Written by Hello my name is Damian Willcox, and I’m from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My job is software design (UX), and my unrelenting curse that refuses to release me from its icy talons of unending creation and torment is comics and art.
damian vs drawing
I started drawing in the back of my schoolbooks around grade 5, and never really figured out how to stop. Later on, I decided not go to art college, but instead, go to a college RIGHT NEXT to an art college.
Two Related Points of Interest :
- I never thought I wanted art to be a job. (still true…i think)
- Side benefit of getting cheap art supplies across campus at the adjacent art school proved to be a wonderful thing.
damian vs painting
In college, I knew nothing about painting – so I bought a bunch of acrylic paints and forced myself to figure it out. I really enjoyed acrylics and especially liked the fact that mistakes could be painted over and tried again – this was easier than the ink drawings that I was also doing, and not like the transparent drawing inks I was using around this time either (watercolour-like, but permanent as they contained shellac and could not be reworked, etc).
damian vs comics
Perhaps more notably, it was around this time that I began making comics – barring the “RoboBill” series I made in grade 8 involving the lead character of RoboBill who was a combination of Robocop and Saturday Night Live’s Mr. Bill character (all issues are nowhere to be found and likely lost in a move back then).
I began a series called “dorkboy” in college and have kept making and self publishing my comics in print and web for a bit more than 20 years (yikes….pauses….questions life choices…continues writing this article).
The majority of this time was focused on pen and ink, technical pens, linework and lettering and not too much colour.
I had more or less stopped painting for many years to focus on comic work which prompted encouraging comments from family members such as “whatever happened to those nice paintings you used to do?” and from coworkers “I knew you did cartoons, but I didn’t know you were an artist” upon seeing my old acrylic paintings….and herein lied the problem with my first foray into painting: I never combined my cartoon/comic work with painting.
damian vs watercolour (a love story)
About 5 years ago, I decided to do something I hate – learn watercolours. I had only seen fruit bowls and flowers depicted with watercolours, and so really didn’t know how to fit them into my art world. They seemed difficult because, well… they are difficult.
At the same time, following the age old adage of ‘Misery loves company’ I also decided to do something else that I hated – learning the traditional cartoonists tool: inking with a brush.
It was an unholy union of self inflicted pen? pain? as I attempted to learn to control the feather touch unwieldy line weights of a brush pen for my inked line work while at the same time combining watercolours into my artwork without mudding everything into oblivion.
Fast forward a few years and I LOVE brush inking and watercolour – it is by far my preferred tool and medium at this point. Of course, this combination of watercolour and ink is less welcomed by watercolour purist communities, so I was really happy to discover Charlie’s “World Watercolour Group” recently that welcomes all watercolour users!
With my newfound combination of tools, I continued making comics, but also began some outdoor sketching/urban sketching which was a nice counterbalance to my cartoon work and I believe helped strengthen aspects of it.
damian vs process
My approach to my work varies…I either use VERY light and loose pencil to layout an idea or no pencil at all as I like my ink lines to not be “traced” over pencil, but have their own spontaneity. I often will ink first (Kaimei or Kuretake brush pen fuelled with waterproof Platinum Carbon ink cartridges – or use technical pens or fountain pens with waterproof ink for simple linework/lettering), and then watercolour over top. I have tried several brands, but primarily use Holbein and will sometimes use a few Daniel Smith colours.
For outdoor sketching I sometimes mix it up – watercolour first, ink later, or ink first and watercolour later. For my cartoons and comics I always ink first.
damian vs inspiration
I guess my main inspiration is usually comedy – I like to start with an idea that feels funny or clever, or might inspire a bit of emotion in people….or at the very least if it does in me, then I want to bring it into existence. Inspiration can come from anywhere so I tend to carry notebooks and scribble down ideas on post-its, or capture them on my phone, etc and turn them into cartoons, comics and so on as soon as possible.
I also have a tendency to see how far I can take a joke…and then take it WAY beyond that – because of this, I end up with self forming ‘series’ such as my collection of Egg pieces as part of World Watercolor Month, and Zilla cartoons which ended up having a sub series where I injected the Zillas into multiple classic works of art.
Another huge influence is the traditional art of Japanese wood block prints – I think this is mostly due to the fact they most closely resemble what I hope to aspire to with ink and watercolour with their brilliant colours and dark line work.
I don’t know that I will ever be a good artist, but my main focus is to keep making art, comics, etc that people can get something out of…and as soon as I finish one piece, don’t linger over it, but just move on to the next one and hopefully improve as I go.
