useless weaponry

fish heads filled with dimes

2012-01-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

my beloved princeton no.1 brush bit the dust as i was finishing this drawing. i lost all the fine detail out of the bottom, like i was inking with one of those basting brushes. i struggled to pull it together, riding on a strand or two but...no. it's kind of a mess down there. also, what was i thinking with that odd shape? i should have just squared it off.

my first instinct was to just throw this away. but i probably should stop doing that.

drawings started in 2011: 692
drawings finished in 2011: um, 5?

boat to portugal

2012-01-05T00:47:00.000-05:00

i've decided i can't be blowing $40 - $50 a week on a bottle of scotch, so i've switched to my other new passion which is port wine. there is no port revolution, but i guess that's because the new york times hasn't featured an article on it yet. i have to listen all day to people talking about this "islay craze" and frankly i have no idea what they're talking about. i tell them: come back to me when there's a port craze! my ass is on a boat to portugal right now.

right now, if you were wondering, i'm enjoying a bottle of graham's fine tawny (my third or fourth glass, no doubt, but who's counting?) trying to get my scanner to scan these drawings over here. you know, the drawings i've been talking about? my cats, who are lovely creatures and who i consider to be, like, my developmentally-challenged children, have taken to sinking their little teeth into the power cord of my scanner. which makes it do funny things sometimes. and by "funny things" i mean not functioning properly. i could go out and just get a new cord, but then i wouldn't have anything to complain about.

that's what you think!

ah, who would we have if we didn't have each other?

wet paper bags and stuff.

2011-12-02T01:16:00.001-05:00

1. sorry, no drawings again today. i did draw something, though. you can probably guess what it looked like if you've seen the other drawings. nothing earth-shattering. a bunch of lines and stuff. i'll post them eventually.

2. but i'd like to talk about why i am a terrible singer.

you've seen them around. mostly on tv, i guess. they have these shows featuring people who want to sing. and some of them can sing. but most of them cannot. and they get in front of people and they think they are going to knock people's socks off but very often they do not. and then their dreams are shattered. because they believe in themselves and it's probably the only thing they've ever wanted to do. ever. and they can't see themselves doing anything else. what else is there? nothing.

but the reality is they are terrible. and isn't that sad? think about it: it's the only thing, the most important thing ever and you're no fucking good at it.

some people, defiantly, soldier on not giving a fuck what people think. and some people pack it up and go get, like, a job and shit to pay their bills.

frank frazetta was a great singer. maybe one the best there ever was. also, will eisner was a great singer. changed the way people looked at singing, if you think about it. these are just two examples of great singers. and history has smiled upon them. because i can mention them and you know who i'm talking about.

anyway, what i'm getting at here, is that i am a terrible singer. once, i hummed something in perfect pitch but i can't explain that any more than i can explain how you drag a needle through a groove on a record and it produces sound. no clue. can't wrap my brain around it. but being a terrible singer (and at least i can admit it!) doesn't stop me from singing. i mean, i don't sing in front of people. it's embarrassing. i do enough shit that embarrasses me, i certainly don't need to add something else to the mix. you want to see me embarrass myself? erm, just hang out with me for about 5 minutes. it'll happen.

when people aren't around, though, i like to occasionally "sing along" as they say. but, really, i am terrible.

it's better to have loved and scotch'd than to never have scotch'd at all

2011-12-01T01:24:00.001-05:00

1. my new "thing" is scotch. that's what i'm drinking. scotch. i'm not really sure it's worth mentioning. i'm not a particularly serious drinker, which is maybe why it is worth mentioning (just in case you were worried about me). it's expensive. and i like it. the glasses get bigger and bigger every time i pour one. it's getting darker outside. the end is near. and it's not even winter.

dear diary, i'm kidding.

but not about the scotch, obviously.

2. i think i made it a rule with myself that i would never post anything here unless it contained an actual drawing. but i am not posting a drawing and i broke my own rule. so, sorry. i generally don't care to post anything but drawings (because who gives a shit about what i have to say about anything anyway), but hear we are, together, and not a drawing in sight. well, maybe some below, but you've already seen those. you could read about much i like scotch.

i won't do that to you, i swear.

3. doodle attack 2 is finished. it's been finished for awhile. but for some reason i don't feel particularly compelled to get it printed anymore. that's funny, right? took me a year and half to finish it (but that's better than the 10 years it took me to get the first one out, i suppose) and now i don't care. anyway, the good (?) news is that i started the third one. so, expect to see that...well, we don't have to talk about that now. i understand.

i'm kidding about the not caring part. i do care. i care about you. are you eating right? i'm worried about you. maybe you should lay off the ice cream. i know how much you love ice cream. i love ice cream. and scotch.

4. these dudes from viral graphics are putting out a zine next year of black and white art and they asked me to be a part of it and, guess what, i am and i even answered some questions and they are terrible, terrible answers and it makes me realize that i am not particularly good at answering questions nor am i particularly interesting unless, of course, i am fucking wasted which i don't think i was when i answered the questions but now i don't remember.

i'm going to be honest: i love run-on sentences.

anyway, every single person who is contributing to the project is, like, a real artist and shit so i am not really sure what i'm doing in there, but those guys are super nice and asked to me to do it and how could i turn them down? i could not!

5. but where are the drawings?

6. do you think i should have gone to college? maybe i should have gone to college.

7. i seemingly have an uneasy relationship with, uh, everything. but right now i'm just wasting time. which brings us to

8. did you see that? it's as big as a house.

9. i can't think of anything else interesting to write.

10. i should have stopped at #1!

(i'll be back to tomorrow. but regrets are for today.)

then there's what the scientists are doing...

2011-09-29T13:34:00.000-04:00

i spent about an hour typing words out underneath these two drawings and then deleted it all. if you don't think these drawings are interesting, then you're certainly not going to find anything that i have to say interesting and it doesn't matter anyway.

right?

anyway, everyone knows that i talk to much. it's, like, a scientific fact.

no one likes the weird kid who sits by himself

2011-09-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

everything is terrible

2011-09-01T13:47:00.000-04:00

my brain tells me that if i don't complete a cover for (doodle attack #2), i will never finish the rest of it. so, in a way, i've compromised with myself. yes, it's getting worse, my tearing up drawings before i finish them. often times, it's when i'm very, very close to finishing. in the trash they go.

i have no idea what number cover this. i'd like to think it's 50. (it's probably not 50.) a lot of times when i'm doing this stuff i start to freak out because i just assume i'm drawing the same thing over and over again (well, in a way, i am) but what i have a hard time figuring out is did i really draw it before or did i draw it before and then throw it in the trash? i mean, does it really exist? and then i usually black out and wake up hours later, sometimes in a strange alleyway. naked. alone. cold.

tempted as i am to discuss certain things about this drawing, i am thankfully rescued by common sense and my desire to not bore the piss out of anyone (let's be honest, does it really matter?). i mean, come on. the only thing worse than having to look at someone's crappy art, is having to listen to them talk about it. blah blah blah this represents blah blah blah what i was trying to convey here blah blah blah. maybe when we're all older and we have nothing to do we can talk about it. but, hey, i know you're busy so i'm going to go.

11 months later...

2011-08-03T01:27:00.002-04:00

no one knows about the hurricane.

2010-09-23T13:04:00.001-04:00

seriously, every time i post something on this blog, the image function changes. it's incredibly annoying. i never know how the images are going to appear, and what's worse, i can't really correct them. maybe that's why i was going to start a new blog? yeah. maybe.

anyway:

ah, i tried to get good photos of this, i swear. just not in the cards, i guess.

much like the two "spells for reclaiming" drawings, i used a left over jason molina poster but this time covering the front and not the (blank) back. you can see some of the silk screened image there underneath. threw down a layer or two of paint and then went at it. so, it's really several layers of images i did there, starting at one end of the paper with one color and then flipped it around and it went over it with another.

at some point i think i set it aside, unsure what to do with it, and then started it again with the black. but about 3/4 into the black, i gave up again and started using it as a mat. i mean, i just sort of drew on top of it, stressing the image underneath. i even contemplated cutting it up into pieces for another project i had in mind. it was very nearly going to go into the trash, or be hacked to pieces when i figured i might as well finish the goddamn thing. so...i did. and then added the white highlights.

i know it's hard to make out, but this really ended up being a complicated piece for me. and even though it was killing me to finish it, i did it anyway. not sure what was compelling me, i was sure it was absolutely awful. i look at it now, and i don't really think it's awful. i look at it and think: why the fuck did i spend all that time stressing over it? but ultimately, setting it aside several times is probably what saved it.

the dead. and stuff.

2010-09-23T12:55:00.004-04:00

for some reason...i had it in my head to start over. that is, start another blog, wiping the slate clean. but then i said to myself: "that's stupid." so...there is no new blog. there is only this old one. and now i have some things to post. and i'll do that starting...now.

here are two that i did one right after the other. out of a kind of frustration of not being able to draw anything, i decided to just draw "nothing" in the sense that i just let my hand do whatever it wanted to, without thinking about it. it didn't matter if it was "right" (if there is a right), in fact the more wrong the better. and by "wrong" i mean: even if what i'm doing is automatic, once i start a wrong progression, i'll generally just scrap it. but this time i didn't care. i mean, it really doesn't matter, right? right. so, kind of liberating in a way.

and then i did this:

which also doesn't mean anything, but there it is.

it's like an oven, a very very hot oven.

2010-08-11T12:15:00.003-04:00

growing quite fond of using a real brush lately. not that i don't like my pen; it's really great for something quick and on-the-go. but, honestly, i'm hardly ever on-the-go, mostly just sitting at my drawing table so i can use whatever i want. the pen is portable, but i'm a "sitting in one place" kind of guy. which is why i abandoned using a brush in the first place; i was doing a lot of drawing in places other than my drawing table.

i don't even use fancy brushes. just a pack of them i picked for a couple bucks a few years ago. i noticed that when i start to buy fancy brushes, things happen to them. mysterious things. so if i fuck up the cheap brushes, no big deal. i can just throw them out and get new ones.

anyway, it had been a little while since i drew anything, so i just kind of busted out the brush and doodled this. seems to me like the word doodling has a negative connotation, which is unfortunate, because i think it really applies to what i do. even the laborious doodling. i mean, i can say that about any drawing i've ever done. it really just comes down to being a doodle. i don't want to give people the false impression that i meticulously plan a drawing out (i hardly ever!), most of them just start with goofing around. just so you don't think i'm lazy, i don't mind planning things out, but since i basically draw for myself, it ends up just being rather immediate. even though that immediacy sometimes takes a few days to finish.

