. And that’s OK! Thank them for their consideration and start applying elsewhere.

Don’t be afraid of job postings that require a certain level of experience (except for maybe positions with “senior” in front of it). It’s mainly a tactic used to discourage certain types of applicants. If your work is good, the employer won’t really care if you don’t have 2+ years experience. Remember, you’ll go through training when you enter any new job, so you don’t have to know everything going in!

Though sometimes you may get rejected because you really don’t have enough experience. This is also OK. Thank them for their consideration and keep applying elsewhere. Not all jobs require the same level of experience.

BONUS — Dealing with Gallery Show Rejection — this came up with a friend of mine recently. If you’re applying to a gallery show and you get rejected… do it anyway!! Proceed with the project as if you had gotten in, follow the specs they give, and post it on your own sites and social media. Maybe promote the other show too. Not only does it show that you’re Awesome and Unstoppable, but maybe the gallery show curators will see it and decide hey, maybe they should invite you into the next show…

SIMILARLY! Rejecting Unpaid Work — were you approached with a cool opportunity that you’d LOVE to do but are bothered by the fact that you will not get paid for it? Do it (or something similar to it) yourself! For example, I saw a call for artists for a project that I would have loved to participate in, but it was both unpaid and had a deadline that I wasn’t sure I could achieve. So what did I do? I made my own, separate project. That way I got to set the deadline, I got to sell it, and I didn’t feel any pressure or obligation to get it done. I find that I will do things better and faster if I love to do them rather than if I feel obligated to do them.

(Here is a good post about free labor and why it is bad.)

And MOST IMPORTANTLY…

8. DON’T BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF — being between jobs (especially right before your first big job) can be incredibly stressful, scary, and demoralizing. Some days you will be so full of energy and motivation you feel like you can take on the world, other days you will be practically fetal on your bed crying because you think you suck and you’ll never amount to anything. IT’S OK TO FEEL THESE THINGS. It will suck, it will be hard and painful but IT WILL BE OK. Talk to loved ones, build your support nest, and don’t forget to take time for yourself because you’re working hard and you deserve it.

“Giraffe Soup”

When I started blogging a few years ago, I discovered a gap in our society. There was very little representation of non-binary individuals, particularly in mainstream media. I decided that I could be apart of that representation for our society, and so began my journey as a fashion blogger. Along the way, I came across a few questions…

… Yeah… Just a few questions, hahaha….

The number one question I am asked is “Where do you get your clothes?”

Honestly, I avoid this question because the places I get my clothes are not exactly places anyone would just walk into, unless they had a reason. For example, the outfit above, in the stripped top, this top actually came from the maternity section… You see what I mean?

I didn’t want to keep avoiding this question, but what else to do? Well, with the help of a few friends, we created this…

Everything from cosmetics to clothes in our society seem to have a binary gender associated with them. Why is this? I feel that it is more harmful than it is beneficial. It creates a real internal conflict for someone who is Non-Binary.

That’s what we want to change! We don’t want to change the kind of clothes people like to wear. We don’t want to change the kind of cosmetics someone uses everyday, our goal is to create a shopping experience that encourages self expression to the fullest extent! There are also some other issues that we would like to visit as a brand, such as shoes in a variety of styles & sizes beyond what has been traditionally available.

We have really only just begun, but with the help of my team and lots of hard work, GenderFlux will be more than just a clothing line.

… So that brings me to where I am now.

We ultimately want to create positive change in the world for people like myself, and many others who need a place to shop & be themselves to the fullest extent.

I may have the nerve to shop the maternity section for a slouchy, off the shoulder top, but lets be for real, I can’t recommend that to all of you! I can’t ask so many of you who are just beginning to discover and understand yourself as an individual, to put yourself in a awkward situation like that!

But ultimately, the brands success relies on your willingness to support what myself and my team have spent the last 2 years working on. Everyone involved has volunteered their time, skills and expertise because they believe in the vision for GenderFlux. A total of almost $30,000 has been invested into the brand via services like photo shoots, screen printing, travel expenses and much more, just to get us where we are now…

Now we need your help. Anything you can donate to our crowd funder, even if it is just $1, it will aid us in creating a brand for you that truly goes beyond anything ever traditionally done before.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart…

❤ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/genderflux ❤

So, Netflix announced a while back that they were going to pick up A Series of Unfortunate Events as a tv show (!!!) that would be the entire story, rather than just the beginning, like the 2004 film adaptation. Lots of people were really excited about this !! The book series is really important to a lot of people for a lot of reasons and seeing it adapted visually all the way through is really exciting!

