Indie Creators Describe Their Process From NYCC's Crowded Artist Alley

K. Lynn Smith

K. Lynne Smith talks about the difficulties of doing art while surrounded by people at a convention. Gif: Kyle Barr/io9

Who are you?

I am K. Lynne Smith. I am an artist and writer, my biggest title is Plume, the Western; [I’ve also been] working on other titles, you know, collaborative work and all that. I got started actually going to school for animation. And I wanted to be an animator. And I created a webcomic to kind of gain traction. And here I am in the comic world. So I kind of stumbled my way into this.

My goal was to become a Disney animator, but that dream quickly died. After learning more about like how studios ran, I realized you were just a number on an assembly line. I kind of changed. I grew up with Disney. I grew up with Don Bluth films like All Dogs Go to Heaven. My favorite series were always animation, you know, shows like Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck. That’s where I wanted to be. But I love the comic world. I’m creating my own world and my own characters. I’m perfectly happy with that.

What have you been doing during the con, and what other projects have you done?

The pet commission thing just sort of fell into my lap. There were just a lot of people asking me to do more and more pet commissions. And I personally just love doing it. It’s fun for me to stand here get paid for drawing animals. After going to school for animation, I created a webcomic to gain traction. My biggest title is Plume, a kind of Western fantasy. Other then that, it’s been a lot of collaborative work.

What are you thinking about while you draw?

My mantra right now is “don’t mess up, don’t mess up.” I know, it’s fun. Because every every animal has a different personality. So yeah, I’m trying to work that personality out to kind of get something unique to this animal. You’re just kind of bouncing back and forth in the Comic Con world where you’re talking to people, and you’re working. So yeah, your thoughts are all over the place. In the beginning it was harder, but it definitely got a lot easier over time. You just got to roll with it.