...and then came this thing which is, in a way, similar to something i had done earlier (i realized as i was doing it) but also my desire to occasionally incorporate color into my work but never really knowing a way to do it that satisfies me. this one is colored pencil and ink, using my limited selection of color pencils (oh, because i never use green...). i like using canvas, which i want to return to soon, but i also think that if i do it i have to do it BIG. like real big. but there space limitations here so...i don't know.

even as i look at this now, again it's similar (always, always) to other things i do, but really if you look at it it's not. it's really just another big doodle (see above). well, it's sort of a planned doodle in a way because i laid the color pencil down first, but when i started to ink it...it became a doodle.

i realize that i have a hard time composing things beforehand because sometimes it takes me a long time to draw something, and i have things i'm trying to push out onto the paper as fast as i can. but there are limitations and i am kind of stuck to how to get everything out of my head at once, so i end up just...doing these kind of things. i;m either going to reconcile this one day or just go completely fucking mad. or take a long nap.

spells for reclaiming II, or: the panty-dropper.

2010-06-07T22:57:00.000-04:00

hey! hello! did you miss me? how have you been? have a seat. anywhere is fine.

couple things about this drawing that might be of interest:

1. no borders. seriously, i prefer the comfort of boundaries. i like knowing when to stop. if i don't give myself something to run up against, i'd end up drawing all over the walls. or my pants. it would be a real mess. but, this time, i threw caution to wind. watch out, pants, i said.

2. i did all of it with a brush. i haven't drawn with a brush (outside of doing some custom toy work) on paper in a very long time. you know my weapon of choice is a pentel pocket brush (which mimics a brush-brush), but i really like using a real brush. and i used the same crappy, splintery, cheap #3 whatever-the-fuck-it-is brush i've had for, like, ever. it's fun because my hands are like precision machines and i can get the thinnest of lines and fattest of lines and i don't even have to switch. this makes me a badass.

3. this is a result of me not being able to draw anything for several weeks. this is actually how i end up producing a lot of drawings. they are born out of frustration. i've learned to live with it.

synapses aren't firing? have some cake!

2010-04-28T14:00:00.000-04:00

i did these last week, i think, just hadn't gotten around to posting them.

the big was beating me, so i've been doing the little. sometimes when you're stuck, there's nothing more overwhelming than thinking you have to fill as much space as humanly possible. maybe that's a lot like life? some of us fill too much space. and i'm not talking about weight, i mean cosmically.

so that first one there, i forgot what it was like to not fill up all the space. i mean, really. i just became preoccupied with covering as much of the paper as humanly possible (this was intentional, initially, just so you know) that it never occurred to me to not do it. out of habit, yes, but maybe also out of fear. i like "less is more" i just have a hard time applying it to what i do.

anyway, i posted them in reverse order, since i did the first one second after thinking: why don't i just use less space? i understand that filling up that space with black is, technically, filling up space, but...i think you know what i'm getting at here. look at what i was doing a couple years ago and you'll see at some point i went nuts and decided (in a compulsive way) that i had to cover as much of the paper with lines as possible. and then i couldn't stop. and maybe that's what happened when i was faced with these large surfaces: i became overwhelmed with the idea. or maybe i'm growing out of it. who knows!

i also think the cramming as much detail in there thing comes from a desire to show off. to be honest, cramming detail isn't really a skill. i guess you need some patience, but it's waay easier to do than, say, have the ability to actually draw. so, really, i'm trying to compensate for my lack of technical skill. i can't tell you how many times people have said to me: "wow, that's a lot of detail!" instead of: "wow, that's a good drawing!" i mean, it's a compulsion, not a skill.

i will admit though, that i think i have some skill. for instance, i think i'm a better artist than my vacuum cleaner. my vacuum cleaner is really good at what it does, so i'm not trying to diminish it's value in the world. vacuum cleaner, i love you.

veronical.

2010-04-09T15:24:00.000-04:00

so this new fancy version of blogspot is kind of cool. the upload is clunky, but the imaging editing afterwards is pretty cool. you know what else would be cool? if I COULD GET RID OF ALL THIS SPAM THAT ATTACKS MY BLOG EVERY FUCKING DAY. seriously, it's ridiculous. not even captcha works. it's getting to the point where i'm considering disabling the comments. plus, i just don't feel like removing the spam anymore. the spam terrorists have won.

anyway, where was i? oh yeah...

so i screwed my back up last weekend and then i started this drawing. but after an hour of sitting at my drawing table, it made my back worse, so i didn't get to finish it even though these little drawings don't generally take more than a couple hours. it was sitting there, on the table, taunting me for several days. and then i started to get really bummed out because i haven't really drawn anything in a couple weeks. i don't feel productive as it is (no sympathy, i'm mostly to blame here). also, i was off of work for the entire week, with the aforementioned back problem and even though my work recommended that i stay home for a few days, it doesn't look like they're going to pay me. so, what i'm getting at here is: if you want to buy this drawing it's going to be $200. ha ha. just kidding. no i'm not. okay, yes i am. but not really. etc.

but, what i wanted to say here was: i kind of feel like i've reached a plateau with these portraits, just more wheel spinning, really. i've wanted to do the veronica lake for awhile, but i don't think i'm going anywhere with them now. i know, i say this all the time. ignore me, ignore me.

if you were wondering (someone must be, i'm sure), i've sold about 2/3 of the DOODLE ATTACK print run (most of it in the first week). shocking, really. but just so you know, as soon as i'm through with the 100, i'm never reprinting them.

lobster skull

2010-03-28T13:56:00.003-04:00

this was an xmas gift from the ol' lady. took me awhile. about 3 months, actually, off and on. couple of weeks ago, i was on vacation, so i went into the pottery joint almost everyday to finish it up.

interesting how it looks almost totally different than it did before it was fired. not that it's a bad thing. i did purple, and then white line work, and then black line work over it. most of the white burned away, leaving some highlights, but i think it looks really good that way. it's kind of big, too. 7". most of the time was spent on the face, going over the contours. total bitch!

these photos aren't super awesome, but it gives you an idea what it looks like. if you really want to see it in person, i guess you're going to have to come over.

NAGA vs. MRC

2010-03-23T18:43:00.002-04:00

2 blog posts in less than an hour???

holy cow. what's the deal?

i meant to post this a couple days ago. but i'll do it now. because it's totally my blog and i can do what i want.

this is nagawika's (or, naga wika, of you will) drawing of me. if you know me, then you know photos of me are a rare occurrence. mostly because i hate hate hate to have my photo taken. but i couldn't resist having naga draw me, mostly because he's awesome. he's so awesome, he doesn't even have a website. which is madness, really, because he's great caricaturist and makes some fantastic cartoons. and, for real, this is totally what i look like, even if i hate it and it makes me realize how goofy i look. but there's no denying, naga nailed it. so if you have the opportunity for nagawika to draw you, do it.

the idea behind this image of me is this what my drawings see what i'm drawing them. brilliant. and...scary.

bad vibrations

2010-03-23T18:14:00.002-04:00

1. the colors are a little whacked on this. the green and brown are little over-saturated, i tried to adjust in photoshop, but...well, look what happened. that's colored pencil by the way. oh, and black ink.

2. i've used green and brown a lot lately. must think of new colors!

3. when i draw, i usually start in the middle-ish and then work around. i'm right-handed, so i generally will do left to right, top to bottom (makes sense, right?). on this, i started on the left. and then went right to left. weird. i never do that. it was like it was always upside down. which i do a lot of, too. flip the paper when i get bored. this probably contributes to why everything i draw lately seems like it's floating. i have no idea why, but this how my brain operates now. maybe it's trying to tell me something? maybe i secretly want to be an astronaut.

4. generally, as of late, i've tried not to do any specific style. i made an effort to make this more rounded. been watching a lot of cartoons lately, so i tried to stick with one kind style. usually, i go with the heavy, but this one is more...bouncy. does that make sense? no? yeah, i'm not sure, either.

anatomy of a murder

2010-03-12T14:36:00.003-05:00

...is an excellent movie directed by otto preminger featuring a soundtrack by duke ellington. there's this photo of otto hanging over the piano as duke plays (which, for some reason, i couldn't find a decent image of) and i'm reminded of the story of when the zombies appeared in bunny lake is missing, premmy didn't seem to get the concept of the band playing to a pre-recorded track so he kept screaming at them during the filming of the scene to play live. i don't know if this is true. seems like a bunch of bullshit to me: otto preminger, seasoned director, not getting the concept of bands not playing live on the set? weird. of course, directly related to this in a way, robert altman always insisted that all "live" music be played live on the set.

and there you go, two excellent directors that had two different ways of doing things.

what does this have to do with the doodle attack book? erm, nothing, of course.

so, yeah, it's finished. 28 pages + covers, black & white, 8.5" x 5.5", print run of 100. it's $4 shipped, and you can contact me at: blackirish72@yahoo.com or wait until the gigposters add pops in the next day or so.

ballard

2010-03-07T15:41:00.003-05:00

i'm pretty sure, about half-way into this one, that i left the room and it finished drawing itself.

i know where i'm going

2010-03-05T16:20:00.002-05:00

11" x 14". goddamn, i love my new scanner.

i did this one in 2 days, which equaled about 4 hours of work. kind of a record for me for something of this size as it would have normally taken about 3 or 4 days to do if i was really cranking on it.

also, this is the kind of stuff that i do when i can't think of anything else to do. and i couldn't think of anything else to do but felt like i should do something since i had not for a little while. so out of frustration, this is what came out. which looks a lot like all the other stuff that i do and now you're thinking: all those other drawings were done out of frustration and not really having any other ideas. that's half right, i guess.

but i was/am stuck and if i sit around and think about it too much it's going to turn into the last time i took an extended break and that turned into about 10 years. but no one missed me, i just turned into the guy that invites himself to all the parties that no one really gave much thought about. in real life (this life in particular) i am not a party crasher. trust me, i'm the guy that doesn't show up because i know that when i leave everyone is saying: uhg, why did he show up? he eats all the food, hi-jacks all the conversations and totally thinks he knows everything.

