Artist Study: Cameron Stewart

This week we have answers from dear Cameron Stewart all the way from Canada. A sassy comic book artist, here to share his wisdom. As first order, he states that developing skills and the best media to fit said skills is simple, yet time consuming; “a matter of practice and experiment.” Cameron went on to quote the famous Chuck Jones by saying that you have 10,000 terrible drawings in you, and you have to get them all out on paper before you can get to the good ones. Although I’ve already heard this quote many times and in fact considered taping it to my wall, yet decided against it as to not fall prey to being a cliche, I strongly agree and think that everyone should hear it. You’re all smart people ( I hope) and are certainly capable of picking this quote apart by yourselves, but to make a point and maybe save a few of your precious seconds, I will do it for you! Of course we aren’t going to wake up one day and be amazing artists, and it does feel like forever getting to that point where you feel you’ve reached success (at least for me anyway, and I’m STILL not there!) this quote gives you, or me at least, hope for the future. There have been countless times where I have been completely fed up with all my crappy sketches yet find some hope thinking, only 9,875 more crappy pieces of art until i don’t totally suck any more! I actually don’t keep track, that would be a mess but you get what I mean. Now that I’ve rambled for a good solid 10 lines or so, back to Cameron!!

    As many other artists have noted, the best way to develop your skills and assert yourself as an artist is to practice your butt off! It really does pay off. The second piece of advice is to follow deadlines, NEVER work for free, and to seek professional jobs which might be more stable in a sense. Instability in an art career is different for anyone. Cameron has been fortunate in finding a job where he doesn’t have to worry about that too much, although he does recommend not biting off more than you can chew, understanding your abilities and how you work best, keeping a consistent quality, delivery, and finally budgeting accordingly.

    After high school ,Cameron decided to try his luck in a workforce. This allowed him to do his art independently, focus on the points he wanted to learn to improve his art, and learn the discipline to hold down a “real” job. Since he started as an artist, his focus has remained on comics with the exception of technical practice and drifting away from Marvel/ DC to more personal and independent comics.

    As one of the FIRST artists to understand what I mean by this question, Cam, his new unauthorized nickname, advises youngsters everywhere to find inspiration and to expose themselves to as much of the world as possible(... wait, what?). Let me rephrase that... meet people, experience the world, try new things,read, travel, watch, listen, write! Well, maybe not write... but find inspiration! It DOES exist! Go find it... now. Go!

    Although not all of us can be as motivated as Mister Stewart, who varies from working 10 hours a day uninterrupted to “jerking around for a couple of hours” and then calling it a day, I always enjoy getting such varied answers from this question. Cameron cites the internet and various social media sites as a good way to spread art around. If its good, it will get noticed, therefore, make good art because “the best stuff gets noticed.” as other artists, Cam tells me that working hard is the most important thing; “It's a long road, and you will never actually reach the end, but it can be a very rewarding journey.” As for his most unusual advice, he notes that a good way to meet artists is to simply ask. Look up local artists in the area, find someone whose work you like, and send them an email or invite them to coffee. According to Cameron, this is a great to find people to share some good art talk with.

    Cameron was a very fun person to talk to and I really enjoyed the energy and answers he gave me. Now to clarify, I know that saying “energy” like that makes me sound like a crazy hippie; “that tree is giving off really good energy dude...” but thats not what I meant. I mean more on the lines of; “he sounded like a really nice, good natured person” kind of energy. Now that i've cleared that up, I would give his art three or four stars. I really enjoy his comic book-like style although I prefer his work that is more on the realistic, accurate side.