The first rule of Flier Making is you don't talk about Flier Making

So apparently I forgot the first rule of Flier making which is don't forget to include the headliner for the show on the flier. This was a large oversight on my part and one that I wasn't able to rectify immediately since I was in San Francisco for a week, hundreds of miles away from my trusty scanner. The other frustrating thing about shows is that often times the information might change without any warning. For example the band "Lanterns" is no longer playing the January 17th show with Fever Sleeves. However I didn't know this until I had already photoshopped in the headlining band Hialeah. Here you can see both versions of the new and improved flier as well as a bonus one where I played with stretching the font. Which one is better? You be the judge!

Version 2.0



Version 3.0


Version 3.5


It's a tough call in my opinion, but let's just say I'll be very happy to move on to something else. I've got two actual paying projects lined up which is quite exciting. One is a t-shirt design for the San Francisco based band "The Buttercream Gang" and the other is a wedding invitation. These are indeed exciting times.

Dino-Splode!

Hey everyone! I finished a new flier for my dear friends Fever Sleeves. I'm pretty excited about the work I've been putting out recently and look forward to doing more. On new years I made a contact with a mysterious bourbon carrying man named Tiger. I'm pretty sure this wasn't a hallucination, so hopefully it will lead to something.

Regarding the poster: You may notice another one of those Dinosaur stencils making an appearance, as well as the information from the previous sketch. I'm not sure exactly where this idea came from, but I can say that it developed organically. One thing that really annoys me is that when I export to a jpg from photoshop all the colors in the image become muted. I can do some image correction with preview, but it's never quite the same as I intended. If anyone has any tips for me please let me know.

Furniture Synaptosome

Here's a fun game. Pick two words from the dictionary at random and try combine them into one drawing. Ten points to the first person who knows the definition of Synaptosome.

Stego-Scuffz

Here is the first drawing from my new sketch book. I bought a book of dinosaur stencils which is really exciting so look out for more dino inspired work. I've also started using colored Micron pens instead of regular black which has been a huge progression for my sketching possibilities. I can't believe I've been sticking with black for so long. In this drawing we see the Stegosaur and Scuffz becoming one.

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"