Sneak Peak into Jerm's Studio

AN EXCLUSIVE VISIT TO JERM'S STUDIO....

JEREMY NELL (who signs his work JERM) is probably the most technologically advanced editorial cartoonist in South Africa, operating a digital studio from a spare room in his home that bares very little resemblance to the studios of his Old School fellow cartoonists.

For one thing, it's neat. No reams of paper, used, reused or unused piled sky high, or sketches of ideas stuck to his wall. No waste paper basket cluttered with aborted ideas, pencil stompies or retired pens. No stationery clogging up every drawer and occupying his desk space, and no messy paints or inks to speak of. He has no collection of yellowed newspapers dating back to nineteenvoertsek.

Also he has no library of resources; reference books, huge collection of comics and cartoon books.

I can testify to all of this because, on a visit we once couldn't find a pen or piece of paper to note a website he'd recommended. Instead, he emailed me the link. Jerm manages all his tasks digitally: archiving, research, design tools, a palette of a million colours and instant delivery of his work are all handled efficiently by his software. A digital drawing tablet and an impressive monitor make up the centrepiece of the studio, replacing a light box and drawing board as hardware.

Besides the obvious benefits to the environment, there are huge financial benefits too (after the costs of his equipment have been settled). The software Jerm uses is all open source, which is developed by a community of like minded people and offered for free. The Ubuntu platform he uses as an Operating System was developed by the clever folk down in SA billionaire Mark Shuttleworth's lab. [See Jerm's notes in the Sidelines column above for more about the software].