Asher sits pensively in a Communist pizza parlor in Budapest on a rainy April day.

W is for Wistful Walrus

Aside from Bears, Walruses have always been a favorite of mine. Here's a Walrus looking wistfully into the distance as "Wanted for Life" by David Byrne and Brian Eno plays. Another animal whose appearance fascinates me: the Moose (no visual accompaniment... yet).

I'm currently making headway on the invitation illustration for the wedding of Erin Ferns and Andrew Lee which is pretty exciting, but aside from that I have no concrete projects lined up. I guess it'll be a good time to work on my own projects which I haven't done in a while. I went to "Last Thursday" in the Alberta art district last night and as always I saw some cool stuff, some terrible stuff, and a lot of stuff that made me think "I can do better than that." I've always shied away from studio art, but a lot of the stuff being shown over there isn't typical of how we think of studio art. It's actually more akin to band art, or something you might find at Giant Robot. My favorite gallery over there is the Together Gallery and Last night marked the opening of their new show, "Journey Through Bookland" which had some excellent pieces. Selections from the exhibition can be viewed on their website.

I also recently constructed a makeshift light table using an old frame+glass that I found in my basement, propped up on my speakers with my bedside reading lamp shined under it. Who needs a functional and well equipped studio?? *Sigh* I'm like the hobo version of a real artist.

Judy is a Zombie.

My friend pretends she is a zombie. The heart above was a sketch for a larger Valentine's day project.

Sock it to me!

A local sock company is looking for artists to create new "hip" sock designs. I've always been a huge fan of socks so I immediately jumped at the opportunity and came up with these pattern ideas as a sort of resume. What would YOUR ideal sock look like?

It Melts Like Butter

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much lately is because I've been working hard to complete this t-shirt design for Bay Area band "The Buttercream Gang." This dog belongs to the drummer, depicted here as a wild and heroic snow dog.

You can check out tracks from their new self released album "Drumalley" at www.myspace.com/buttercreamgang.

Old World Correspondance

I decided to cheat a little bit and post something from this past summer. This is the inside of a letter I illustrated in the style of an old nautical map. I did a bit of research for this one using the ole' interwebs to find authentic looking Maritime illustrations and I combined the elements that I liked into the drawing below. If you click on the tiny image below it will take you to a much larger one. This is encouraged by management.



I really like this style and wish it wasn't so time consuming, otherwise I would probably draw in it more frequently. It would be more apt for an etching so that multiple copies could be made and sold as individual greeting or post cards.

A Fever Sleeves T-Shirt

Three and half years after its original conception the Fever Sleeves Squid shirt has finally come to fruition. Available at www.myspace.com/feversleeves. Also in black with green ink.
$12.00
Postage Paid.

And just so you can see how far it's come: Here is the original drawing.

Napkin Doodle

Over the weekend I went to Seattle for a stranger's wedding and to visit some not-so-strangers. Here's a not-so-great doodle I did while out to breakfast.

Bear With Me

For some reason I've been really into bears lately. I've been noticing them a lot around town and every time I do I can't help but feel a sense of awe from these massive creatures. That and I've been watching a lot of Northern Exposure lately. Here's a quick sketch of bear figurine from my friend's terrarium. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw some more bear sketches on here in the near future.

It's been a while

I know, I know. The title of the blog is "a sketch a day" and it's nearly been a month since my last post. Well times have been tough and I've been relatively busy. I finally got my food stamps which has allowed me the luxury of eating, and I had a brief stint working in the mail room of Nordstrom's, where I would spend 8 hours a day folding and boxing expensive clothing for shipping at the local shopping mall. To break the monotony I would often spend my breaks and lunches in a little lounge area just outside the store which faced one of those horrible "gifts from the far east" stores. Here is a sketch of an Asian dress that was prominent in their window display. I enjoyed the shadows created by the creases.