Visiting Artist: Meags Fitzgerald

Meags Fitzgerald is the creator of Photobooth and Long Red Hair. She hails from Canada. She started in fine art before making comics. Even now, she primarily considers herself an illustrator rather than a cartoonist. And she would call herself a storyteller, rather than a writer.

Meags Fitzgerald with her name board drawn by Luke Howard.

She created Photobooth because when she was growing up, photobooths were her art form. She would take lots of photos while on the road with her improve group. In the end, she was surprised she didn’t think of doing this book earlier. She even had the patience and fortitude to make some “animated shorts” using photobooths.

The research for Photobooth book was difficult because there is not that much research done already. Mostly, she did first-hand research, finding manufacturers and news articles and other documentation. For each drawing, she tried to find at least two photo references. This helps avoid any infringement and allows her to draw the thing from any angle. To get all this material, she spent lots of money on E-Bay! Essentially, this book took 10 or more years of life experience, 9 months of outright research and travel, 4 months to outline and apply for grants, and 1 year to write, draw, and layout. She didn’t miss any deadlines, but she had one breakup and one stress-related trip to the ER. But then there was much more work after production.

Meags in a funny discussion with Sophie Yanow (’16).

With Long Red Hair, she used a new process. She already had the idea for this book while working on Photobooth, so when she finished that book, she jumped right into the next. She thought, “Who am I if I’m not writing a book?” She found this non-stop jump to be a bad choice. To create Long Red Hair, she spent 4 months on informal research, 4 months drafting, and 9 months to draw. She missed 2 deadlines, but she didn’t breakup with anyone or end up in the ER.

In designing the cover of Long Red Hair, Meags had some very definite ideas. She wanted hands in hair, but she had also heard that books with a face on the cover sells better. These faces are often in ¾ profile, but this didn’t feel right for her book. She found a picture of herself from a time when she was upset that was taken in ¾ from the back and used this as the model for the cover. For the colors, she chose something that would look nice with her first book. She was thinking of displaying the books together and wanted them to look of a piece.

Meags . . . fierce.

Meags uses animator pencils because they are easy to erase and come in a lot of colors so she can draw different pieces in different colors. She has a ceramic escargot dish for ink because it has many holders to use. She uses a quilting ruler because it is see-through. And she has an LED light table that she might be a little in love with. In regards to style, Meags says she is now more concerned with form than line.

Meags discusses her tools, one of the students favorite parts of a visiting artist.

The process for creating Long Red Hair was pretty standard, until the end: thumbnails, quick under-drawing with different colored pencils, the drawing itself, clean up in RGB in Photoshop, change it to grayscale, add duo tones (her method made this incredibly difficult), then make it an EPS file, then put the various files (ink and both tone colors) together in InDesign. The duo tones, a soft red and green, were made using different exclusive layers so she couldn’t even see how they were work together until they were put together in InDesign.

During the break, Meags talks with J. D. Lunt (’16), Michelle Ollie, and Kane Lynch (’16).

Meags next book will be about left-handedness, as a South-paw herself. This book will include the history and science as well as her own experiences. She seems to love research. To avoid the stress of deadlines, she is working on it at her own pace through the support of patrons on her Patreon.

Thanks, Meags!

Photos courtesy Abe Olson.