Jon's Daily Waddles

I got an e-mail today from a new reader of my comic, stating that Comic #67 particularly spoke to her. She apparently had been struggling with the fact that her originally serious focus on artwork was leaning more towards cartooning in recent times, and it helped her understand that you should first and foremost draw what you love. I felt that the e-mail I sent in response would make a poignant commentary for anyone who ever feels pressured by other people to focus on more detailed, serious work and leave cartoons "to the kiddies," so to speak.

Here's the response I sent back in its entirety:

I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to characters and art in general. You'll run into a lot of people who have a bit of an elitist streak in that they demand the art be "BETTER, MORE REALISTIC, MORE DETAILED!!," but they fail to realize that it's not ABOUT the level of details or realism... it's about the artist simply enjoying what they draw.

Heck, I usually can't stand drawing realism when it comes to people. I love drawing cartoons, so that's what I'm going to spend my time doing. However, I do love drawing backgrounds (nature scenes in particular), and I treat props/buildings/cars with a much deeper sense of realism because... well... that's how I like to draw them! It's just a personal preference, and I've come to realize that people -- especially the elitist online artist crowd -- HATE personal preferences when it comes to one's artistic style.

When I first set out to learn how to draw, I never said "I'm going to be the best artist in the world," and I STILL don't say that even to this day. I know my faults and where my weaknesses lie, and I am always finding new ways to work outside my comfort zone and humble myself when it turns out looking like crap. Yet while I'm constantly working to improve, I still will never stop drawing what I love. If you lose the love for your work, you lose the quality that comes with it, and that is the most important thing.

Keep up with your artistic efforts. Study real life, work outside the box, spread your wings to other genres and experiment to find what you love. Above all, just enjoy everything that you draw and you'll do wonderfully. :)

-Jon P.

I swear, Japanese television beats the living crap out of American TV. Their game shows and variety programs are absolutely hilarious. I swear you'd get sued if you tried some of this stuff in the good ol' USA.

Here are a few clips to browse through, hosted on Youtube. This will give you an idea of the kind of stuff we're missing out on. Instead of these gems, we get "viewer voting" popularity contests and Drew Carey hosting The Price Is Right.

Game Shows:

Human Tetris
Human Tetris 2
Human Tetris 3
Hit in the nuts!! - Recite the tongue twister quickly and clearly. Mess up, and you get a hydraulic slap in the groin.

Prank Shows:

100 vs. 1 - Something I've always wanted to do.
Japanese Bath House
Crazy Taxi
Wake-You-Up!!

God, I wish our TV producers would get more creative. Otherwise I might have to find a Japanese channel to subscribe to via satellite.

Yeah, everyone knows that phrase, and it's times like these that make me believe it to be true.

It took two days for the company I was placed as a temp (in the post right below this one) to tell me they didn't think I was the right man for the job. Two days spent doing their projects -- advertisements, newspaper layouts, data filing -- and telling me my work looked professional to the point where they would actually be using it in their publications. Yet at the end of these two days, they tell me the only reason they're not keeping me as a temp is because I don't have enough design pieces in my portfolio for them to be comfortable enough to give me the job.

They gave me the option to come back in three months and apply for the permanent position, but if they didn't feel confident after seeing a live demonstration of what I can do, how could three months make that much of a difference? At least the guy I worked with was pretty darn cool. For a short two-day work period, I had a lot of fun.

SO ON THE POSITIVE SIDE OF THINGS it does not matter, for I have made a decision. Being sick of the lack of ability to find a regular job in the graphic design field (since I am not a graphic designer, so why would anyone hire me? I slap myself for being so nonsensical) and dreading the inevitability of being forced to work retail, I have decided to do a bit of a 180. Four months out of college with a Bachelor's in Sequential Art doesn't get you all too much when it comes to a steady paycheck. That being said...

I will be returning to SCAD to obtain my Master's Degree in Sequential Art!!!

I'm shooting for a start date of "as soon as freaking possible," just so I can get out of this stagnant rut in which I have found myself trapped in recent months. Aside from getting my comics published, my ultimate dream has been to teach artwork on the college level. Unfortunately for me at this point in time, college professors are required to have a Master's in their respective field (and there's no way in hell I'd teach at a public high school). Plus I have this crazy idea in my head of starting a new Sequential department at an art school in northern Virginia to spread the gospel of comic art as a legitimate profitable medium, especially with the current state of online comics and the marketability therein.

