#000- The Story

I started this book this the summer of 2009 while I was in Burbank for my Co -op. One night while talking to one of my friends in Burbank he told me about someone he knew who used to work at Disney that bought a sketchbook and went around and got sketches from all his peers at Disney while he was still there. Wow! What a great I idea! I went to an art store soon after and bought an extra sketchbook for just this purpose. I wasn't sure if I would follow through yet but I thought I would at least test out the idea. Soon after, I was lucky enough to get the chance to go to Comic Con 2009 because my mentor Joe Haidar had his short film The Animated American in the Comic Con Film Festival. Finally when we arrived, I wandered around in absolute awe trying to decide who I wanted a sketch from bad enough to muster up the courage to ask them. After a long period of indecisiveness and fear I finally ran into Eric Goldberg. Joe is good friends with Eric so I had an in...perfect! However, after a brief introduction and a photo Eric was in a big rush to get to his booth and had no time to chat. Feeling defeated, I left with Joe to go attend a speed sketching demonstration by master cartoonist Sergio Aragones. We took our seats and waited for the session to begin but I couldn't help feeling like I gave up too soon. I knew Eric had a table already so after thinking it over I decided to take a calculated risk and leave the talk in order to go back and find Eric's booth. After a little searching I finally found where we was sitting and awkwardly mustered up the courage to ask him. I figured if I didn't ask then it was guarenteed I would get nothing. But if I DID ask, what was the worst that could happen? Would he want me to pay boatloads of money? Would he (and everyone else) just say no, dooming my experiment to failure? Was he going to be angry that I was asking for a drawing? After lots of worrying and awkwardness it turned out that he was super cool about it! He also was there promoting the very first CTN Expo which I would later attend thanks to a flyer he gave me. Anyhow, that's how it all started! I have since learned that in general artist's are super nice and pretty happy to do a sketch for you as long as you are genuine and nice to them. Not everyone I have asked has agreed to do a sketch for me but they have still always been very nice. Lastly, I just really want to Thank everyone for taking the time to talk to me and do these drawings. So far, it has been a wonderful experiencing getting to meet so many talented people who have been so kind to me. These drawings are strictly my personal record of all the artists I get to meet throughout my own journey as an artist. They are not for eBay or any other method of sale. On that note, I hope you enjoy seeing these sketches as much as I enjoyed collecting them.

Cheers!
-Mark