It Has Nothing To Do With Talent: The Daily Routine That Will Transformed Your Creative Process

Plus: Vomit Drafts, Salty Tears, And The Winner Of The Batman 'Caption This' Contest!

Virginia Is For (Movie) Lovers

I want to send a huge thank you to RIFF for selecting my short film, FLY. It’s an honor to screen at their festival, and I’m beyond grateful.

If you want to see FLY and live in the Richmond area, here’s your chance. It’s screening this Saturday, Sep 30th, at 1:45 p.m. @ Bowtie Movieland Theater 15, 1301 N Arthur Ashe Blvd, Richmond, VA 23230. You can reserve your seat for FLY here, but I recommend checking out as many of the festival's movies as possible. They’re all wonderful!

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Let’s start today with a never-before-seen sketch from The Joe Quesada Ultimate Fan Experience (say it with me, “Not a tribute band”) FanExpo Philadelphia 2023 tour.

Twenty-four years at Marvel, and I believe this is the first time I’ve ever drawn Magik.

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Warming Up In The Bullpen

When I do convention panels or any public speaking, there’s one question that I’m asked more than any other.

“What’s The One Piece Of Advice You’d Give Young Creators?”

My answer is always the same. Whatever your chosen discipline, you HAVE to do it…

Every.

Single.

Day.

Let’s say you dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. What would you do to reach that goal, and what would it take to stay there once you’ve achieved it? The answer is obvious: Every day, you’d be taking batting practice and infield drills, shagging flies, hitting the weight room, and doing everything and anything possible to take what talent you have to peak performance.¹

You want to be a professional writer or artist? All of the above applies. Well, not shagging flies because that would be dumb, but you know what I mean. Writers write, artists draw, actors act, and so on.

The world is littered with people who want to be professional creatives but don’t work out the muscles necessary and are somehow surprised that they can’t catch that break. Yes, talent has something to do with it, but it’s not the most essential factor. Most important is a desire to improve incrementally every day, regardless of your talent level. Be curious and humble, and continuously study ways to master your craft.²

It’s in the doing.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to have a finished product or it has to be anything anyone sees. Nor do I say this without understanding that there are some days when life gets in the way. But that can’t be an excuse or a habit. Make time to write and or draw something every day. A journal entry, creative email responses, a doodle on a napkin, or a quick study in a sketchbook. Just don’t let a day go by where you don’t keep at it.

There’s also an addendum to this bit of advice. Creative skills are not like riding a bicycle. Use it or lose it. I can attest to this.

There were times during my tenure as Editor in Chief and Chief Creative Officer at Marvel, due to a crazy travel schedule and the grind of helping rebuild and run a publishing and entertainment division, I couldn’t draw or write creatively for weeks, sometimes months. Each time I managed to work my way back to the proverbial drawing board, I was disappointed with the results and surprised that between the time I stopped and restarted, what was once easy was suddenly much more challenging. After having that experience several times, I vowed never to let it happen again.

This is why every morning before starting my day (7:00–8:00 a.m.), I take a few minutes to doodle something to get myself warmed up. Then, before shutting it down for the night (12:00–1:00 a.m.), I’ll tighten up that drawing in ink. It’s an excellent Zen-like way to wind down and end my day. Most often, these doodles are just anatomy studies or mindless scribbles. But sometimes, they’re with a purpose. For example, I know that in the coming months, I’ll be working on an exciting project, and one of the supporting characters will be a raven-haired man and a woman who may or may not be a romantic interest. So, these sketches are my concept vomit drafts.

Four mornings worth of warm-ups.

I’m pretty sure that the final characters will look nothing like these warm-up sketches… or, I don’t know, maybe they will. Only time and future vomit drafts will tell. In the immortal words of The Boss, “That’s where the fun is.

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Congratulations!

The winner of the Batman Cover Caption Contest is Brian Wisniewski with, “This wasn’t the first time Alfred caught Batman playing with his lil’ Joker in the Batcave.”

But because it was so close, and Brian and I go way back to the Event Comics message board days (I don’t want to be accused of shenanigans), Joey Gantner, who thought up this gem, “When the edibles hit.” will also walk away with a super rare, signed, and remarked Captain America #750 variant cover!³

A big thanks to everyone who entered, and though there’s reason to be jealous of Brian and Joey, you’ll have more chances because I’ll be announcing a new contest shortly.

See, subscribing to Drawing The Line Somewhere has its benefits.

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If You Would Indulge Me…

I’d like to talk about my daughter for a moment.

The photo below was taken 20 years ago in my office at Marvel. It was the first time that Carlie sat and drew alongside me. Afterward, it became a regular ritual at home. Carlie would look over the edge of my drafting table, sidle up next to me, and try to copy what I was drawing.

I don’t think I have to tell you how my heart swelled every time she did this, but as she grew older, her drafting table visits became less frequent, and I noticed a look on her face that was all too familiar. It was the same one I had when I was her age, struggling to draw a house in the snow like John Gnagy, a face like Norman Rockwell, a horse like Frederic Remington, or that damn beagle! It didn’t matter that I was a kid, and it’s precisely because I was that I couldn't comprehend the decades of experience that these artists had and the countless layouts, sketches, and ideas discarded before arriving at the finished product. In my child’s mind, and having zero context, a professional artist would simply put pencil to paper, and a perfect finished piece would appear like magic. However, my reality consisted of drawing the line somewhere, erasing it, redrawing it, and erasing it again until I grew so frustrated that I would throw it away, sure that I would never be good enough to be a professional and vowing never to draw again,

Then, one day, she asked me to show her how to draw hands. Let me preface this by saying hands are hard, and I was ill-equipped to teach a four-year-old how to do it. But I tried, and as she struggled to follow along, she grew increasingly upset and so angry at herself that she crumpled up her paper and ran out of my studio.

I knew exactly what she was feeling. I tried to calm her down by telling her that I had felt the same way when I was her age, comparing myself to Rockwell and Remington. But what I failed to see was that this feeling was tenfold for her. Her point of reference wasn’t an artist from a bygone era. It was her dad. Even at that age, she knew that if she ever became a professional artist, the weight of her last name would always color the appraisal of her work, and that was taking all the fun out of it. She had talent, but she knew right then and there that she didn’t want to do what her father was best known for.

We never drew together again.

So why am I telling you this sad story?

That decision led her down the road where she discovered her unique talents. And today, she boarded a plane to London, where she’s been offered an unexpected opportunity to study her craft.

Nothing I can write here will adequately express how much I’m going to miss her, so I’ll save you the hackneyed balladry and myself the embarrassment of having to pretend it’s just my allergies as I dry off my keyboard! But like the day she first sat next to me at the drawing board, my heart is swelling with pride.

“I May Not Have Gone Where I Intended To Go, But I Think I May Have Ended Up Where I Intended To Be.” – Douglas Adams

Thanks for reading.

You’re Amazing!

JQ

1.  Yes, I dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but a stunning lack of talent callously thwarted it.

2. Why “humble”? My dad always said, “Never get in a car with someone who thinks they’re a great driver.”

3. Gents, I’ll reach out shortly to you to find out what you would like your remark to be and where to ship your winnings.