The Reluctant Artist

I often get comments while drawing cartoons at events that go something like, "You have a real gift for drawing" or "I wish I could draw like you, but it has to be a natural talent". 

I always thank them for their kind words but they're very wrong. I'm not gifted nor naturally talented, not by any stretch of the imagination. 

In an unrelated incident...

Ludwig von Beethoven had just finished a performance of one of his own compositions and was surrounded by a crowd of his many admirers. Each person was generous with the outpourings of praise and admiration in the direction of the famous composer. 

One woman gushed "If only God had given me such a gift of genius." to which Beethoven turned an unfriendly look in her direction and said coldly, "It isn't genius, madame. Neither is it magic. You can be as good as I. All you have to do is practice on your piano every day, eight hours a day for forty years."

Mad Magazine was my preferred literature of choice

It may be odd for many people to hear this, but I never had an ambition to be a caricature artist. It has never crossed my mind in all the years prior to finding it to be a profitable venture. At the same time, no one should make the mistake of thinking I didn't like drawing and making my own gags since childhood, but it was somewhat of a personal thing that I kept mostly to myself. 

A hungry Pauper

However, the possibility of drawing caricatures of others, live and in public, with dozens of people watching me do so, was the certainly not on my list of things I wanted to do. Without going too deeply into it, I decided to give it a try only when unemployment compelled me to do so. 

It didn't just come to me, though. It's taken many thousands of tries to get to the point where the public will pay for it. I sometimes tell people after receiving their gracious comments about my "natural gift" that it's no gift. It's lots and lots of practice.