We recently connected with Nick Poyner and have shared our conversation below.
Nick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I’ve been drawing since I was, I don’t know, five-years-old? I spent most of grade school doodling in my notebooks. The margins were stunning!
But I stopped for years due to some bum advice from a few high school teachers.
Which is too bad because the most essential part of getting better at something is to keep doing it.
So when I started drawing again, it was such a beautiful thing.
I remembered how much I loved doing it.
So I did it over and over and over and over.
That’s the skill I’ve found most useful.
Drawing every day. Trying to write every day. Trying to combine the two everyday.
Even if it never amounts to anything more than getting better at the skill, progress is so clear after one month, one year, three years.
And it’s always crazy to look back on.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Nick Poyner. I’m a cartoonist from Los Angeles.
I’ve been working in television for over ten years.
Those two are, for the most part, unrelated.
I’m most proud of finding my own style.
I would hope when people see my work, it seems like something familiar but a little off and with its own identity.
I want it to seem poppy but also have undertones of something heavier.
Fingers crossed.
I’ve put out a couple comics digitally.
One physically.
Had a couple drawings pop up on HBO.
And another one on a t-shirt in Australia.
I work with colored pencils and acrylics and watercolors. Definitely a lot of digital work
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
It’s two-fold.
On one hand, the mission is and will always be to make cool stuff.
Stuff that I look at and go, “Wow, yeah I like that.”
The feeling when you make something and you actually LIKE the thing you’ve made is rare and so incredible.
The other, more real answer is, what else am I going to do?
I’ve threatened to “stop” so often when I can’t figure out what drives me to keep making things but I always end up coming back. Whether it’s because it’s a outlet or an itch that incessantly needs to be scratched, there isn’t an option to stop.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I recently read Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act: The Way of Being because I saw a bunch of people on Instagram that I respect reading it.
It really makes me WANT to change my philosophy.
He speaks on how art is something you need to do whether or not you get paid.
And that very few people are actually able to financially stabilize their lives with their art.
That would be the dream but, more recently, it’s realizing that having the ability to create anything is the gift.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nickpoyner.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garbagecartoons/?hl=en
- Other: https://books.apple.com/us/author/nick-poyner/id1531373557