for the record, i don't know nearly as much as i think i do (duh), but i will eat all your food. i am also a lousy conversationalist. except, sometimes, i will admit when i am able to hold a room captive and i know i have just kicked a ton of ass. but that probably happens once every 10 years or so. back to hibernating.

you're wondering: what does this have to do with that drawing, exactly?

well, everything. but mostly it's just...look, do not invite me to your party, okay? i will eating all your fucking food.

hey, i have something interesting to post in a couple days.

no one ever said it was easy

2010-02-19T17:54:00.003-05:00

today's post is not about me. i know, why would i want to direct your attention to someone other than myself? i have no idea. ok, i do. i think this is worthy of abandoning my ego for a moment.

so today's post is about my friend greg bardoni and this little collection of strips he's compiled called bunny fluff. i should tell you a little bit about greg first, though. you might want to get to know him. he smokes a lot, and can draw like a motherfucker. he has the best taste in comic books of any individual i've ever met in my life. greg is a serious, old-school, hand drawin', no computer usin' artist. if it wasn't for greg, i'm not sure i would have ever started drawing again (after pretty much abandoning it for several years).

greg came up with this strip, bunny fluff, and it's insanely delightful. i know that sounds silly, and if you know me, you can probably count the times i used the word delightful to describe something on one hand, and missing some fingers at that. but, that's what this is. delightful. it is simple and streamlined. also, it is subversive. but in a total wholesomely weird kind of way.

so, i think you should check this out. greg doesn't own a computer, that's how fucking cool he is. you might say, "get with the times, dude" but i say, "way to go." does greg own a cell phone? nope. does greg own some original jack kirby pages? yes. and that's why he is so much cooler than the rest of us.

you can write to greg at:

swell books
po box 71203
rochester hills, MI 48307

yes, that means you'll have to get some stamps. maybe and envelope. the books are $2.50 each ppd, but maybe he'll help you out if you want all four. i can't promise you anything. or, if you're afraid of the post office (and let's face it, most people are) you can contact me (blackirish72@yahoo.com) and i can send you some books.

and then when you get them, and you've enjoyed them, you can tell greg how great they are and he'll do more. because we want more. yes. we do.

greg's intentions was to make this a daily strip, but he collected them into 4 little books instead. but given the opportunity, i think this would really make a great daily (and that's how it's composed anyway).

jeanne.

2010-01-26T19:02:00.003-05:00

hey. saddle. hello.

i should mention that this was a request from my wife who thought it would be a good idea to do jeanne moreau. not a bad idea, i think. she has some very distinctive facial features, so i wanted to make sure they came through.

i should also mention that these drawings aren't meant to be flattering or unflattering. while i was doing this one, i kept thinking: man, i'm really making her ugly. but then i forgot the purpose of doing them which is...that there is no purpose. just a platform, really.

big paper, small hands

2010-01-18T17:56:00.003-05:00

sorry i haven't kept up with the portraits. still into them, i just sort of hit a snag, got really frustrated momentarily, and got on track with something else. currently working on a 7" pottery skull and this huge thingy right here that's taped to my wall.

38" x 50" sheet of stonehenge white. i meant to do some progress shots but...aw, hell, you know how i am. i haven't made it super far yet, obviously. i even started it once and flipped the paper over. it was a conflict of tools, since i began with my pentel pocket brush but decided that i would never ever in a million years finish it because of the little lines, and holding my arm up to do it was really bumming me out. wish i could throw it on the floor, it would be a lot easier with lines that small. so, instead, i just grabbed a regular fat brush and went to town. much easier, bigger strokes. less fatigue. i can't say how long it's going to take me to finish. i imposed a deadline on myself. it's for someone, and i wanted to finish it by next month, but i'm not sure if that's going to happen.

anyway, i'll try to remember to keep posting progress shots.

or...i won't. sigh.

grrroucho.

2010-01-05T21:56:00.002-05:00

i hope (a little) that i'm able to convey a bit of the original personalities in these interpretations. there's a part of me that's really conscious of it, but then there's part of me that doesn't really think it matters in the end. it kind of doesn't. that wasn't the original idea.

but i'll give you a guess to who this is...okay. think you have it? that's right. it's william powell. good guess!

heddy.

2010-01-04T18:09:00.003-05:00

i should be working on the giant drawing, but i've been having a lot of fun with the little ones. it's instant gratification, really. it's been a long time since i've been able to whip out a drawing in an hour or two.

also, i'm not used to using photo references. it's weird, but also kind of fun. i wish i could say that i'm like frank frazetta and can draw anything that i picture in my head perfectly, but the reality of it is that i cannot. at all. so...references, it is.

i would like to tell you that i plan on doing a bunch of these, but every time i have a plan it goes to hell so bother talking about it? this is what i'm doing right now. that's all that matters. it is also the first drawing of 2010. which means nothing. but some people are into that shit. meant to do this yesterday (or the day before i guess) but it seems like i don't draw on the weekends. which makes no sense. i mean, it's not a job or anything. i'm so weird sometimes. even i don't get me. chee.

cary.

2009-12-31T18:53:00.002-05:00

this year (if you want to talk about this year) i made my first million. and i was nominated for an academy award. or maybe it was a people's choice award. i can't remember. the important thing, though, is that i didn't win. that's important because i've never made a big deal about it. i didn't feel the need to blog about it or talk about it on tv. because i'm a private person. or cagey. depending on who you talk to.

but i do respect your privacy. i just want you to remember that. just in case something weird happens.

orson.

2009-12-29T17:15:00.005-05:00

the shining wire 2.

2009-12-21T17:34:00.003-05:00

another stab at the shining wire art. dig my hi-tech template?

i think i'm looking for this to be a bit more spontaneous. probably get it on try #367. stay tuned.

cathedral dragon

2009-12-14T17:17:00.003-05:00

more of the same nonsense as the above, and still in the middle of other things that i should be working on right now but decided to spend my precious time whining on twitter about how everyone hates me. which i do not (fully) believe, but i did it anyway because...well, i have no idea.

bah!

i really need to relax. i get it. really i do.

also, today, i was thinking of something to post that wasn't about art, but was about music but then the more i think about it, the less i think i should do it. i already abandoned my idea awhile ago to write about some things (art and comics and stuff) that i like/influence me, but then chucked the whole idea out the window in favor of sporadic posts of my silly little drawings. because i assume that everyone (the 6 of you, apparently) would rather look at the scribbles and read me ranting like a right fucking loon than maybe read something interesting or informative.

i seriously need help.

laughing in you

2009-12-09T18:24:00.003-05:00

currently working on a couple things at once which is sort of difficult for me. hard to concentrate and all. plus, the time factor. anyway, feeling kind of stuck, so this is what i do when i'm stuck: grab some paper and go to town. nothing out of the ordinary, really. just an auto exercise.

sometimes if i have to involve myself in something that requires thinking, then it's best to distract myself with not thinking. hence, this drawing. not much thinking involved. just let my pen go where it wants to go.

back to work on the shining wire stuff now!

the shining wire.

2009-12-04T15:10:00.004-05:00

oh, hello. didn't see you come in. have a seat.

no, anywhere is fine. mind the cats, though.

anyway, i've probably said this a million times (as i like to repeat myself), but i'm not really a "design" guy, more like a "drawing" guy. so when i have to do something that i usually think of design work and not drawing work...i get stuck. it's not like i have all this design work piling up, really. i'm mostly just "drawing."

also, i do not really post works in progress or things of that nature because...well, i throw out about half of what i do (that is, things that i do not finish) so it seems pointless to show anyone unless it's complete. i also think that if i start showing off before i finish something, i'll jinx myself and then i'll end up tossing it anyway. i don't think that, i know that. because i do it all the time.

i'm doing the cd art for the shining wire. kind of this groovy, old dirty synthy kind of thing with the drone thrown in. i was going to approach from the angle of just doing a drawing that i normally do, but then i thought i would cater it more towards what i thought would represent the music more. (ha, which is the point of the project. since it's not my band. is it any wonder i never get outside work?) so that, to me, is the economy of the line. which, obviously, i know nothing about. i mean, you've seen what i do. total noise on paper, really.

not only am i trying something a little different, drawing-wise, i figure maybe i'd do a work in progress kind of thing, too. why not!

this was the third thing i came up. where are the first 2? not really important. i know, it's cheating, but seriously, they were nothing.

the cd packaging is a fold out cardboard wallet kind of thing. the idea is to maximize the image area, even though i'm trying to make it as sparse as possible for me. i was going to do it in panels, but then changed my mind and decided it would be easier to just use the whole template. which got me here:

my biggest worry here, with the simplification, is that it's starting to resemble pin striping in a way. it might just be in my head, but i really don't want to go down that path. you know, the pin striping path. it's weird. and the people there look at you funny. shiver.

instead of making it as dense as possible (miss you, old friend) i'm actually trying be...incomplete. which is torture in a way, but also liberating. i think i like the the line work in the initial drawing more than this one, the more i look at it. i'm sure i'll draw this a thousand times before i figure out. but it's a step in...well, in some direction. i have a lot of hair to pull out yet.

shrinky pete

2009-11-19T13:18:00.002-05:00

this is shrinky pete. he's for the shrinky dink show going on in december. had to keep pete pretty basic 'cause of the shrinkin' (8" x 10" sheet to about 4" tall) and i didn't want to lose too much detail. he's kind of sickly yellow and brown 'cause that's the kind of shrinky dink shrinky pete is. what i'm saying is, if you have have pete over for dinner and you tell him to wash his hands, he's probably lying. you might want to make him do it in front of you just in case.

uh, the book is pretty much ready to print, by the way. just waiting for the cover to come together (technically speaking) and then...that's it. 32 pages. of stuff. sometime soon.

on your knees

2009-10-29T15:49:00.002-04:00

what did i do on my winter vacation? other than get paid to not be at work for a week?

not much!

so this second drawing...it's weird. i mean, it's as close to drawing in my "old" style that i've probably come to in a long time. and my old style...i don't know. looks something like that. i guess: more composition, which i'm sort of throwing out the window lately. i'm into the "if it doesn't belong there, throw it in" mindset lately, but let's be honest here: nothing i'm doing is particularly daring.

i'm a poseur!

