How Not to Draw a Poster
Ahhh, rejection.
Rejection always brings up a range of emotions and thoughts; plummeting sense of self-worth, frantic doubting of one’s abilities and knowledge, questioning the critical worth of the rejector, elaborate revenge scenarios, and eventually begrudging (if not cheerful) acceptance.
The Cathedral Village Arts Festival in Regina decided to do something different with their posters this year. They hired two artists to design posters, with the intent of paying the winning artist more money.
Of course, most artists are always convinced that they can catch that delicious-looking carrot being dangled from the end of a fishing rod.
Needless to say, I felt the stinging kiss of rejection with this poster. The theme for this year’s festival is “Doors to the Imagination”.
I assume most people's imaginations look like this
First there was controversy over my use of knock-off cartoon characters. An argument which later turned out to be a non-issue red-herring.
Eventually the CVAF committee decided that they simply didn’t like my poster.
Oh well, you can’t win them all. I haven’t yet seen the poster that was chosen (nor do I know who the other artist is), but my excitement to see it is a perverse mixture of competitiveness and genuine enthusiasm.
Incidentally, the CVAF committee said that they might still want to use my illustration for promotional material (i.e., for the Comic Jam).
I’ll taste that sweet, fresh carrot yet…