SnapDragon: Part II

i was working at a medium pace, knowing full-well that i would finish my twenty drawings before the week's end. my style of work has always been that if something is due on wednesday, i'll have it done by tuesday but you won't really have any reason to believe it'll be finished till it is.

needless to say, david was getting a bit nervous about that.

he told me our app was accepted by the techcrunch convention as one of the fifteen start-ups that would launch before the most important of the tech community and, reinstated how big a deal that was. he's a very kind man and i think that was his way of asking me to hurry up or in some way insure him the illustrations would be done as promised.

TechCrunch Disrupt is a three-day, single-track conference and startup competition to immerse you in the debate about what’s changing in technology right now, what’s causing it and what we need to do about it to survive and thrive in real time.

so, to show i was a part of the team and was invested in the product as much as they were, i brought myself and the wacom tablet to the dogpatch labs (self described as "a fraternity for geeks") and saddled up to draw on-site.

when i was younger, i told a girlfriend i had gone down on other girls despite the fact i had never done it and had no idea where to start. the feeling that stirred in my stomach the day i was expected to actually go down on her was similar to the feeling that came about the day i had to draw digitally in front of the snapdragon team.

till that time, i'd been tracing my manual drawings in private. i didn't feel confident that i could draw straight to the computer and certainly not in front of those who were paying.

but i had no choice.

i dilly-dallied all i could and then i gave up and just drew.

and i annihilated-- drawing and coloring sixteen drawings in ten hours without any breaks short of one lunch and three smokes.

for the first time in my life, i felt like i'd actually put myself to work. ten hours of drawing is much more labor-intensive than you'd imagine-- and it felt great. i'd finished more than 3/4 of what was expected to take a week in just one day. it was like hanukkah-- but backwards and more fun.

the following day, feeling confident with my new digital skills, i came in for thirteen hours and finished everything two days before the deadline. "the first time in history someone in the creative field has finished earlier than deadline."

"i have to say, i'm impressed," david said as he drove me home, "your stamina. and i mean, i'm assuming this was done with... little experience drawing digitally?"

"i'll be honest," i said, "i had never done it before-- but i wanted the gig, so i lied."

"my first job here in the u.s," he said, "asked if i knew how to use microsoft access and i said i could. no problem. no idea what it was. but hey, i got the job and got my visa and now i live here. i'm not judging."

"well," i said, "thank you for being understanding. and thank you for forcing me to learn how to use illustrator and the tablet. i would've given up several times over if you weren't paying me."

and who says money will ruin creativity?

i spent the next day drawing the dragon as various famous people. just for fun. ace vendragon, snapbraham lincoln, hunter s. dragon, etc.

also, this was my first attempt at "shading" the dragon.

dead or alive, you're coming with me.

one of the programmers saw me doing this and added a few of my "for fun" doodles to the website before describing my robo-dragon as "by far the most legit dragon you've drawn. it's like a professional illustrator's work." i was a bit surprised by the comment-- it was meant kindly, but felt back-handed and so i replied, "well, i'm being paid so i'd better start looking professional sooner or later."

and that was when i realized i was going to need to raise the stakes and start shading all of my drawings. i needed everyone to see my cartoons as professional or else we would all lose.

david asked me to draw michael arrington (the leader of the techcrunch convention) and i did my best to do so without insulting the man.

from there, it's been a waiting game. the app was launched on monday and received mixed reviews at the convention. though, the only legitimate concern i heard from the judges was a matter of distribution: the fear that snapdragon could not convince consumers to use the app even if it did save them money and present them with bay area comedy and cartoons.

i'm not sure that's something a graph can promise or disprove, but it's a valid point.

that aside, there is something amazing about seeing my cartoon so large and on such an important screen with a panel and a man in a suit and microphone. ironically, this cartoon dragon makes me feel all grown up.

so please go like it on facebook, vote for it on the techcrunch site, and perhaps check out the beta on itunes. all of those things will aide me in continuing as a paid illustrator.

also, in response to my random "snapdragon as ace ventura and others" doodles, i've been given a pretty lengthy list of famous characters they'd like to see him drawn as-- people like lady gaga, homer simpson, and more. feel free to comment with some suggestions and i'll draw them as well. but only if you can prove you've liked, or voted for it first.

WHISKEY TIME.