i'm just drawing for the book now. that would be the second one. because i still haven't had the first one printed. and why wouldn't i work on the second one if the first one isn't finished? why wouldn't i! you know, it may never happen, and everything i do is for something so when i say things like, it's for _____, i'm really just talking out my ass.

for real: it's all for nothing. that is to say, it doesn't really matter what it's for because it's nothing in the grand scheme of things. cosmically speaking, of course.

sooner or later, that's all i'm going to say.

blow out comb

2009-10-12T14:57:00.004-04:00

book cover for the, erm, book i guess.

at some point i thought: i have to stop adding these lines, you know? it was going to be a little more restrained, maybe to match the contents. (older stuff, mostly, simpler style) but then...well, it kind of got away from me.

seriously, who am i fooling? it looks like everything else i do. why pretend i was going for something else? silly.

anyway, this is the idea for the book: older drawings, a few more recent ones. i had thought about just scrapping the older stuff since it's...a little different. and who cares right? but then i thought i could just get it out of my system and start over and not do one of these things every 10 years. i mean, that makes a little more sense, right?

also, i don't actually own any copies of a fair amount of stuff that i've done over the last 3 or 4 years. if it was too big to fit on my scanner, then i only took a crappy photo of it and was waaay too lazy to stitch the scans together. or, there was color involved (i had planned on just doing a book of color drawings but decided it was too expensive) and those drawings weren't going to work for a black and white book. or...i'm kind of stupid and i probably just dumped whatever hi-res i had off my HD to make space.

i know: silly.

don't ask me when this is coming out, i have no idea. it's been off and on for a couple years now. but i figured if i at least did the cover then it might motivate me to wrap it up. because, really, now that the cover is finished, it's pretty much wrapped up.

good morning, sunshine.

2009-09-18T13:42:00.003-04:00

yeah, finally got off my lazy ass and did something. this (specifically) is for i want your skull, but there's never any telling that it'll get used. but everything i've submitted so far has, so i have no complaints. it's kind of loose, in a poorly composed cartoon panel kind of way. please keep in mind that i have mr. magoo-like depth of field. mr. magoo haters to the side!

this guy gets it.

2009-09-09T16:16:00.001-04:00

white. space.

2009-08-24T16:13:00.002-04:00

wasn't able to touch this for a few days, and was going a little nuts figuring i only had a little more to do on it but couldn't. but once i erased the pencil lines i decided...that i was finished. i know! look how much white space there is! i can't believe it, either!

i also realize that it looks like a mutating shrimp.

they were supposed to be elephants.

maybe.

i can't even think of a title for this one. the only thing that was bouncing around in my head was "fuck fest."

giant, fucking, mutating shrimp. in a festive setting.

look at all that white space!

08.18.09

2009-08-18T09:25:00.003-04:00

after work, before bed. why not? also, after work, before bed, and with a beer. yes, i drink beer before i go to bed. yes, that is in the am.

on a completely unrelated note, i'm sooo excited to be having roladin for dinner tonight. haven't had it in years and it's sooo good. my dear sainted mum will be preparing it, which is even better. i never realized it was a german dish, and i've neither have i had it outside of my mom's cooking. always wondered how it would be made by someone else. not that i don't like my mom's roladin, i obviously do (obviously), but it's not, like, a common restaurant menu item. but, how many german restaurants have i been to? uh...none? weird.

08.17.2009

2009-08-17T17:12:00.002-04:00

everyday i'm doing this! everyday!

ok, my new work schedule pretty much just makes me sleep and, er, work. and the worst part about it is that i'm not even working as much, just sleeping more. sad.

but i did spend 2 hours today drawing stuff and that's some kind of personal record for me. and that's 2 hours straight. i know, you think it's funny, but i can't sit still at a drawing table for usually more than an hour at a time.

08.13.2009

2009-08-13T20:39:00.001-04:00

i bet you thought i was going to skip today.

didn't you?

surprise!

08.12.2009

2009-08-12T17:37:00.003-04:00

ok, so i missed a couple days! sometimes i'm lucky if i remember to tie my shoes. although, i'm not forgetting to do these, i'm just not doing them in a time-restricted kind of way. but the idea of doing them is that i'm not spending a lot of time on them, just a few minutes on each one.

anyway, tomorrow. i promise! erg...

08.09.2009

2009-08-10T18:53:00.002-04:00

nothing substantial, just something i did yesterday with the idea of doing one little drawing a day. we'll see how long it will last, because, you know, i tend to abandon these things early on. also, sometimes i don't really have the time.

well, that's kind of bullshit. i do have the time, i think. i'm just lazy.

there! i said it!

spells for reclaiming part 1, or...gigantis fire drawing

2009-08-08T22:07:00.003-04:00

so i've got this stack of jason molina tour posters over here...yeah, i had to do something with them. big pieces of paper, discovered they're excellent for drawing on. absorb ink really nicely, drys super-fast. i had an idea to reuse the posters, that's where the "reclaiming" part comes in. plus, they're 22" x 17.5" and i don't normally draw that big.

unfortunately (or fortunately), i didn't really adjust my level of detail for the size. the idea was that i can do these big drawings and adjust the lines for the scale but...i didn't do that. it made me draw smaller.

i've probably mentioned this before, but sometimes it's all about line-weight and learning how to properly use your drawing tools even though i don't like setting up rules. i think it's very liberating (and frustrating too, i must admit) to not have any idea what you're doing. or, not knowing how you're going to solve a problem ahead of time.

i set this drawing up as a problem. i knew i was going to draw big, but i also knew that i didn't necessarily want it to look like anything. still trying to find the fine line between complete fucking chaos and...distinction, i guess. not sure how else to explain it.

i looked at this like it was a photo collage of sorts. that all the elements don't have to go together but in the big picture, they're one and the same. when i was working on it (and the fact that it took me several weeks to do) i lost the sort of creative momentum that would make it a unified drawing. so it's not. but it is. does that make sense? does it matter? eh, probably not.

when i was cool

2009-06-26T14:06:00.002-04:00

in 1988, i was on vacation with my parents somewhere (no idea where, sorry!) and we happened into a mall and then happened into a bookstore and i happened to buy...a book compiled by the rev. ivan stang from the church of the subgenius called high weirdness by mail. i had no idea who ivan stang was or had never heard of the church of the subgenius but the book, all about mail art and weird shit and how to get it into your mail box looked intriguing to me.

so, i bought it, i devoured it, i sent lots of monies to people and got a few things in return. this action also turned me onto factsheet five, which at the time was run by mike gunderloy.

let me add to this that this whole sequence of events was completely mind-blowing to me. i had no idea that this kind of world existed to this extent. i had no idea that i could even be a part of it. but something about these people creating anything and making it accesible to the world at large mostly for some stamps or a few bucks was...revelatory to say the least. i grew up on comics and it was around that time (a few years earlier, even) that i really started to get into the self-published movement. essentially tossing aside my superhero youth (which i've since rediscovered somewhat just so you don't think i'm a snob) for the dark and dangerous world of underground press.

this got me thinking: maybe i could do something like this! send it off to factsheet five and see what happens!

so i did. and i guess seeing that you could mix art with good ol' punk rock enthusiasm (that is: ranting about shit you're too young to know about) got me motivated to explore my inner-artist. i have no idea what my outer-artist was. i knew that i was never going to draw "real" comics. didn't have the chops to be a jack kirby or a wally wood. which is what made the whole underground comics thing so appealing to me. yeah, i was born in the 70s, so i missed the real underground movement, but i was also smack-dab in the center of the black & white boom of the 80s.

anyway, the first zine i did was called social vomit. give me a break, i was 16! the next was brain cancer, and then byoki. my friend will's dad was a lawyer, so we used to sneak into his office on the weekends and use up all his toner in his copier. i have to say that under no uncertain terms if it wasn't for will's help (i'm pretty sure i badgered him though) i would never have been able to get any of it started. i mean, i had no job and no money. too early for the kinkos hook-up days. it would have never happened.

i sent these horribly misguided things to factsheet five and...holy cow, started getting good reviews. i was astounded. and happy. because as anyone who knows me (or reads this blog) i need constant ego-stroking. i also sent them to other people as trade and met some really, really great folks. even to real comic artists i admired and got some nice responses. sent a few to some small-publishers and got nothing but rejection letters (and rightly so, let me add) but, eh, my ego wasn't nearly as fragile then. i had rejection letters from some of the finest independent comic publishers in this country, my friend. now that's something to be proud of.

i did this stuff off and on for a few years, maybe about 5, i think. and then...i don't know what happened. lost my drive i guess. put it all away for a long time. did one zine (using my kinkos hook-up) somewhere in the mid-90s and then pretty much just stopped making art. it got harder to do them, and i just think i felt like there wasn't really a movement to attach myself to. but, most likely, i did it to myself. i lost contact with will, and i think he probably got sick of helping me anyway. i don't blame him. i never offered him anything in return.

that review up there is from the zine book that gunderloy put together in 92. i remember hearing about it, but had never seen it. a friend of mine just gave me the book last week and it brought back weird memories. mostly how awful those things were, and also how i used to be productive. i don't have any of those zines anymore. haven't seen them since they were printed and i threw out all the original art years and years ago. i've recently been talking to will again, and he has them. we went out to lunch and he brought out the stack and i refused to look at them. i mean, i'm glad he kept them and i meant no disrespect, but it kind of freaks me out. i have no idea why, but i am immensely proud of what i did, and yet totally and utterly fucking embarassed at the same time.

so that's my story. about how i used to be cool. just like it says up there in the heading.

one of these days i'm going to finish the drawing i'm working on and post it up here. one of these days...

bad houses

2009-06-05T14:23:00.003-04:00

another one of those things i abandoned and then went back to. well, i don't know if i really abandoned it. implies that i never intended on finishing it. i think i had every intention of finishing it, just wasn't sure when. as it turns out, it was a couple of weeks later.

i throw out more things than i finish. this obviously cuts into my productivity. although, i think i'm trying a new angle. which is the "set it aside and go back to it later" angle. but, sometimes you know that there's no saving something. just not sure how much time i feel like devoting to a piece that i have to force myself to finish.

maybe it would help if i drew smaller? funny thing is, i used to draw pretty small. like, small-small. now i just want them to be bigger. i'm averaging 11 x 14 now. but i like the idea of doing something wall size. so if anyone wants me to do a wall, let me know!

