Banda D - 01 - Rafael coutinho

You need to find the right balance to be a cartoonist. It's not something like a 'Zen Buddhist', not all cartoonists have a spiritual elevation. While I'm drawing, I need to find the passion in it, where the passion lives in that particular scene, in that moment of the story. At some point you need to find a balance between the time that it takes to be done, and its feedback, also the expectation about what you do, it's all a long process. There are some specific things in comics that are nice to handle, formal issues, for example... "Repeating this framework, this size, X times, to create a different rhythm." Some design issues, super graphics, hard and flat ones that end up bringing vitality. But I like to try to find these tools depending on the story needs. "What do I need in order to maximize this scene?" I don't do things for free, drawing something nice just because is nice. In the end of the day, the creative process always comes from the same place, it respects the same might: the will to create something with a subjective goal that comes from a self-expression, the pursuit of knowledge or communication. Usually, it's a walking-free process, naturally born, just like when you're a little baby... You don't tell yourself: "oh, if this is a drawing job, maybe I shouldn't use these gouaches that my dad bought me..." You just go ahead and use them! And if a camera appears, you may produce a 420 hours feature film. Eventually, you may break the camera because you want to see what happens, all the time, with the door open of your personal expression. At the moment when we sign a contract like: "Ok, I'll take you somewhere and you'll like it, I'm also gonna like it and we will be rewarded..." something magical happens. I think that this excitement urges creators to create even more and to test new things... What's the limit of this deal and till where it may reach you...' I think this is the game, where the passion lives, what makes you loose your sleep, what pushes you to work the following day and you want to challenge it... I think it's in the restriction where the creative potential lives.