Jerzy Drozd

Teaching Artist and Cartoonist. He/him. When life is feeling heavy, I enjoy creating and sharing stories of cute heroes showing extraordinary courage.

Thunder Punch Daily 17 – Rotten Fruit

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Today I share a few thoughts about choosing one’s friends carefully, lest you find yourself surrounded by people dismissive of your craft. Spending too much time around disinterested or inert folks can have damaging consequences not only to your self-esteem, but to your creativity. I take a break from talking about Joseph Campbell and use Ayn Rand’s books to illustrate my thesis this time.

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Thunder Punch Daily 16 – The Small Soulful One

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Today I discuss what could be considered a character archetype: The Small Soulful One. Many of us think of characters like Yoda as a good representation of that type, but I explain why I think characters like Paddington Bear and Pippi Longstocking are even better at exploring what makes that kind of character special.

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Thunder Punch Daily 15 – Drawlin’ Mah Letters

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Today I leap off of something Kim Holm mentioned about lettering on a recent A&S Extreme!! I talk about how the principles of line value in illustration are exactly analogous to the way I like to think about lettering. I talk a little inside baseball at the top of this one, discussing how I use Hindenburg Mobile to record the show.

I referred to Art & Story episodes 95 and 79 in this episode, if you want to hear more extensive talk on lettering.

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Thunder Punch Daily 14 – Compassion For Your Characters

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Some more talk about characters and why we might consider using compassion when writing them. It’s my belief that if you treat your characters as human beings, others will respond to them as such. Even if they’re not human. A high ideal in writing is to name your characters’ faults with love, so as not to be a snob, or worse, create characters meant merely to be hissed at by the audience (though that can be fun as well).

Also threw a shout-out to Brandon Dayton’s blog. Some terrific reading on writing there!

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Thunder Punch Daily 13 – My Speech on “Pro-Tips”

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Today I share some thoughts on why I’m generally not a big fan of “Pro-Tips” and how I think Absolutism and Relativism can be reconciled if you think like a compassionate human being. Believe it or not, I think this has a lot to do with cartooning, especially teaching cartooning.

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Thunder Punch Daily 12 – More Steps = Faster Work

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Chris Oatley recently shared a thought in his ArtCast about how you can speed up your illustrations by slowing down and taking more care with your structure. I agree, and today I share a few thoughts about how increasing the amount of passes in my daily sketches makes for faster drawing.

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Thunder Punch Daily 11 – It’s All You

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Today I share some thoughts inspired by a recent TED Talks podcast. A life in the arts is a lonely endeavor without much in the way of visible validation and accolades, but I think that’s ultimately a good thing. And, as you may expect, I cite some cartoons, as well as a few thoughts on the Arthurian Grail quest, to back up my point.

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Thunder Punch Daily 10 – Time Enough At Last

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It’s all about time and time management in today’s Thunder Punch Daily! I share a few time management strategies I’ve used over the years and philosophize a bit about how visualizing time is part of the key to managing it.

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Thunder Punch Daily 09 – Value Your Lines

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Today I talk about four realms of concern I think about when using line value in my illustrations:

  1. Light Source
  2. Contour
  3. Weight
  4. Depth

More lengthy discussions on line values can be found in these past episodes:

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Thunder Punch Daily 08 – The Chase

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The Chase is a terrific go-to option when trying to get the ball rolling with your story. In today’s episode I describe how I’ve used it as a means to quickly introduce readers to characters, and how one can use it as a microcosm of an overall thematic exploration of your characters.

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