skulded

2009-05-25T17:25:00.003-04:00

lil' thing i whipped up while not sleeping for ryan august's i want your skull zine. that is, if he uses it. and he may not. but i drew it anyway.

it's all about skulls. because that's what art should be about. just skulls. timeless.

now that i'm looking at the drawing, it totally reminds me of spy vs. spy. which i think is weird. i used to love spy vs. spy. i remember buying a big ol' collection of the original strips when i was very young and jusy loving the hell out of it. i don't have the book anymore, sadly. i wonder if it's still in print? i think i need to get it again.

green tea + kiwi

2009-05-22T14:45:00.003-04:00

okay, i guess i finished the painting. this was the sort of the thing that i was supposed to kick out pretty quickly, like the first painting i did, but for some reason it took me 3 months to do. essentially it's one big 18 x 24 doodle, i know, but that's how i do things.

long, long socks

2009-05-22T11:44:00.002-04:00

more mix cd covers. figured i'd post the second one in it's entirety before i cut it in half.

also did some pottery thing, painted a mug. you know, just for kicks. it's pretty basic. but it also makes me want to do something else. the place i did it at also has these kick ass skulls. so...i'm totally going to do a skull.

spent some time in new york this past week. i love it there. and that's probably why we're moving there next year.

thinking about maybe working on the big ass painting i've been hammering on for the last few months. it's almost finished, but i've been neglecting it. you know, like i do. with stuff.

tiger traps on the loose

2009-05-13T13:24:00.002-04:00

here are the links to the 2 tiger trap pieces (drawing and toy) i did for the lift's multiple personality show last weekend if anyone is interested in them. there were a lot of great pieces in the show, so feel free to check those out, too.

tiger trap 2D

tiger trap 360

kick out the JMZ

2009-05-11T17:27:00.002-04:00

not much to report around here. taking off to new york for a few days on friday. managed to do a couple of mix cd covers for a dude. a lot of music made before you were born. i'm so oooollllddd...ha, just kidding. but it is all older stuff. seems to be what i listen to nowadays. new metal. old music.

edit pockets

2009-05-09T16:48:00.003-04:00

just dropped the price on the drawing to $50. you can still use the link i posted below or contact me through here.

pockets

2009-05-02T16:19:00.000-04:00

selling some stuff here.

drawing and the t-shirts. lowered the price on the shirts a little ($1, big deal!) so i don't sit on them my whole life.

the previous deal with the extra drawing + the shirt isn't officially available, but hey, if you want me to draw something for you, let me know!

monster manual

2009-04-30T18:58:00.003-04:00

so i was kind of thinking about making my own monster manual. along with my own role-playing game. even though i haven't done that in a million years. not sure what's compelling me. anyway, since the monster book is in limbo, why not a monster manual?

tiger trap 2D

2009-04-26T17:21:00.002-04:00

the "2D" portion for the lift's multiple personalities 2 show. a variation of the toy design, just with more...um, stuff.

this is the first drawing i've done in a looong time where i penciled a lot of it out first. i got so used to just attacking with my pen right out the gate, that i find this method to be...tedious. for me anyway. but i gave it a try anyway. i generally like the results better when i plan things out, but i don't seem to have the patience for it anymore. so...i'm trying to retrain myself a little. i mean, i think i can balance the two, but i spoiled myself for awhile there. also, i really hate erasing pencil lines. gar.

this beat my spirit post, i guess. i'll get around to it. i promise!

self-indulgent for the block, alex.

2009-04-26T02:29:00.001-04:00

the idea of this blog, initially, was to just focus on my art. but lately i've been thinking about other things. mostly because i'm not terribly prolific, and also because...it's my blog and i can do anything i want with it.

so in the meantime while you're waiting for me to finish my next masterpiece, i'm going to cover some of the comics and art-related things that have inspired and still inspire me, or shit that i think is cool and that you should know about. and maybe you all ready know about this stuff. i'm sure you do, you kids are pretty hip. but it doesn't hurt to be reminded.

don't expect tons of research or acurate historically information, either. because i'm lazy. i mean, i'll try to educate as much as possible, by jesus this is the fucking internet. it wouldn't hurt you to do a little looking around on your own.

the first thing i'm going to cover is going to be the spirit. and i'll post that in the next day or two.

i'm also finishing up a drawing for the multiple personalities 2 show so i'll post that, too, once it's finished.

tiger trap

2009-04-10T12:05:00.003-04:00

i try, try, try but there will always be at least one crappy photo in the bunch...

anyway, my piece for lift's multiple personalities 2 show. there's going to be 2D thing, but i haven't started that yet. of course.

uh, looks better in person? ha ha.

shirt army

2009-03-30T16:13:00.002-04:00

2 of the 5" x 7" drawings for the people that ordered them with the shirts. only $10 extra! people say i sell my stuff too cheap. i probably do. 's cool, though. one of these days i'll blow up and my originals will be worth millions! naaaaahhh...

balls, i had to start my multiple personalities 2 piece over. doing a wall thing and a toy but...had a paint problem and i couldn't fix it because it's on white. oh well. now it's going to be on black. have a better idea now, anyway. at least, that's what i tell myself.

wear me

2009-03-25T16:28:00.003-04:00

shirts! or, shirt.

they're up at gigposters so you can buy them there or you can get them directly from me. here's the deal: black ink on 100% cotton gildan short sleeve 6.1 oz tees. prairie dust! color is closer to the first pic than the second.

shirts are $16 ppd in the US, international add $3, please. i have the following sizes left: 3 s/5 m/2 l/2 xl. please contact me first for your size before ordering. i take paypal or cash/money orders. email is blackirish72@yahoo.com

also have another deal: for another $10 i'll do a 5" x 7" drawing for you. the extra bonus thing mentioned in the GP ad is already gone, sorry.

um, that's it. please buy these because i want to do more shirts!

i cast gray spells

2009-03-24T20:09:00.003-04:00

new drawing. um. obviously.

got the shirts today. they look great. i'll post photos tomorrow and ordering info. i only have 14!

painting?

2009-03-13T20:45:00.003-04:00

was working on another canvas that i had been working off and on for a few months. got to the point today where it just wasn't working for me. had another 18 x 24 blank canvas sitting around so i threw it on the ground and went to town on it while listening to circle's "triumph" lp (and a little bit of early floyd, too). took about an hour. this is what happened.

uh, i usual labor this stuff but it felt good just to push it out.

not sure about the outcome. kind of looks like something i would do, right?

kind of looking at "painting" in a new way now.

interesting!

automatic

2009-03-10T18:08:00.003-04:00

little drawings on 5" x 7" pads of stongehenge for a little book (5 x 7 or maybe a little smaller). drawings are done quickly, usually in 15 or 20 minutes, and generally at work during a break. also involves a word game, figure i'll about 30 of these (stonehenge pads are a 15 count).

also, doing another book that's almost finished, about 20 pages, and that's just a collection of drawings, a few old, mostly new-ish. maybe i've mentioned that one? maybe! kind of hoping that i can kick those out a few times a year. uh, i used to do these things pretty much every month. what happened to those days?

oh yeah, i was getting them printed for free.

anyway, t-shirts on the way, too. but i'm only doing a limited number. 12 - 15, i think.

bad badtz and good cats

2009-02-23T21:26:00.003-05:00

this is a "painting" of sorts. i mean, there's definitely paint on it, but then i just drew on it with it with acrylic drawing ink. it was for a show and i guess i didn't want to bother with the framing so i did it on canvas and voila! hangs itself.

i have another canvas that i've started and then i went out and bought 2 more huge canvases with the idea that i'm going to put something on them eventually. stay tuned.

by the way, this piece plus some other things are for sale here. cheap cheap!

saddle

2009-02-20T15:08:00.003-05:00

so...i think i solved the paper issue. millions of dollars and a tons of paper later, seems like stonehenge is the way to go. thanks to the kids at utrecht for letting me scribble on some sample sheets. i am...happy. it is heavy. it is durable. it takes ink like a champ. i'm still smudging, though. i cleaned up the first illo a little in photoshop, but the original is a little messy. people who buy my drawings take note. but, if you buy them, then you probably all aready know that. i think ink and coffee are a permanent fixture to my skin.

second drawing there is sort of a representation of a something i want to get going. conceptionally, i mean. real people interacting with my drawings. been kind of difficult to set it into motion since i need all the participants to be totally nude which is a big stumbling block so far. faces will be completely covered, which i thought might help out a little. not so much. anyway, if it ever gets going, i kind of excited about the whole thing. something different.

sex mad

2009-02-10T21:07:00.002-05:00

you know, like the nomeansno song.

brand upon the brain!

i am not canadian but i live very close.

i will not pretend for you. i am honest. honest!

give it up for the hornet's nest. it's right around the corner.

new maps of hell/nest/blank ships

2009-02-05T16:25:00.002-05:00

i used to regularly incorporate words into my drawings a long time ago. i think i stopped because i felt like it didn't fit into what i was doing at the time or i just became self-conscious. i don't do any narrative in my work, nor do i really have the patience to do a sequential story, although i wish that i did. i think the words were a way of supplementing that. i had an idea that i would start it up again but i'm not sure...only got as far as the one drawing.

i think i've pretty much decided that i'm just going to collect these drawings in a book now. remember when i said that i'm a terrible archivist of my own work? this has really become apparent as i'm collecting images. it was going to be a sort of split of old and new, but i'm discovering that i either never scanned some drawings, or i only have lo-res images. oh well...that just means i have to do more new stuff which is what i should be doing anyway. i have about 3/4 of the book filled. probably just do little 20 pagers and hopefully get them out a couple times a year.

i talk big, i know...

greenback

2009-02-01T17:06:00.002-05:00

my new classifieds are up at gigposters if anyone is interested.

http://www.gigposters.com/classifieds/useritems.php?user_siteid=8275

have a new drawing to post, but just haven't gotten around to it. soon? maybe?

dry dry river bed

2009-01-27T17:37:00.002-05:00

hey, look, two more. i am seriously just sitting here waiting for my clothes to dry. no joke. the dryer cycle is, like, 2 hours at least. it's crazy. so while i was waiting i drew a whole other picture. i didn't even think i was going to finish it but...i'm waiting for my clothes to dry!

expect the "waiting for my clothes to dry drawings" book...uh, never. you know me. it will never happen. i'll talk about it all day long, but will i actually do it? nooooo...

anyway, if i'm feeling ambitious later, i'll post that one, too. three posts in one day?!?!? holy cow!

wet clothes

2009-01-27T15:02:00.003-05:00

new drawings and i swear i haven't posted them on here before. ha...whatever. i have a lousy memory, what can i say?

not really doing anything huge or complex right now. just a bunch of little things. the second one is kind of a mini version of the bigger 11 x 17s i was doing. the other ones are just...you know, drawings.

have a couple of other new ones to post. one that i need to finish. but they're on the same paper so therefore i have to wait until i finish both before i can scan them. why? just because. there are rules around here!

lost in the dust

2009-01-22T19:24:00.004-05:00

since i moved, i'm discovering drawings that i don't remembering doing. strange. i'm a horrible archivist of my own work. seriously, if it ever happens that someone wants to do a retrospective of my stuff, good luck. i either only have crappy lo-res scans or i never bothered to scan it at all. you'll have to track down all the people who either bought the drawings or i gave them away.

i know, i'm really bad at this.

anyway, this one is going to be for sale soon!

i also have 3 new drawings to post which i will do...later.

bongout apparently are doing porcelain plates now of their work. i am totally fucking jealous. what would be cooler than eating off my drawings? i mean, i do that now, but now you can wash them and then do it all over again. porcelain plates! brilliant!

