I digest rejection much better since I had to select works myself. I was programming films in festivals, and sometimes I had to "reject" very good movies and select less good ones. Because, very often, we create a program that must have a certain homogeneity, like a DJ would create his set, with a rhythm, a climax... There are many external elements to the work itself in our choices. And the incredible debates that I ever had during the selection commissions, make me admit that we must never forget the part of "personal preferences". Programming, and putting yourself in the place of an editor, is a very good exercise for artists, it allows you to question yourself, but also a certain "letting go". I enjoyed your newsletter~🌻
Thank you! And thank you for that added perspective. I have to remind myself that art isn't a binary good/bad scenario. So much goes into a piece of work being accepted or rejected. You can learn from either, but neither should stop you from moving forward.
It was never clear to me that Bob expected 10 cartoons per week from anyone other than the regular stable of cartoonists. I decided that submitting batches of 10 made sense, though, just to demonstrate that I could hit that kind of output.
Definitely! For me, the stretch of drawing ten a week pushed my creativity. It taught me that you can build the creative muscle. Sometimes my best of the batch was the tenth one. That last idea that came out of nowhere (but really on the backs of the first nine.)
Interesting. I have a somewhat similar thing. I’ll review my old cartoons and ask myself if the caption could be punchier. And that process can lead to me making a completely different cartoon. I’ve had a few times when an editor picked the last cartoon in a submission and it was that one that had been a last minute turbocharged gag revision.
I digest rejection much better since I had to select works myself. I was programming films in festivals, and sometimes I had to "reject" very good movies and select less good ones. Because, very often, we create a program that must have a certain homogeneity, like a DJ would create his set, with a rhythm, a climax... There are many external elements to the work itself in our choices. And the incredible debates that I ever had during the selection commissions, make me admit that we must never forget the part of "personal preferences". Programming, and putting yourself in the place of an editor, is a very good exercise for artists, it allows you to question yourself, but also a certain "letting go". I enjoyed your newsletter~🌻
Thank you! And thank you for that added perspective. I have to remind myself that art isn't a binary good/bad scenario. So much goes into a piece of work being accepted or rejected. You can learn from either, but neither should stop you from moving forward.
Exactly!! Your knees may give you "good knee, bad knee", but not your art!🤭
It was never clear to me that Bob expected 10 cartoons per week from anyone other than the regular stable of cartoonists. I decided that submitting batches of 10 made sense, though, just to demonstrate that I could hit that kind of output.
Definitely! For me, the stretch of drawing ten a week pushed my creativity. It taught me that you can build the creative muscle. Sometimes my best of the batch was the tenth one. That last idea that came out of nowhere (but really on the backs of the first nine.)
Interesting. I have a somewhat similar thing. I’ll review my old cartoons and ask myself if the caption could be punchier. And that process can lead to me making a completely different cartoon. I’ve had a few times when an editor picked the last cartoon in a submission and it was that one that had been a last minute turbocharged gag revision.
Thank you for being so honest about "learning through rejection" - needed to hear this today.
Thanks, and happy to help! I both hate being rejected and love the growth I've made because of it. Sigh.