I was hoping that Netflix would also use this as an opportunity to fix some of the problems that were in the film adaptation, which, to remind u, was made twelve entire years ago.

In the film, Jim Carrey was given an ENORMOUS prosthetic hooknose, in order to designate him as the villain character. 

Never, anywhere in these books, is it mentioned that Count Olaf has an enormous hooknose. The illustrator, whose work I otherwise think is very good, chose to give the character this trait. While it’s true that therefore the film did not CREATE hooknosed Olaf, they were perfectly able to make a decision not to do the same thing in their film, and instead they chose to have a gentile wear a Fake Jew Nose. That was a deliberate design choice they made.

Today photos of Neil Patrick Harris in Olaf makeup were released online. When I saw them I immediately felt punched in the gut.

12 full years after the film, Netflix has chosen, again, to designate villainousness with a huge Fake Jew Nose. 

Again, and again, and again, people keep actively making this design choice. 

ASOUE is a book series written by a Jewish man, about strongly Jewish-coded protagonists (they have been confirmed as Jewish by the author in interviews as well). That everyone who visually adapts this story feels the need to make this arbitrary design choice, based on NOTHING that is in the text, is… it’s a punch in the gut! And the face! And additionally, a punch in the centuries of oppression.

Here’s what I want to do: I want to fight back. I want to fill the internet with images of the Baudelaires WITH big hooknoses. Explicitly semitic-looking Baudelaires. A TON OF THEM. Obviously not “offensive stereotype” levels, to clarify (I think this is obvious but it can’t hurt to make sure), but identifiably semitic.

I’m going to start doing this and posting my designs and drawings, and I’d love if other people would join me! I want this to be a positive thing, I want it to be fun and joyous and interactive and I want, most of all, to make a little place on the internet for images in which the Jewish characters in this book written by a Jewish man, look more like Jews than the villain does.

Please feel free to participate in this as much and in whichever ways you want to, and also feel free to participate in reblogging this post and the resulting drawing as much as you like, even if you’re not doing art for it! This is going to be friendly and fun and I hope we can make some connections with each other.

I’m going to be tagging this and all my own drawings with “Jewish Baudelaires Project” && I hope other people will use that tag too so we can all see & share everything!

guy: are you engaged?

 For this year’s Annency animation festival, the students at Gobelins made five 1-minute animations to honor five female animation pioneers.

They’re all phenomenal. If you have five minutes, please watch each of them. Warning: some hit HARD.

Mary Blair (1911-1978)

Worked for Ub Iwerks, MGM, and eventually Disney. Known for creating incredibly vibrant watercolors, which clashed with the studio aesthetic at the time. Disney eventually let her loose, and her aesthetic can be strongly seen in Cinderella, Peter Pan, and especially Alice in Wonderland.

Evelyn Lambart (1914-1999)

Hearing-impaired Canadian animator who worked with Norman McLaren on several pieces that the Canadian government would later declare masterworks. She directed her own films, making her one of the first women in animation to take the director’s chair. She was known for scratching up film stock to create “jazz” like patterns, the sort of thing you’d later see in Fantasia, Donald in Mathmagic Land, and the like.

Lotte Reininger (1899-1981)

German director who created the technique of silhouette animation, preceding Disney by 10 years. Started out making titles for movies and moved on to make her own animated feature, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, in 1926! As for the rest of her career, well - watch the short.

Claire Parker (1906-1981)

Created the “pinscreen” animation technique, where 240,000 tiny metal rods were manually manipulated in and out of a board in order to create an animation – think tweaking pixels by hand. She and she alone owned the patent on it.

Alison de Vere (1927-2001)

One of the first women to work in British animation, and was design director for The Yellow Submarine. She went on to create many animated shorts at a commercial studio, winning prizes for virtually almost every single one of them. She is often credited as Britain’s first female animation auteur.