Pierre Speaks: The Busy World of Richard Scary

The busy world of Richard Scary

That was the first TV series I worked on.

I was hired as a "clean-up artist", but ended up actually doing character design.

I had helped a friend do some in-between and clean-up on the animation of some video clip, and learned from him that they needed someone on Scary.

I applied and got the job.

The show was about 3 weeks behind schedule when I started working on it. It took about a month of hard work to get the show back on schedule.

I was just starting in animation.

Up to that point.... every jobs that I had were just that.... jobs.

Jobs I thought would just pay the bills until I would break into comics. ;)

But then I got sidetracked into animation.

And Scary is where it stopped just being a job and started being a career for me

So I did put a lot of work to try and make a name for myself in animation and to build my career as opposed to just move on from jobs to job.

I tried to learn and improve myself as an artist as much as I could on each project that I have worked on. Sadly I have learned that there is always more to learn, and there is always room for improvement.

Always.

Also, on some projects.... you don't learn/improve as much as you might have originally expected/hoped to.

One of the problem is that.... learning to draw in the style of lets say "Scary", does not improve your own personal style much. It does help a little. It will make you draw stuff that you normally never draw. Cars.... guitars... cats..... whatever.

Although not in your style.

But in the end, to improve your own style.... you HAVE to draw in your own style.

But when you work on an animated production 50, or 60, or heck 80 hrs per week, it does not leave you with much time to draw your own stuff in your own style.

Although even then you do improve at least a little as an artist the more you draw. Drawing 8, 10 or 12 hours a day each day, you cannot help but improve.

But sometimes, just not the way you wish to improve.

In my previous Blog, I mentioned how I would have to turn down some job offers.

In my next Blog, I will mention how I had to turn down to continue working Scary to go work on another project.

Until then. ;)