Steve Nelson draws a lot of his inspiration from everyday life. He shared how the Monday/Friday drawing, which illustrates the weekly transition from healthy eating to indulging in pizza and snacks, was a perfect example of a real-life situation. "The Monday / Friday drawing is a good example of a real-life situation. This is me every week. Start of the week I’m trying to be healthy and by the end of the week I’m eating pizza and all kinds of unhealthy snacks. I barely had to exaggerate that one! And I think a lot of people could relate."
Monetizing comedic content poses its own set of challenges. The artist highlighted the difficulty, explaining, "It’s very tricky because, again, I do comedy so as soon as you try to monetise it in any way you risk people turning their backs on you and calling you a sell-out. It’s madness! Like you’re just meant to provide free content forever and never make any money to do it for a living. But when I do take on projects, my main goal is to have control of my work, ensuring my style and humour isn’t compromised."
Balancing the creative and business aspects of his work requires a delicate approach. Nelson remarked on this balance, stating, "I don’t really do a lot of marketing and promotion. Because I do comedy, your audience just wants the funny and they definitely don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to. So it kind of feels weird to ask people to buy your stuff or show people work that you were commissioned to do. I essentially have to be careful how I go about doing it."
Steve also discussed his creative process and how he stays inspired. Treating his work like a job, he explained, "I sit at a desk, writing and drawing all day long coming up with as many ideas as possible. Or if I’m out and about I keep an eye out for ideas. You have to just try and stay switched on all the time, which can be exhausting! And then deadlines can be really helpful for idea generation too."
Reflecting on his journey, the artist offered some advice he would give to his younger self. He mentioned starting out as a comedy writer and considering whether he would have been better off focusing on drawing rather than writing. "But, at the same time, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do now without all those years of writing jokes. So maybe I’d just tell him to borrow as much money as possible and put it all on Spain winning the 2010 World Cup 1-0."
