We were lucky to catch up with George Pratt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi George, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I think anyone who wants to be an artist has to have a modicum of resilience. Learning to draw and paint was this weird liminal space of extreme happiness and terrible frustration. I learned pretty quickly that in order to continue to get the good feelings I had to suffer through the bad stuff. And yet I always got back on the horse and kept pushing. Resilience or just too stupid to give up?
There was never a question about giving up, though. I knew I wanted to be an artist. Drawings and paintings hit me so deeply as a child, and now. They were a gut punch. They were magical. I was fascinated and energized and wanted to be able to do that.
The rough thing was that at that time there was no real support in the school system for that at all. Art class was a blow off class for people. I really wanted to learn stuff: How to draw people, how to use a dip pen and a brush, how to paint, etc. But it basically fell to me to figure that stuff out. I did that by copying all of my comic book art heroes. Their work taught me how to use a dip pen and a brush, how to draw people, how to tell stories, how to inject drama through lighting, all of that.
I was extremely fortunate that my parents were unbelievably supportive of anything I wanted to do. They liked art a lot. They liked film and books. So I grew up in a very supportive home.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am an artist, writer, photographer and educator. In addition to my personal work I teach full time at Ringling College of Art and Design.
I work pretty much in all media. My drawings, paintings, prints, and books are in galleries and private collections world wide.
I write and illustrate my own graphic novels and have honored to win the Eisner Award for Best Painter, the Speakeasy Award, the France Info Award, the Spectrum Gold Medal and others.
My first graphic novel was “Enemy Ace: War Idyll” which was nominated for the Eisner and Harvey Awards as well as the Yellow Kid award. It was translated into nine languages and was on the Required Reading List at the Westpoint Military Academy.
Other graphic novels: “Batman: Harvest Breed”, “Wolverine: Netsuke”.
I’ve done work for National Geographic, Criterion Collection, Playboy, Bantam Books, Warner Books, Fantagraphics, DC Comics, Vertigo, Marvel Entertainment, Dark Horse, Heavy Metal, Eclipse, Random House, First Second Books, Henry Holt, Mojo Press, and many others.
My documentary film “See You In Hell, Blind Boy” was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the New York International Independent Film Festival in 1999.
I was honored to be included in Walt Reed’s book “The Illustrator in America 1860 – 2000”.
I recently had a show of my Morocco paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and photographs from my two-month sabbatical to that country.
Drawing, painting and photography are always exciting for me. I love being surprised by the work. I try not to plan too much and much rather embrace the serendipity of the work.
In addition to writing, drawing, painting, etc. I’m currently working on several Kickstarter projects. One is a book of my journey to Morocco. It will include my writings as well as photographs, paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, etc.
Another is a collection of my short sequential work through the years.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I believe you have to be driven. You have to really WANT to succeed and put the time in. Draw all the time. Drawing is the key to all of it. Observational drawing especially will absolutely help you to learn to draw effectively.
Carry a sketchbook everywhere you go. Carry a lot of different drawing tools. Pens, pencils, crayons, watercolors, brush pens, markers, etc. Don’t just draw with one tool. Change it up constantly. Don’t have a bunch of floating objects on your pages. Actually compose what you see in front of you into a picture. Your work will grow.
Being a little hard-headed helps. Keep getting back on that horse if you fall off.
Be inquisitive. Be an explorer. Be wide ranging in looking at the work of others.
Learn your art history. Not just the typical art history courses, but the history of what you are into. If it’s Illustration, then learn as much about the incredibly rich history of Illustration. If it’s cartooning, learn that history. Go as far back as you can.
Be a reader. Educate yourself in a lot of areas, not just what you’re into.
Reach out to artists you admire and ask them questions about their work, what they personally are looking for when working. You’ll be surprised how many will take the time to help you out.
Use your phone’s camera to start looking at the world through a viewfinder. Make pictures. Shoot low, shoot high, change your perspective and start to view the world in an interesting way.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I firmly believe it’s better to be more well rounded and to work on improving areas you aren’t as strong in. And not just in our area of expertise. I see so many students focusing on what they can do well and end up not growing as much as they should. They get locked into just producing work they know they can do and don’t push themselves beyond their limits.
I see schools that students to focus on portfolios early in their programs. And while I understand the reasoning behind this I believe it’s a mistake. It engenders the idea that it’s just about making pretty pictures with the skill set that the student has. They come to rely on just those skills. I would rather students try to do things they absolutely CANNOT do, to push themselves and to fail gloriously. That’s when you actually LEARN things.
It’s important to know what might be too far rather than continue sneaking up to the precipice in a piecemeal way. When you fail, when the work goes to hell in front of you, you discover things that you would never see otherwise. The trick is to recognize the power in that, and to be able to replicate it, to use it in your work. The power of the happy accident cannot be overstated. Learning to roll with the punches is critical. It keeps it all interesting. Keeps you on your toes. Your skills and your work grow exponentially.
Experimentation while you’re in school is vital. When you get out of school you won’t have the time to experiment. You’ll have to be earning a living, putting a roof over your head, food on the table, etc. You’ll be scrambling. Besides the knowledge that your teachers are giving you, what you’re really paying for in school is TIME. Time to explore, time to try as much as you can. Take advantage of the facilities that the school has on campus. Printmaking? Do it! Bookmaking? Bookbinding? Do it! Do it all! Because when you leave school you are going to find that it’s very difficult to find the time to be able to take advantage of those types of facilities.
I also believe that we need to look beyond our areas of focus and wallow in other ponds. Be a voracious reader. Read everything! Histories, biographies, humor, mysteries, medical histories, criticism, etc. We need to be more well rounded in our thinking, not just in our skill sets. Books are training wheels. They help us to understand the world, to understand differing viewpoints, to be critical, to empathize. They teach us how to live in the world. And they give us IDEAS! If you don’t put anything in your head, you won’t have much to put out there. Your world will become amazingly larger.
Travel. Get out of your own country and see how other people live. And go somewhere that’s VERY different than where you are coming from. Mark Twain said it best: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.georgepratt.com
- Instagram: @georgepratt
- Facebook: George Pratt
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/georgehpratt
- Other: Cara: https://cara.app/georgepratt
Image Credits
© George Pratt
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