SO YES, I'm going back to school, and I feel like this huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I submitted my application to SCAD about 15 minutes ago and I couldn't be more excited. And yes, Josh, I know you told me to do this MONTHS ago, before I graduated. I'll give you 10 times where I'll let you say "I told you so" when I get back to Savannah before I start slapping you every time I hear it. Ha!

Ladies and gentlemen: I am employed!



I got a call from the temp agency this morning to confirm that I was accepted into the position that I had interviewed for yesterday. Apparently I left a VERY good impression and they want me to start immediately this coming Tuesday at 9 am. It's going to be a working evaluation period (they'll be using the first few days to see what I can do and make sure I'm up to the task), but if all goes well this is a temp-with-option-to-hire position, so I could very well end up becoming a permanent employee with the company.

I am SO excited. That place just looked amazing (like a SCAD building, with bits of history in every room) and the people working there were all just so incredibly easy to talk to. The duties and work environment appear to be very low-stress, and since their program of preference is the Adobe Creative Suite (which I'm VERY good with), I know it's going to be a great start for me.

Now I just need to take some time this weekend to go out and buy some new pants!

So I found this on a forum I frequent, and it has sufficiently freaked me out just a bit. Apparently a photo retouching site offers a "Pageant Photo Retouch" option for their customers where they take a picture of your daughter and transform it into a lifeless, plastic mutant.

http://www.naturalbeautiescontest.homestead.com/retouch4a.html

Basically this is a service where people can turn their daughters into porcelain dolls. I swear, this has "horror movie" written all over it.

...love finds you. That's what I was always told, but I never really believed it to actually be true until now.

I just needed to put down in words how much I've fallen for a girl recently. Her name's Whitney, and she's getting ready to start her time down at SCAD as an entry-level freshman. She found me randomly through Yahoo while searching for screen names of people who went to SCAD. A couple of interesting coincidences in our fateful meeting online:

1) I never keep Yahoo on most of the time, but I happened to have it online that night.
2) When she did a search for SCAD, through some odd glitch in the system, I was the ONLY person who came back from the search results.
3) Through our conversation we found out we're both from the same general area of Virginia. It's really only a few hours' drive between my house and hers, and considering that I'm already used to the 10-hour drive between here and Savannah, it really won't be a problem for me to spend time with her whenever she's home.

I really could go on for pages about why I've fallen for her as deeply as I have. Imagine a girl who is everything you could ever want in someone, and then double it. Now you're getting closer.

The thing that really strikes me as interesting about the whole thing is how I swore, up and down, for YEARS that I would NEVER get involved with someone over a distance. The only way I could ever allow myself to fall for someone is if they were local, to where I could easily see them at a moment's notice and not have to order plane tickets to do so... and yet I find myself with an insatiable desire to do anything it takes to keep Whitney in my life. It's pretty amazing how quickly something like this can turn you around.

I'll be taking a trip down to Savannah, hopefully in September (October at the latest, depending on flight availability), solely for the reason of spending a single day with her. I'll hopefully be starting a new job soon, and I've even got a book coming out that I'm working my ass off to actually have finished within the next month... and even with all of that going on, I'm more than willing to give an entire weekend just for one day with her.

I'm in love. I'm potentially employed. Life is good. :)

So I just got back from the job interview a little bit ago (which went very well, by the way), and after making myself a quick lunch, I decided to fry a few more brain cells on some early afternoon gaming.

Now to anyone who knows me at all, I'm what you'd call a lifetime gamer. I've been playing games since the Colecovision. Up until a few years ago I could proudly claim ownership of almost every console released over the past 20 years. Sadly I sold the majority of my collection over eBay to cover student loan costs, but I kept the three systems I played regularly: PS2, XBox and Gamecube. In the following year or so I traded in two of them for the next-gen counterparts (a 360 and Wii), but the PS2 remains intact. Why? Because PS3 is ridiculous. But I digress.

Since Tuesday I have been living and breathing Metroid Prime 3. It's amazing what they've managed to accomplish with the control scheme. It took only a minute or so of practice to really get the feel for how the game moves and plays. All of the reviews are totally accurate: it really is the best FPS control scheme on a console to date, and it seriously does rival a keyboard/mouse configuration. Hard to believe, but true.