Creating art and comics also serves as an important stress balancer I have found over the years – sometimes artwork created vs stress received is proportional and other times inversely proportional. Regardless, I can’t stop, and have no intention to.
Thanks very much Charlie O’Shields and Doodlewash for featuring me as a guest artist – a hugely unexpected and very appreciated honour.
Damian Willcox
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Thrilled to see your featured Damian! I’ve been enjoying your work since WWM!
Thanks a lot Jessica! That is really nice to hear 😀
Love your work. I still have a hard time with acrylics and oils! Keep it up!
Thanks very much!! Yes – oil and acrylics are not easy either. 🙂
Will do my best, thanks! 😀
Thank you for sharing your art work and your thought processes. I think you work has a great deal of wit and charm. I like to draw with ink and then “colour in” with watercolour too so I found myself nodding along to much of what you wrote.
Thank you!! Nice to hear from others using ink & watercolour 😀
Fabulous work. I particularly love ‘Bipolar Bear’!
Thanks a lot!! That’s one of my favourites too! It never seemed to get as much of a reaction as others, but I like the subtlety of the joke…and was happy I managed to avoid ruining the very light scene with too much watercolour…it was a close one, haha.
I love the watercolored street scene!
thank you!! 😀
I love how you told your story with humor! I got a few extra chuckles about going to college next to an art college, and the “encouraging comments” from family 🙂 And I love your method of combining ink lines with watercolor. That street scene is gorgeous.
Thank you so much! That’s very kind of you to say 🙂
Fabulous! I enjoyed your humour.
Thank you! 🙂
Wonderful work!
Thanks very much!! 🙂
This post cracked me up! Damien has such a way with words and art. 🙂 Also, the “Damien vs. ____” and the dinosaur cartoons reminds me of Bob Shea’s very popular kids books, “Dinosaur Vs. ______.” Damien should definitely tackle writing/illustrating children’s books!
Thanks a lot! Good suggestion – it has crossed my mind at times as something that might be fun to try 🙂
Damian, it’s been fun to read your story and discover that you challenge yourself to learn new things even when you think you don’t want to. You have a great sense of humor and your art is delightful.
Thank you Sharon! That is incredibly nice to hear – you are too kind, thank you very much 😀
I love the zillas! The style of the comics is so interesting.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them 😀
I’m a newcomer and recent convert to doodlewash. Love your sense of humour and artwork.
Thank you very much!! 😀 Nice to hear 🙂
Great story! Zilla is genius! Looks like you are having lots of fun on your art journey!!! =)
Thank you! Yes, definitely trying to have fun 😀
bien
merci😀
Pas de quoi
Love seeing Zilla in the famous paintings! Great work! 😄
Thanks a lot! There were a few more I had considered doing, but wanted to round out the series at 12….though might need a revisit or round 2 😄
Reblogged this on dorkboy comics sketchbook journal and commented:
(Mostly updating my site dorkboycomics.com, and haven’t been maintaining this one – but wanted to share Doodlewash as they kindly invited me to be a guest artist!)
Congratulation Damian and very cute watercolors I love that you use famous and historical artist’s of all time paintings as background of your cute characters! 😉 well done and thanks for the smile that your art bring to the world! 🙂 Carolina
Thank you Carolina! Really glad you enjoyed the Classic Art Zillas! That series was a lot of fun to make 😀
You’re welcome and I am sure was a lot of fun to make! 😉
I visited your website and follow you on Twitter and Instagram! btw I am part of the world watercolor group and I have been doodlewashed too 😉
Brilliant! Your ‘zillas are going to keep me laughing all day. You clearly have a great sense of humor and we are lucky you are sharing it with us through your pen and paints, along with fantastic narrative.
Damian is great, this inspires me to try watercolors but I’m afraid it would look like a pre-school art project in my hands, but thanks for the inspiration
I think you are already a ‘good’ artist. A fine artist, maybe not, but you definitely create a story that the viewer can understand and add to from their own experience. Your cartoon about the old man’s wife and her dogs put a tear in my eye and a smile on my face.
While I didn’t understand most of the “ink and brush” words, techniques you used, I DID understand watercolor references, and relished how you lassoed all of those talents in your own category. Congrats on the art of cleverness! I thoroughly enjoyed viewing and laughing, out loud, especially “bipolar bear” and “rock paper scissors.” VERY funny, dry wit. Not many make me laugh, but your work and personality are zany enough to encourage a larger audience. Glad you posted here, Damien. I truly look forward to more of your stuff AND mostly, jokes!