***i just discovered that i did post this before, in october 2006! i'm so lame!

raahhr, i'm a monster!

2009-01-20T17:45:00.004-05:00

these are the monsters from my half of the split book i'm doing with chris mostyn. i posted the cover awhile back and a few of the drawings are older, but i don't think i ever posted the new ones. uh, so here they are! posting them all now because i just sold all the originals i had so maybe one day the book will see the light of day.

i'm doing smaller drawings right now and selling them for cheap cheap cheap ($15 - $20 each) so if anyone is interested, let me know. when i finish them, i'll throw them up in the gigposters classifieds. sold the 10 drawings i put up there in less than 24 hrs, but like i said, i am selling them cheap cheap cheap.

not much on the horizon except i'm just going to try to draw more (uh, duh!) and maybe do some shirts if i can raise the cash. monster book, eventually...have a piece in the "chasing the dragon" show (asian inspired stuff -- actually seems really cool and more importantly different than what usually happens around here) this weekend in detroit but, uh, i failed to take a photo of the damn thing (ink drawing on canvas with some paint). admittedly, not my best work, was kind of rushed due to moving over new years and other nonsense. anyway, if i get it back, i'll take a photo and post it.

under the dresser

2008-12-29T00:28:00.003-05:00

actually, on top of the dresser, under a pile of books i still haven't gotten around to reading i found these 2 drawings i apparently did sometime in 2006 and forgot about. not sure what they were for, i vaguely remember doing them for something specific, though. but what? and what were they doing under a pile of books?

no idea.

i am selling my 10" MAD*L that i did for the lift show, plus i'm throwing in these two drawings for $225 if anyone is interested. moving this week, and i don't really have the room to store these things.

so, give 'em a home!

xmas rescue

2008-12-17T00:30:00.003-05:00

let's talk about the other thing this blog is doing. it's uploading the photos in reverse. so i now i have to add them in reverse in order to...bah! i'm dizzy.

anyway, holy cow this took a long time. same size as the other ones, 11 x 14, but for some reason i just couldn't find the time to work on it.

this also involves my continuing adventures in trying to find paper that's compatible with my pen. also a pain in the ass. since i'm not able to use bristol (or at least strathmore bristol), i was lead to believe that paris paper would be the next best option. disadvantage is that it's thinner which is a problem for me because i'm really used to drawing on bristol now. unfortunatly as it turns out, i was getting a lot of feathering on the paris paper, too.

arhg.

so, someone suggested bienfang graphics 360.

here's what i like about it:

it's super thin, like tracing paper, but holds ink really well. no bleeding when i'm laying it on thick. also, it really sucks up the ink evenly. black is really black. and...no feathering.

here's what i don't like:

it's super thin. paper curling drives me nuts. when i draw i tend to really lay all over the paper. seriously, i'm like an inch away from the surface. so...i noticed that i would inadvertently bend the paper because i'm top of it so much. i hate that.

i'm stuck on the, what do i do about the paper versus pen thing now. if i give up the pen i'll probably just go back to using a brush which means...not as much drawing since i do a lot of it at work on breaks. home time is spent doing toys generally. so that mean less of one or the other. it's a little frustrating. i'll stick with the bienfang for now, but i would really like to find a heavier paper.

blood on the sun

2008-12-17T00:20:00.004-05:00

kind of hard to capture the details on this one. lotsa red. i live in the worst lit house on the planet, i think. someone suggested using a contrasting background. i mean, like, duh! okay, okay next time.

similar, yes to pollo (this blog isn't letting me link to the post for some reason), but a companion piece. not that i initially planned on it. think just happened that way. i like to think of them as brothers but they are tragic because they will never meet. but always wondering where the other one is. maybe they don't even know of each other. that's worse, i guess. they will never know...

plaguewielder

2008-11-26T14:30:00.003-05:00

keep it simple, stupid.

yeah, i tend to overreach on things like this. i think i expect myself to "expand" artistically when i'm doing toys, but, really, i'm a big fan of the black and white. so i decided to stick with the black and white on this one.

anyway, came out pretty good, for the most part. you know how you usually go into these things and then you're finished and you think: man, i could have done that differently. well...yeah. i know, that's me. but this turned out pretty much the way i wanted. right on.

free coffee

2008-11-09T15:39:00.003-05:00

again. similar to the last one but...different.

i'm bad at redrawing. i know it will never look the same so why bother? so i didn't. still need to incorporate the name in there and i tried on the bottom, but for some reason i'm having a problem with the spacing even though it's usually easier for me to add it as i'm drawing the piece. anyway, that's what photoshop is for, even though i try to use it as little as possible.

i like some of the elements of both drawings, but was thinking of doing something a little grander as both of them are drawn relatively small. strange because i used to draw reeeeeeaaallly small and now i draw much bigger with a little details. have i ever told you how much i hate assembling scans? especially on my drawings. you should ask my friend mark how much he hates assembling my scans. he did the heavy winged cover for me. pretty sure he'll never do it again.

on the "woo hoo i bought new paper" front...woo hoo i bought new paper.

someone want to explain to me why 108lb paris paper feels lighter then the 100lb starthmore bristol? the first sheet i used (which was the drawing right up there) was causing the ink to feather like crazy. again! i was feeling completely crushed but continued on with the next drawing and...no feathering. i don't get it. but as long as it doesn't do it anymore from here on out i don't care.

right now taking a break from the t-shirt thing (momentarily) and working on some drawings for a book. you know how i'm always talking about them. don't expect to see this one for at least 10 years. they're smaller (for me) and more...book friendly, i guess, like i used to do so many, many years ago.

aQuaLungs

2008-11-03T14:09:00.002-05:00

here's 'nother t-shirt thing.

normally i would try to incorporate the name into the actual drawing, but i didn't with this one mostly because i wasn't feeling too confident about it. but after i started inking it, i ended thinking it was all right. well, it's not anything that can't be added later so no worries, really.

let's talk about the inking...you know how much i love that pen. but. the paper i normally use (strathmore) causes the ink to feather like crazy. i switched from vellum to the smooth and it seemed to eliminate most of the problem until i started inking this drawing and uhg...it looks terrible. i might have to re-draw it. i could probably spend hours in photo shop just cleaning it up (and believe me, brother, i've done this before...) but i think it would just be faster to redraw the stupid thing.

so, no more drawing until i get my ass across town to a store that has the paper i want. arrhhg!

quit their nod

2008-10-31T20:05:00.002-04:00

...i would never ever in a million years post in-progress or unfinished pieces of work. never. this is because i throw away more drawings than i finish. but i'm doing it now. normally you would say that this is a "thing for a thing" but it's not just a thing it's a something. deal is, i like aQuarius records a whole lot, saw that they were doing some limited edition shirts to help the store out, and i asked if i could do one. they said, well maybe, and here we are.

when i do things for people other than myself, i like to plan it out as opposed to just having at it like i usually do for myself. the reality of this is the planning is difficult for me, and i tend lose interest half-way through. but i never know if people want what they want or if they want what i'm going to give them. does that make sense? maybe not.

anyway, this turned into me practicing my line-weight apparently and i didn't really like the way it was going. think i tend to limit myself, composition-wise, since i always start out with a box. and then i put things inside of that box and...well, where can it really go? outside of the box? well, there are walls you see...

i think what i'm trying to say is, back to the drawing board...

let the devil come to me

2008-10-31T06:40:00.002-04:00

i'm wondering now, in light of this "roll" that i am on, if i need to change gears a little. i'm getting comfortable, i'm repeating myself...stylistically, i mean. that always freaks me out a little. also, makes me a little concerned.

i like to think that i can evolve. i have been, it comes in waves. funny how i don't even really draw the same as i did 6 months ago. i mean, it's still there, what i do. but it's different. and sometimes the format chooses me. the pen (i know, i know, stop talking about that pen!) made me go somewhere i might not have gone without a little shove.

i'm thinking i need another shove. but...i never know how to start it. but that's why it's good to step back. so i will do that. plus i'm working on some "real" stuff right now so i can always come back to this. and by "real" i mean more art. not that gay life shit. i'm done that. i am over it. no joke.

anyway, next post i'll do something that i never ever do. stay tuned!

pink eye-strain

2008-10-16T15:56:00.003-04:00

suicide, straight up

2008-10-10T16:48:00.005-04:00

i abandoned this one.

this was one of those "i'm going to plan it all out for a change of pace" kind of thing and...it wasn't working for me. i set it aside for a few days and then decided, sure, why not finish it?

as it happened (which is usually the case) i kind of just rode it out, not really sure what i was going to do with it. that's sort of a scary thing sometimes. well, since that's usually how i approach the drawings, i probably shouldn't sweat over it so much. but somewhere in the middle it hits me: i have no idea what i'm doing with this. but i probably talk about that all the time so maybe it's not worth repeating.