So dipping a bit further into the madness that is Metroid, I had come across an interesting bit of information the other day. The only way this will mean anything to you is if you're really a hardcore Metroid fan, so forgive me if this comes off as sounding a bit fanboyish (although I will gladly admit my fanboy status when it comes to Metroid).

The Story Goes as Follows (copy and pasted from a forum post I made on this subject a few days ago):

Back in 2005, IGN (and other news sources) were able to obtain a leaked internal document from Nintendo that listed several DS titles which have since been officially announced and released, including Super Princess Peach amongst others. One, however, has never been officially confirmed by Nintendo (and has, in fact, been DENIED to exist by the Big N itself):

Metroid Dread.

Featuring a completely new story exclusively built for the DS, this game was rumored to be a classic throwback to the 2D Super Metroid-style gameplay. Speculation claimed that it would be the next big chapter in the series, following directly after Super Metroid (the Prime series actually takes place between Metroid 2 and Super Metroid, with Fusion following shortly behind). Unfortunately after the list was leaked, the game was NEVER officially mentioned, and has since become nothing more but a churn of the rumor mill and a dream of the fanbase.

... until now.

In Metroid Prime 3, you find computer monitors and database elements that are all able to be scanned to read bits of storyline and lore from the game world (not that this is any different from the previous Prime games). However, on one planet in particular, there is a lab you discover where, tucked away in the corner, there is a single monitor that reads the following:

"Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion."

Is this potentially the largest case of breaking the 4th wall in gaming history? Did Nintendo just officially confirm, for the first time ever, the next true sequel to Super Metroid via a hidden monitor within Metroid Prime 3?

If this is true, then Nintendo is playing its cards SO damn well this generation.

Now if you'll excuse me, Samus is calling my name from the living room.

My first true post. Oh boy. Here's just a quick recap of the last week or so, leading up to today's developments:

Two weeks ago: I called up a few temp agencies and forwarded my resume/portfolio to them for recruiting as a graphic designer. Heard back from one, never heard back from the other.
Last Friday: I call up the agency that I hadn't heard anything from yet, and they say they never got my e-mail. I resend it and it goes through that time (they make sure). They schedule me for an interview at 9 am on Monday.
Monday: The office is in NW Washington DC. Luckily it's right across the street from a metro station, so it's an easy trip. I make it there a good 20 minutes early, waking up at an ungodly hour in order to do so (for me, anyway, considering my current sleep regime). They put me through the grinder, testing me four different times on my proficiencies in Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and HTML. I pass with pretty darn good scores (better than I thought I was going to do on a few of them, to be honest). My interview person tells me that I'll be getting a call from them either later that day or Tuesday to confirm my first potential job placement through them. I feel pretty good.
Today (Wednesday): I get a call from someone else in their office, waking me up. She tells me that there is an immediate opening in an advertising agency near my house, and wants to know if I'll be available tomorrow for an interview at their office at 9:30 am. Of course I accept it, and the obligatory pre-interview nervousness starts to worm its way into my confidence.

There are a couple things I have to wonder, though... like why has every single one of my potential job interviews taken place within a block of each other in NW DC? Am I just destined for a DC commute, but just haven't happened to walk into the right building yet? Also, is there an unwritten law that prevents people from scheduling job interviews any later than 10 in the morning?

Ahh well. I'll make a post in the early afternoon tomorrow saying how it went. I'm really happy with how quickly this agency is working to help me find a job. It's nice to finally have some help in that area.

I used to be a member of Livejournal earlier last year, when I made what I originally intended to be a daily sketch blog. I didn't get very far with it, and ultimately found the Livejournal system to be a bit of a hassle to get through, so I ended up moving the whole thing over to my own webspace on JonPonikvar.com. What started off as a continuation of the daily sketch idea has becoming nothing more than a repository for my online artwork, more of a portfolio to show potential employers than a personal blog space. As such, I figured it was time to renew my Livejournal presence and make a place where I can just type away on random subjects and vent about stuff I find interesting.

I'm leaving it open to anyone (no "friends only" permissions here), so go ahead and leave comments if you feel so inclined. Or not, doesn't matter to me, this is just for me to have a place to type absentmindedly whenever I have a free moment.

I also might post a sketch or two, since I consider this to be much more casual than my portfolio blog. We'll see.