Every year at comic relief time I try and think of something interesting I can do.
Either I can only come up with something so wildly ambitious that I get overwhelmed, have a little sit down & then forget about it, or I can't think of anything.
Or I get distracted by a shoelace. Or a cat. Or a cat playing with a shoelace.
This year I have quite a good beginning of an idea, but it's still a bit pink and amorphous, and I'd very much appreciate any opinions that can help me solidify it into a nice shiny chitinous, um... giant...pink...ant creature.
The Idea:
I'm going to be doing a sponsored draw. Easy peasy! I draw all the time! My plan is to set aside a relatively impressive amount of time (I thought maybe 12 hours, with a break every hour or two hours, to prevent insanity). That's the only firm bit of the idea - the rest is a bit hazy.
I'm doing doodley drawings - nice simple lines (as is my way) & I'll just sit, draw something, finish it, draw another. Back to back, like.
The vital bit is that I want it to be an online interactive thing. What I'm trying to decide is where the money comes from. The best way, I reckon, is to do a drawing in return for a comic relief donation. Something easily manageable like £1 or even 50p.
There should be a nice easy way to donate to comic relief online - if there's a way to do it with paypal or the like, that would be even better. Then I could draw the picture on receiving a copy of the paypal receipt or some such.
As I go, all the drawings will be uploaded to my flickr and linked on twitter, so anyone who wants to can keep track of it (it's important that it can be followed on twitter, as that's my new toy).
My initial ponder was what does the paying charidee punter get out of it? Seeing as everyone is seeing all the requested pictures & so paying for a picture that isn't even exclusive to them.
Having written all this out, I realise that the request itself is what you pay for. I'll put the name of the requestee on the picture, too, so they can always print it out & frame it beautifully at home (I can save hi-res versions of them all, available on request, for nice printing).
Actually, that works quite nicely. I knew if I wrote it all down I'd be able to make it the right way up in my head. All the same, if you've read this and have any ideas or suggestions, let me know.
I'm particularly interested in opinions on its quality as a fundraising stunt. Would you like to see it? Do you think it's entertaining enough to be of interest to the wide world? What about the price? How likely is it that I'll get snowed under with requests? Is 12 hours enough? Should it be 24, or is it unlikely that I'll live through 24 hours of drawing?
---> You should look at the 24 hour comics project to see what happens when people really do work on a comic for 24 hours straight...
I know greater comic artists have worked that way when necessary (a large part of any art industry is always reliant on red bull & sellotaped-open eyelids), but that would be one of the many reasons they are greater.
Actually, if I promise that EVERYONE who requests during the 12 hours gets a picture, but may not necessarily see it go up in the 12 hours, that should cover it nicely. I'll just keep drawing them until they're all done, but it may not be all in that same 12 hour period.
Any overflows I'll work through the next day doing. Most likely there'll not be overflow, but you never know.
Thanks in advance for any handy suggestions/comments/improvements/praise/polite criticism, girls & boys. I really will appreciate it. Even though, yes, I have pretty much rambled through it all already.
Sometimes that's the way it is with advice - just putting all your ideas down on the page/out in the air can be enough to put things in the right order.
A few roaming thoughts to finish with:
•Requests can be uploaded to my redbubble as t-shirts, maybe for an extra £1/50p
•Always the possibility of celeb requests (which raises the profile of the whole thing & brings in more moneycash - woohoo!)
•If someone likes their picture, I can transfer it to a canvas for them for a canvas-picture price (after the whole 12 hour thing, obviously) & donate that price to comic relief also.
Consider me strokey-chin thinking, until we meet again...
++Edit:
Suggestion from @th3maw on twitter to include a suggested item/object in the picture, rather than put a name in: "would look better and make people feel part of it."
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