The Colorblind Art Teacher

This is a list of mostly common (and many unusual) questions that have been sent in to me by readers:

 

Are you really colorblind?

Hell yes. It’s not as weird as you might think. The actual term is Color Deficiency, and it’s genetic. The Color Blind gene is carried by the mother and passed on–generally–to her son(s). In my case, I’m the middle of three boys–all color blind. If I had a sister, she would have the gene. My mom has two brothers who are also color blind. No, my dad is not color blind. And, unless any of the three of us have male offspring with a woman who has the gene, then the legend ends here. And since all three of us are married to women who, as far as we know, do not carry the gene, this is probably the end of it. 

 

So how can you be an Art teacher if you’re color blind?

It’s very simple, actually. I’ve loved to draw throughout my life and, due to my “handicap,” I generally avoided any sort of color-related art work. When need-be, I would use colors that are absolute primary. In other words, I don’t really have a problem with an absolute red, blue or yellow because these are first generation colors that have pigments of their own. As long as these colors are pure–and without a hue, a tint or a value–I can generally tell. An absolute secondary color gets a little more complicated because it means that it was created by mixing two primary colors. Again, if it’s an absolute, I might be okay. Beyond that, I’m lost. I can narrow something down to a general area of the color wheel. If you’re wearing a shirt that’s blue or purple, I can tell you that much. If you try to tell me it’s yellow, I’ll call you a liar.

 

Okay, I get it…

Well, let me finish. I can read the colors on paint tubes, colored pencils, pastels, etc. And, since I’m familiar with the color wheel, I know how things work. The big problem I ran into was for the few years I was working as a graphic designer. Fortunately, I had friends and family who would look over my shoulder to guide me on colors. Obviously, this couldn’t go on forever.

 

What about traffic lights?

I do okay at vertical lights but I’m pretty much screwed at horizontal ones. I just have to play it by ear then.

 

Is there anything on your driver’s license in case you did get pulled over?

No.  And I don’t have a handicap sign for my dashboard either.

 

Oh. That was my next question. Okay. Um. What color is–

Just…don’t ask me that. It’s so annoying.

 

So do these stories actually happen to you?

As a matter of fact, they do. The only thing that I might change might be little things to make the story flow a little easier. Like there have been times where there have been many more people involved in the story, but I downplayed the crowd simply because I didn’t want to draw so many. “The Rat Suit” and “Flight of the Red Balloon” are two prime examples of this.

 

What’s the difference between the web comics and the printed ones?

It has everything to do with the length of the story. The printed mini comics are thirty pages long, so I save my “epic” stories for those. The web comics are the ones that may be shorter or, in some cases, I’m just entirely unsure of how long they’ll be so I don’t want to restrict myself to thirty pages.

 

Who were some of your influences? Artistically?

Well, I was really into comics when I was a kid. Charles Schultz, Berkley Breathed, Bill Waterson, stuff like that. Probably my biggest influence was “Bloom County.” People always told me that my work reminded them of Breathed. As a matter of fact, I met Berkley Breathed once. It was, like, 1993 or so. It was after “Bloom County” ended and he was touring with his children’s book, Red Ranger Came Calling. He read it in its entirety and I was literally moved to tears. I had never heard that story before, but there was something about it that really moved me. It was some sort of childhood magic, meets irony, meets old fashioned comics magic. I waited around later on to talk to him and we spent about a half hour shooting the shit. Nice guy. I still cry when I read that book to this very day. 

 

What about underground comics?

Oh yeah. I read Mad Magazine in my formative years and was heavily influenced by Jack Davis, Harvey Kurtzman, Sergio Aragones. Loved it. I would anticipate every issue that came out. Of course, I loved Groo the Wanderer and the simple-yet-detailed drawings that Aragones brought to the book. He also did a lot without any text or dialogue, which just amazed me. Obviously, I was weened on Marvel Comics growing up, like most young men. I was really into Howard the Duck. I loved the concept of a Disney-like character who lived within the Marvel Universe, but had no special powers of any kind. He just existed. And he didn’t wear any pants. Obviously, much later on, I began to get into some of the counter culture stuff. Naturally, Crumb was a huge influence. I always kept a sketchbook but, after seeing his documentary, I began to take it less seriously. Drew in it a lot more, but took more chances. Wasn’t so hard on myself.

 

What else influences you? In regard to the humanities?

I began to take art a bit more seriously when I first laid my eyes on Guernica by Picasso. I’m still in awe of it to this very day, twenty years later. It was the first time I’d ever seen the full extent of possibilities with art. It wasn’t beautiful and it looked like it was easy for him to do. Not that I was expecting art to be “easy.” But, even then, I realized that what makes a good artist is when they can make it look like it took them no effort. There was a book written on that painting called Picasso’s War. I bought that book and read it all in one sitting one night.  So, yeah, in regard to “fine” artists, Picasso, De Kooning, Thomas Hart Benton, Paul Klee, etc. I love Ralph Steadman too. Another artist who produces “ugly” work. He’s what led me to reading so much Hunter Thompson. I know it’s usually the other way around.

 

You know on the top of your website? The line-up of your character from different stages in your life?

Oh yeah. I got that idea from Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut’s another huge influence. His writing, as well as his drawings and prints.

 

Yeah. Well, you know the character that’s ninth from the right? It’s a baby You sitting down? Well, did you realize that if that little guy were standing up, he’d be taller than the You that’s in front of him? Which would be odd, considering he’s supposed to be older? The one to the right, that is?

Wow. I never realized that. Okay. Hopefully it’s not that obvious.

 

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

I don’t know.