also, this is probably the messiest drawing i've ever done. seriously. i couldn't stop smudging the ink. and...the feathering. i really have to find new paper.

one of my co-workers thought it looked like woody woodpecker in there. don't think it was intentional. but then again, i've had birds on the brain since acquiring two finches. plus, birds are cool.

for all the valkyries

2008-09-26T14:24:00.003-04:00

i can't decide if i let this one get away from me too much. sometimes, when i'm drawing, there comes a point (usually about half-way) where i think to myself: what the hell am i doing? i think i hit that about a third of the way through this one.

on a different note, i'm beginning to wonder if i'm one of those people who would be well served by a...uh, manager of some sort. eh, not in a rock star kind of way, but i mean in a coordinating my artistic actions. i find myself constantly sabotaging every project i get involved in with by just, you know, talking. sometimes that involves me talking people out of doing something for me. i think i convinced someone (probably more than once) that they shouldn't make t-shirts with my drawings because it was a poor business decision and they would lose their ass if they invested any money into it.

well, okay!

really. silly, silly stuff.

anyway, i get really dirty when i'm making these drawings. i mean, i get ink everywhere. on the paper, on me...i'm always smudging lines with my hand because the ink isn't dry yet and i'm constantly moving my hand around. it's kind of annoying. but i've just learned to draw over it. but you should see the white edges of the paper. it's pretty crazy. like a 2 year-old.

light vampire vs. the emperor of the world

2008-09-13T10:02:00.004-04:00

more of the same. one color this time, i decided to let the black speak for itself.

i'm not trying to find any connection to these drawings so far. there are repeating themes, but...it's not about anything. just trying to push things out of my brain as fast as i can. i think that should be enough, eh?

gotta get while the gettin' is good.

excalibur

2008-09-04T01:47:00.003-04:00

i think, even for me, this is a little obsessive...

well, it started as a "real" drawing and then i got distracted (this happens a lot) and then it turned into this thing. really trying to concentrate on laying down the heavy lines and the thin lines and make them work together in the best possible way. i know i won't shut the fuck up about the pen but it's really making me approach drawing in a totally different way. when you're working with pens, it's hard to command it, you know? when i used to use brushes it was sort of easy to beat a line's ass and make it work for me but when i had to start to using pens...man, i had to rethink what i did again.

there is a part of me that doesn't want to tame the chaos and i don't care what happens. i mean, right now this is how i feel about it. i don't care if you look at it and think it's a bunch of lines on top of each other but if you care to look at it for longer then 30 seconds (fuck, man, 10 seconds) while your mind goes onto something else maybe you'll actually see something. and nothing heavy, but...something.

time. dirt. moody.

2008-08-27T11:29:00.003-04:00

this little guy was a challenge. i'm not going to lie (sorry, ted) i probably told at least one person (maybe two or three) that i found this thing to be quite difficult to work on. it's excessively contoured head is...a pain. but please keep in my mind that still have difficulties translating what i do to a 3D surface. i mean, could it be more bumpy?

but after much several missteps involving a horrible (horrible, horrible) color palette, i eventually found something i liked (purple! oh god, the purple!) and gave it a go. i sort of simplified what i do this time around, not so much of the completely covering and then doing it again, but drew back a little and...well, i think it works. sometimes less is more, right? i over-compensate, i won't lie. mostly to hide the fact that...er, i can't really draw.

so this moody is cheerily referred to as "twilight moody master altar of death" because i can't help but to string a bunch of words together that you won't remember.

i'd like to point out that i do these things in not the best environment. the initial spraying phase is done out in the garage where it is dirty, dirty, dirty. and...it gets all over them. so, if you ever see one of mine in person, and wonder why it's not very smooth, it's because it has layers of dust and dirt underneath the paint. it's not a aesthetic thing, it's a complete lack of respect for the artistic process.

egg city

2008-08-21T15:29:00.002-04:00

so here's the other new one.

i guess i decided i'm going to do a bunch of these loose 11 x 14 drawings. the pen makes it easy. super fun. i have no idea what the direction is, but i guess they're all kind of a two-color thing. really, i don't even care. i know i keep saying this, but i'm just having fun with it.

i'm doing these at work, at the night job on my breaks. so it's pretty disciplined. just sit down and draw draw draw. kind of nice because i seem to be knocking out a drawing every three or four days. not bad for me. well, it's pretty good for me, really. i can sometimes take a really long time but mostly because i don't have much time.

anyway, on to the next one!

when we captured fire island

2008-08-21T06:53:00.003-04:00

pen test #2!

seriously, i love this fucking thing. i can't stop drawing.

this was going to be...something. i got distracted and now it looks like i had a really long telephone conversation with someone and went doodle crazy. i'll have you know, though, that i don't doodle while on the phone. i pace. good lord, so much pacing. drives people nuts. i love it.

i like the idea of drawing stuff on top of stuff so it almost looks like...mmm, like you can't really make it out, but if you look really hard, you can see something going on. someone once described my drawings like one of those images where you have to stare at the dot and then you look away and you see the image on the wall. i really like the idea of that, but i'm not quite there yet.

i already finished another drawing! i know! i told you i can't stop.

new canning teqniques

2008-08-17T18:40:00.002-04:00

pen test!

so i switched pens. it's kind of a bid deal for me. when i found the pitt brush pen a few years ago it was a life-changing experience. i really like using a brush, but since i have to do 99% of my drawing on the go, i had to think of something else. pitt's are awesome because they have a flexible tip that mimic a brush tip. and they're relatively cheap. unfortunately, they are difficult for me to get (like pretty much all art supplies for some reason) and i've noticed that everytime i buy a batch, half of them are bad. bummer.

so, i invested in a pentel pocket brush pen. totally awesome. has a real (synthetic) brush tip, and it's refillable. also nearly impossible for me to get, but the refill thing is a no-brainer since i can refill the cartridge if i want.

they only downside is that the ink bleeds like crazy on the paper i like to use, bristol vellum. i use the strathmore, mostly because i spilled a glass of coke on a drawing once and it wiped right up without any staining. miracle paper! i switched to the bristol smooth which is a lot better, but still feathers a little. if someone has any suggestions for better paper, i'd like to hear it. i don't know much about the stuff. up until a few years ago, i just drew on 20lb copy paper until a friend of mine urged me to switch to something a little better.

anyway, i've been drawing like a fiend with this pen. i mean, i'm actually enjoying it. which is strange. because usually it's such a chore.

this is the first thing i did. that's a little pitt brush pen underneath the black ink. just finished another drawing (they're 11 x 14) and started a third. it's making me draw a little differently, definitely looser, but i think it's an adjustment thing. i'm not even thinking about what i'm doing right now just laying down some lines and seeing what happens. no expectations, just pure motherfucking drawing freedom.

it's the best.

the talentless cobra part 2

2008-08-14T02:28:00.002-04:00

i don't want you to think i am bragging here. i'm not bragging. i am not a professional artist and i do not make a living from my work. i have been lucky to have a few people who have taken an interest in what i do and i must tell you i appreciate it more then you can ever know. ever since i was very small and when i began reading comics it's the only thing i've ever really wanted to do with my life: make art and make a living at it. i understand that the likelihood of this is pretty slim and my mark on the world will be non-existent, but it doesn't mean i enjoy it any less.

when i'm not tearing my hair out, of course.

so i put it up for a $1000, handed it off the lift, and waited for the day of the show. thinking it was pretty funny. no way, a $1000 still means NFS.

the night before the opening, the lift posted the entries with their little placards and prices. scrolling through i saw mine (ha ha i laughed to myself) and then...another one. another for a $1000. keep in mind that i don't think any of the other pieces were any higher than $250.

what the fuck? i thought. i mean, mine was that much because it was a joke, what's this other guy's story. well, that other guy did a 20" (mine being a 7", and then there are 4" minis) and it's pretty spectacular.

so the lady and i get to the show and the first thing dan from the lift says to me (actually, it was the second thing he said to me, but please play along) is "i sold your munny." now i just assumed he was lying. why? because it was motherfucking $1000! ahem. so, i told him he was nuts. no, he said, i did. do you want to see the red dot?

man, i almost pissed my pants. or fainted. or...something equally ridiculous. i fully didn't understand or thought it was an elaborate joke. or...something equally ridiculous. mostly because i had a hard time comprehending why someone would pay that much for something that i did, mostly because who the fuck am i? no one. some guy. whatever.

turns out the man who bought it is super nice. he said he spotted it during a cursory glance around the show, and decided that he needed to have it, apparently not caring that his purchase is absolutely worthless to the rest of the art buying world. but he didn't seem to care, and i was flattered, so i guess everyone was happy. i told him the story behind in, i guess in a way thinking the more he would talk to me, the less interested he would become in the piece and then decide to not buy it afterall thus continuing to sabotage my life. not because i wanted him to give it back, even though the point was that it was not for sale, but...i don't know. he's a dad. doesn't he have better things to do with his money?

i (somewhat) immediately called the person i original did the piece for and told them the good/bad news. the bad news is that he would never get to see it in person. the good news is that he was getting some money out of it. and, uh, a new munny.

anyway, next one i do, i'm putting up for $2000.

the talentless cobra, or...oh my god! part 1

2008-08-13T06:14:00.003-04:00

see that little fella down there? i sold the son of a bitch for $1000.

i know! what the fuck! but let me back up...

i am notoriously slow with them. no kidding. it used to take me forever to paint these stupid toys. i would seriously want to kill myself everytime i was faced with the task. and i wasn't doing them for fun. no way. people, like, were actually paying me to want to kill myself. start them over three or four times. end up in fucking tears. miserable, miserable crybaby.

it was during the time that i was working on the labbit (which i had in my possession for over a year -- i am not making this up) that i had some sort of break through. i don't know exactly what it was. maybe i just gave into the madness. who knows. but during that time (uh, i guess especially during the last stretch) i had a revelation. i can fucking do this. it's not so bad.

and! i didn't hate it when i was finished! that's hard to believe, but i think i did a good job. i never do a good job. everything i do is terrible! what happened!

after the labbit, i had the munny to finish for a friend of mine. i did one for him before. actually, that one, the first one i did for him, that was the one where i wanted to kill myself. at one point i told him i was going to give him his money back because if i worked on it anymore, i was going to kill myself. over-dramatic, you say? of course, of course. still. the killing. of myself. anything to get away from that little plastic fucker.

