Episode Details

Our first mailbag episode! Lee, Will, and Jake will be answering questions that people in the forums have been asking; there are lots of great questions, some fun questions, tons of insightful answers, and even some differing opinions.

Link SVS Forum
Check out the SVS forums. You do not have to be a subscriber to participate in the forums. It’s a safe space with a super helpful community, where you can post questions or your work (anywhere from sketches to finished painting) and get feedback from the SVS community.

Q: Where do we (Will Jake and Lee) see themselves in ten years? 4:00

Having a 10 year plan is advantageous. It allows you to have direction. You can even have a 1, 2, 5, and 10 year plan (Jake likes to do this). It’s best to make your plans project focused. Make sure that in those plans you are planning big projects. Maybe it is a project every year, or every two years.

Some people get so involved with just one big project and they noodle at it and go back and forth and keep going back and fixing things as they improve and they can end up spending 10 years on a single project with no finished product to show for it. Try to apply the concept “finished not perfect”.
Jake’s Finished Not Perfect YouTube

Making an actual plan helps you get the things done as you work to advance your career.

Jakes 10 Year Plan: 10 children’s books finished and 5 more graphic novels drawn. He also wants to see where he can take some of those projects and see if they can advance to another form whether it’s a movie, video game, or TV show.

Will’s 10 Year Plan: Has matured to the point where he really values the projects he is working on, more than just pumping them out.
Has gotten Bonnepart Falls Apart out and he wants to get the next book out and see if they can keep this series going.

Will Terry Bonnepart Falls Apart

WIll loves teaching and organizing concrete information to help students, where sometimes in college you get bits and pieces of the content. Over the next 10 years he’s going to be trying to create provide a solid curriculum and sees himself doing this within the next couple years. He also wants to start writing and illustrating and getting his own books out.

Lee’s 10 Year Plan: Wants to start focusing on the quality and the meaning behind the work and slow down. He enjoys writing books and creating content for the illustrations. He wants to be writing in 10 years and writing his own books, maybe 1 book per year. Also, loves the freedom that comes with online teaching and wants to try to teach 2 classes a year and recruit other teachers. SVS allows Lee to create the classes he thinks will be valuable.
SVS Learn Website

While Jake, Will, and Lee, matured in their career they came to realize what work became fulfilling to them. Focus on meaning and quality. Consider the questions: what does your ideal day look like and what brings value to you?

Q: How to do get ready for a Comic Cons or Art Fair? 14:03

Big question! We are thinking of creating a class to go over this, because all three have done these events and gone through mistakes and have a lot to share.

There are a lot of principles to learn. Here is one:
Start small- go to a convention. Start observing and go into research and development mode.
You want to reverse engineer the convention. Ask yourself:

Which tables are you afraid to walk up to, and why? Which tables do have no problem approaching, and why? What made you attracted to a booth? what made you stop in your tracks? Why did you buy from this person? These are the things to consider.

You can approach people a