thecartoondiaryproject: There's a reason they're called roughs.

There’s a reason why I draw like I do. Part of it has to do with talent. But also it’s because I try not to spend that much time drawing a cartoon. I draw like a starving dog eats— even after it’s being fed on a regular basis.

The more time I spend on a drawing the worse it gets. My first rule of cartooning? Do as little harm as possible— that includes on the domestic front, also. So now I know why when I study the history of cartooning, it doesn't seem be a family-friendly profession. Cartoonists make good irracsceable drunks, misanthropic hermits, and eccentric characters. Of course, if your a completely well-adjusted thriving cartoonist, congratulations! But my major enemy isn't chemical, it's temporal. It’s tough to find the time to draw when you’re investing 40 to 50 hours a week on the day job (and probably ten of that on cartoon-related activities.) Plus, two or three hours a night on affairs domestique— family -centric activities (eating tuna-helper, wiping poopy butt, kicking dogs).

So what's left with is a small window of opportunity. Usually it’s in the morning. So I'm not only a morning person, but a morning seether, meaning that I need to wake up in a generally pissed-off frame of mind. ( Imus is best for generating the proper amount of cartoon bile.)

Not that I can exist in such a continual state of active cartoon labor. The only idea that usually comes to me when I'm drawing is "Boy this drawing sucks". Humor seeps in through the cracks of living. I can force it only through achieving a wakeful "dream state" that Professor Mankoff and William James have referred to. Usually the best way to cook an idea is to walk. So I do a lot of cartooning while walking. Drawing is a mess most of the time. So by the time Tuesday morning rolls around, and it's time to send them off into the ether, I have usually spend less than fours hours actually drawing ten cartoons, (less than ten minutes per drawing.) and would not make the claim to have actually have them in a presentable state— like a drunk filled up with coffee. So I simplify. These cartoons aren’t sketchy, they’re distilled.