but! i did finish it. and he seemed happy. so i was happy. and then he asked me to do another one. jesus. some friend. clearly, he did not value my sanity as much as i value my sanity. but not enough to not accept the offer.

about the time i was working on it, the lift show came up and i knew i wasn't going to have any time to work on anything else, so i figured i would submit his munny and just make it NFS. which i did before to the first one. even though he told me to just put it up for sale and if it sold, just to make him another one. i did think about it, but i was fueled but guilt here. the guilt of flipping out and and taking so goddamn long. no, i said. it's NFS. no matter how much someone were to offer me. i mean, it was the least i could do, right?

flash forward a thousand years to this munny that i had just finished. again, submit, NFS.

i sent him the photos and he seemed...pleased. he then told me: put it up for a thousand dollars. if it sells, split the money with me. ha! i said. that's crazy. i mean, no one will pay a grand for that stupid thing, it would be funny just to see it for a $1000, and let's say on some crazy chance it did sell (and we were invaded by 2-headed cows from space) we'd both have some extra cash in our pockets.

i know, nuts. but for the goof, i decided to do it.

chicken head

2008-08-04T12:00:00.003-04:00

'nother commission, this one is going to the lift for their munny show. and then promptly shipped off to its owner. working on a moody for a show in september, but that one will actually be for sale.

on my way to drop the little guy as we speak.

dead letters

2008-07-24T00:00:00.012-04:00

i have some stuff for sale. you know, some uh "art." not really much else left at this point. a few things. i had some sort of crisis awhile ago and gave a lot of it away. not sure why. can't really explain these things. couple of folks...well, they said i was crazy for doing it, but my argument was...what's the value of paper? especially if i draw shit all over it. i think i also felt like i needed to start over. if i get rid of all of this then i can move on to other stuff. maybe the value of it is that...it's like something chaining me to a wall. i need to go forward. i know, pretty gay, right?

okay, here they are:

1. 8.5" x 11" colored pencil/ink on 70lbs paper $25

2. 6" x 10" ink on cardboard $5

3. 6.5" x 6.25" ink on cardboard $5

4. 6.25" x 6.25" ink on cardboard $15

5. 8.5" x 5.5" ink on 100lb bristol $20
6. 8.5" x 5.5" ink on 100lb bristol $20
7. 9" x 12" ink on 100lb bristol $30

8. 9" x 9.5" ink on 100lb bristol $30

9. 9" x 10" ink on 100lb bristol $20
10. 9" x 12" ink on 100lb bristol $40
11. 9" x 12" ink on 100lb bristol $40

that's it! feel free to contact me if you're interested. in the meantime, i'll be working in some new stuff...

bong out of your mind

2008-07-20T05:01:00.003-04:00

these are my pages from the new bongout book, gris gris. it is utterly mind-blowing and beautiful like everything else they do plus holy cow is it fucking massive. they were ever-so-kind to print my book a few years back and i will always be grateful mostly because i am fully convinced it was the least profitable thing they've ever done, but dammit i love them for it. words cannot describe the feeling i get whenever they ask me to contribute to one of their projects.

unfortunately the falling dollar makes this a very expensive purchase for the kids of america and i guess i can talk how awesome it is because i got a free contributors copy, but it is really really sweet. go to their website and check it out. or if it's a little outside your price range, buy something else from them. it's all good, son.

i'm totally into updating this blog now. i wasn't before, and i get sick of all the spammers and i know no one actually looks at it, but here i am. updating. check me out. hoo. rah.

maybe we're monsters, too?

2008-07-19T15:38:00.003-04:00

my part of the cover for the book i'm doing with chris mostyn entitled...chris and mike like to draw monsters. let's face it, i can pretend to be many things, but in reality, i'm just someone who likes to draw monsters. and chris? well, chris likes to draw them, too. so now we're doing something about it. that's right. you guessed it. we're doing a book of monster drawings.

chris' cover will be printed on top of mine and then the reverse for the back.

maybe we'll do a million books of just monster drawings. damn, that would be fun.

anyway, i don't know, hopefully this will be finished in a couple months.

spellbreaker

2008-07-17T20:41:00.004-04:00

been dormant for awhile. kind of went into retirement, i guess so nothing new has been happening anyway. i did manage to finish this here labbit for someone and it only took me a year! seriously, that's totally ridiculous. i've been having some difficulty adapting what i do onto a 3d surface, especially one that isn't, you know, smooth. spend most of my time tearing my hair out and starting over than actually working on the piece. think i finally got over the hill, and now i see greener, friendlier, vinyl pastures on the other side.

focusing more of my energies on the toy thing right now, although i do occasionally enjoy a nice flat surface to work on now and then. also, slowly doing some paintings (slllooooooowwwwwlllllllyyyyy) but, honestly, i have no deadlines or time limits so it doesn't really matter to me when the fuck they get finished.

also working on a book of monster drawings with my friend chris mostyn because we both really enjoy drawing monsters. it's pretty much finished (drawing-wise) i think, we just have to get it together. i'm sure if you were to ask chris what the hold up is, he would probably point the finger at me and he would probably be right. i'm a foot-dragger. uh, it took me a year to finish that labbit!

i think soon i'll post the mock-up of the cover for the monster book.

forward into abstraktion

2008-02-26T11:37:00.004-05:00

this is the first of the drawings i'm doing for the JM poster. remember my big plan to do a collection of the 35 drawings to go along with the posters? well, i've only sold 2 posters so far. so...probably no book. well, not one comprised completely of the drawings, anyway. hey seemed like a good idea...

by the way, they're posted in reverse order. the bottom one is the first one i did. the second, i realize, is a little more abstract. sometimes i have no idea what to do with these things. there are 2 more that i've finished, but since there haven't been anymore sales, i'll post them here in a few days.

also, is it a little frustrating that the only comments i get on this blog are from spammers? maybe a little. does anyone look at this thing? am i on the moon? yes, dear, i am on the moon.

war babies

2008-02-17T13:20:00.002-05:00

i'm trying to break myself of certain habits that i have when i'm drawing, stylistically speaking, but it doesn't seem to be working. it's the old complaint that i feel like i'm repeating myself too much. but i suppose i should just go with it until it runs it course. and it probably will because it usually does. weird how i find myself trapped into certain things where it feels like i'm spinning my wheels until suddenly i'm on to something else. oh, how i long to spin different wheels!

i haven't been doing much in color lately (or, anything at all?) because i think i've set myself up in "book" mode. and black and white is cheaper to print than color, so that's the way it's going lately. maybe i'll save the color for the paintings which i've done a grand total of one so far. and that was...um, 5 months ago.

since i'm working on some drawings to go along with the jason molina poster, looks like i'll have more new things to post pretty soon.

for the selling

2008-02-14T16:51:00.002-05:00

i'm back! from...uh...i don't know.

i'll have some new stuff to post in a few days. just wanted to announce that the jason molina tour poster is now available from me. 17 x 22 on french kraft, 3 colors, and printed by the vg kids.

there are a 100 posters, 35 of which i'm selling. here's the deal, though. if you buy one from me, you'll get a free piece of original art drawn specifically for this project. is that a deal? maybe it is. depends on how much you like me. do you like me? i hope you do. 'cause i like you.

$22 ppd in the US/canada. $27 ppd for the rest of the world. you can email me at blackirish72@yahoo.com for details.

also, the plan is to collect all the drawings into a book. but that's only if i sell all the posters. so, buy all the posters!

curses cursing the cursed

2007-12-11T15:41:00.001-05:00

here's the final printed version of the jason molina tour poster. the vg kids did the work on it, and it turned out mighty fine. i'm very happy with it, which is saying a lot because if you read this blog you know that i am generally not very happy with anything that i do. it's mostly because i have super high standards that i set for myself. unfortunately, they're set so high i'll never be able to meet them. go, me.

anyway, i have a hard time with color seps. mostly because i regard the computer as my enemy (in an artistic way) and i have yet to figure out a practical way to do these things. the last time i did color seps, i just decided to do the entire drawing in layers on tracing paper and boy was that a big suck fest. seriously, i spent more time cleaning up the scans than i did drawing the damn thing.

i went the simple route with this one, since it's three color. one of these days i'll get the hang of it and maybe do a real thing with really nice color seperations.

i broke the rules on this one since jason asked for a 12"x22" poster and i instead gave him a...i think it's, like, 16"x18". i know, ensuring that i'll never get work again. wait, what? YOU work ME.

these are winging their way to the netherlands as we speak (oh please god let that be happening) and he'll have them for sale on this tour starting in january. which is about the time i guess i'll be selling them. so you can either contact me here (hi, chris!) or i'll no doubt have them up on gigposters. i have no idea how much i'll be charging yet.

in other news, i contributed a munny to the detroit munny show at the lift. i wasn't very happy with the finished product which is why you're not seeing pictures here. but, apparently someone was happy with it because it sold. go figure. rest assured i'll be doing more custom toys so i can complain about how unhappy i am with the way they turned out.

i'm also in a "musician's" art show in detroit. yes, i'm (was?) a musician. i guess. anyway, i gave them a drawing that's a couple years old mostly because it was already framed. i've never posted a photo of it, but it's probably one of best drawings i've ever done. seriously. unfortunately, i heard they stuck it a closet or something so no one will ever see it. but i think that's kind of cool in a way. one of the best things i've ever done and no one will ever see it. brilliant! i've never been able to get a decent picture of it, although i'd like to one of these days so i should truck on down to the show and maybe see if i can snap a few. ha, what am i talking about. no one is going to buy it so there's no hurry. "excuse me, i've seen all the pieces you have hanging up here, do you happen to have anymore, say, in a closet somewhere?"

ballin'

2007-11-21T13:19:00.001-05:00

fun with a ball point. sort of a deserperate attempt to make myself "marketable", i set out to come up with some t-shirt designs. man, this would make a lousy t-shirt design. anyway, ball point pens are fun to draw with. i'll keep plugging away on the "marketable" thing. looking to sell-out! hmmmm...

land and/or sea

2007-11-15T12:09:00.000-05:00

line art for a tour poster for jason molina (of magnolia electric co.). i will put up the poster when it gets printed.

i tried for something different here, but decided to go with what i know. what do i know? i'm not sure. it's all bit "monstery", innit?

oh well!