New show flier finished.

So apparently I've really dropped the ball on posting drawings every day, but hey, I've been busy. I'm still sorting out computer stuff, holiday stuff, and dealing with some of the craziest weather I've ever witnessed here in Portland. Maybe I'll just resign myself to posting whenever I have something post worthy which brings me to my post.

For the past few weeks I've been working on the above show poster for the band "Alan Singley & Pants Machine" here in Portland. The main font is taken from a vintage children's book, as is the image of the hippo. All elements in the poster are hand drawn, then scanned into photoshop for composition and image tweaking. It took quite a while to finish, but I'm really happy with the end result. It is possibly the best poster I've done yet. Hopefully this will lead to more work in the Portland area as well as some paying gigs.

I spoke too soon / Celebratory Pizza for all!

The unbelievable has happened. The police actually came through on this one and recovered my computer. Now when I tell you how you probably won't believe me, but I swear I couldn't make this up if I tried. A few days after my computer was stolen I checked my email and found a message in it that I didn't write. It seems that the person who had my computer accessed my email account and used it to answer a personals ad on craigslist. The title of the personals ad?

"Older4younger - 52 (SW)"

In the response he included a brief description of himself, "Good looking, blk, 30yrs," as well as his phone number. A real bright one, this guy was. I immediately called the detective department at the Police station and forwarded them the email. The Sargent told me they would look into it but told me not to get my hopes up, which infuriated me since they were in possession of the contact information of the person who had my computer! I called them the next day to check up on it to find out they had put in a request to the phone company to find out this guy's information from his phone number, which could take from one to two weeks. By that time my computer could be on the other side of the world or in a dumpster behind Rocco's pizza.

Okay, here's where it gets good. On thursday the police called me up and said they were planning on initiating contact (a sting operation) and would let me know later that day what happened. Basically they called up this guy pretending to be the older guy he was trying to meet up with and caught him with my computer. He didn't admit to stealing it, which is quite possible, but the fact that I got it back is pretty incredible.

The sad part is that he deleted a shitload of stuff off my desktop, most of which was music, but some other important things like photos, art files, writings, and pictures for art reference. I'm trying to recover those deleted files, but I'm not getting my hopes up. To be honest I'm just glad I don't have to spend a grand on a new computer. Before picking up my computer I stopped at Mississippi pizza to have a celebratory slice. The truth is I was planning on having pizza anyways, but when I found out the news it became a celebratory event.

Thwarted already....

Well, that didn't take too long, but I have good cause. After setting up this blog and getting geared to start some serious daily drawing lo and behold - My computer was stolen. This has been demoralizing for a plethora of reasons but I'm happy to say there is a small chance I might get it back. Wheels are in motion. Gears are turning. Hamsters are exercising. I'll explain more later when I feel it's safe.

The "How?" of my computer getting stolen is truly a sad tail. On thanksgiving day I brought my computer down into the kitchen to assist me with my preparation of awesome veggie stuffing. I left the house around 2 pm and didn't think to move my computer back into my room from the kitchen. (What would I have to worry about?) The following morning when I returned to my house, full and rested with only an hour to go before my shift at Powell's for Black Friday, I discovered my computer gone. After questioning my room mates one of them told me they had come home the previous night to find the back door wide open. It seems that someone noticed no one was home, tried all the doors, possibly found the back door unlocked, and came in to find my computer in wait for them. I filed a police report, etc... but what I'm really bummed about is losing all of the photos and files that I hadn't backed up over the years. It really is a travesty and I'm trying my best not to blame myself or let it color my opinion of Portland. Portland did not steal my laptop. Some insensitive junkie (maybe) stole my laptop. Anyhow, we're all being a little more cautious around here and steps have been made to borrow a laptop in the mean time for my daily use.

That being said I will continue to draw and will hopefully be able to upload something to this blog one day. I'm currently working on a flyer for a show on January 9th. More news on that as it comes. Here's something to keep up the suspense:

"Lady Hippo"