Thread by @steve_lieber

THREAD time! No one here will be surprised to learn that mentorship & teaching are obsessions of mine, so here are some things I've learned about working w/ emerging artists. (At @HelioscopePDX, I spend a lot of time w/new cartoonists, so my examples below are drawn from there.)

To start: KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO

Different artists have different needs. Some artists thrive on harsh criticism and direct feedback. Andre’s path for getting better might only require helping him identify problems in his work and eliminating them.

The more time you spend pointing out where things on a page aren't working, the quicker he'll progress. Mentoring Andre, you can be a diagnostician! Just start identifying symptoms & prescribing treatments.

Barb might come to you with tons of raw talent, but burdened with self-doubt, unsure if she's got the right stuff. Mentoring Barb, your job is as much about reassurance as advising. You need to balance praise and correction & be generous w/encouragement.

Cara has already accumulated solid professional skills: She can tell a story & produce clear, engaging pages. A good mentor for Cara will want to split their mentor time between business & art. A new cartoonist will have a thousand questions about how business works. For example:

•How do I do taxes?
•Where can I find a lawyer who understands publishing and IP?
•Where can I find a lawyer
•How do I maintain a useful online identity?
•How do you get a table at a con?
•Is this con right for me?
•What do I do if I don't have a contract from a client?

•What if I don't like a contract?
•What if I can't produce on the schedule I agreed to?
•I'm not getting along w/my collaborator.

So many questions. Been a working pro? You don't know how much you know. Your experience can help Cara avoid many pitfalls.

That said: DON'T INFO DUMP
You might have an understanding of color-theory that rivals Titian, but don't drop a whole textbook on someone when they're struggling with getting the colors for a scene to work. Just show them how to do that one thing.

I got this one wrong a lot in my early years as a mentor. I'd info-dump like crazy.

Since then, I've learned that the things I teach *that really get retained* are the lessons that solve an immediate and painful problem.

”But I could tell them lots more about the subject! They're going to need it!"

Great. But if you tell it all now, they're not going to retain it. Hold back. If it's really important, it'll come up again. Share that tidbit at the moment they need it. They'll learn it for life.

BE AWARE OF YOUR BLIND SPOTS I know a lot about making comics & working in my slice of the industry, but I don't know everything.
I'm ignorant of trends and tropes in Manga & BD. I'm a line artist, so my color is…functional, I guess. My eye for fashion is fucking tragic.

There are people, publishers, situations w/which I'm completely unfamiliar. Tech I've never tried. Contract clauses I've never seen.
It's okay to say "I don't know." Maybe you know someone who does. You can perform an important task for a mentor: expanding your mentee's network.

If you HAVE to give an answer on the spot, hedge your bets. Put aside your usual surety & frame your observations as being based on general principles rather than specific knowledge. You might be wrong at that moment, but at least you'll still be communicating something of value.

SHOW, DON'T TELL One of the best ways I've found to foster an artist's development is exposing them to the right influence at the right time. All the instricution in the world isn't as effective as seeing how the lesson they need plays out in actual use.

Dave has a killer work ethic & spectacular drafting skills, but doesn't know when to stop crowding panels or how to organize that detail effectively. Show him work by an artist w/a similar skill-set &inclinations and let him see the strategies deployed to control all that detail.

TAILOR YOUR ADVICE TO THEIR NEEDS, NOT YOURS
Sometimes what worked for you is the exact opposite of what another artist needs. My own work has benefited immensely from shooting photo reference. It would be very easy to follow that by telling every mentee to work from photos.

That would be a bad idea.

For many artists, the right path is steering away from representational reality into greater levels of abstraction and stylization.

Maybe your path as a horror artist has led you to increasingly wild page layouts & panel compositions. That approach won't be helpful to a mentee working on a deadpan comedy. Ask questions! Understand what they're doing so you have better context for their problems.

ACCEPT THAT THE RELATIONSHIP WILL CHANGE OVER TIME
Your relationship won't be static. They'll learn, and before long your student will be your peer. You'll find they have valuable things to teach you.

Thanks for reading!