Visiting Artist - Alec Longstreth

The Visiting Artist today was my hero and my Thesis Advisor - Alec Longstreth! Alec is just vibrating with energy and ideas and I do think he crammed about four hours of instruction into a mere two hours.

The Fireman came to class with me today and even HE was highly entertained and engaged by the lecture. It was actually the perfect class for him to sit in on as Alec summed up pretty much everything someone needed to know about cartooning, Comic History, and the life of a professional cartoonist.

I am sure this will help our relationship... I know I can be a bit... intense... and at times... more than a little overwhelming. So for the Fireman to see Alec in real life... it really puts ME in perspective. (ha ha!) But it was also good for him to see why Alec is the perfect Advisor for me and WHY I push myself SO hard to do the best work I possibly can.

All of you who backed my Kickstarters (thank you again!!) will be happy to know that Alec will accept nothing less than perfection for the Thesis comics!!

Alec even found time to have everyone do a quick exercise to emphasize his point about working SMALLER, faster and using less detail. He had us draw the same figure in smaller and smaller boxes with shorter amounts of time for each one...

His current projects include taking care of his baby daughter and working on a very cool online comic - with dragons! - called ISLE of ELSI. Kid-friendly.

For bizarre amusement, take a look at his video - The Basewood Beard. Alec didn't shave or cut his hair and beard for three years - until he was finished with his graphic novel, Basewood!