third drinker and fourth drinker

It's been a good weekend so far.
The sun came out, we didn't get rained on once, and I was able to draw two more sketches.

Things have been pretty busy at the old homestead/studio. We have fourteen jobs, all of a sudden!
Luckily, it's been a slow burn and seems like a good pace.


This dapper gentleman is dressed up for a few cocktails at the flight club.
He'll be out late. Don't wait up.

Then, there's this one.
He's been having a rough go of it lately and has taken to drinking his troubles away. Poor guy.
It really hit him hard when his unemployment ran out.
Things'll get better when the economy turns around, though.
Funny thing is, his great-grandparents were teetotaling prohibitionists.

second drinker

Here's the second drinker. This one seems to focus on the hand, too.

first drinker

I'm completing a series of portraits of drinkers.
These will be letterpressed onto coasters as soon as I finish.

I'm not sure what these represent, yet. Is it about drinking or the drink itself?
This one seems to be about the hand. The face is hardly worked at all.. almost detached.
Maybe it's just about holding on.

sleeping beauty

It's funny to think that ten years ago I drew exclusively with a mechanical pencil.
So much has changed since then. I was reluctant to ever go to art school, because I liked saying I was self-taught, and I was afraid art school would destroy my style and force me to draw like everyone else. This was a legitimate concern because there is a definite difference in works done by someone with an art degree and someone without. After art school, that difference is more apparent to me, and boy, am I glad I decided to go! I definitely do not feel like "they" diluted my "natural talent." On the contrary, I feel like the education has increased my skill and medium versatility and improved my artistic practice.

I'm such an art snob...

turtles all the way down

We have started to address our lack of card selection. We have cards for the major card holidays, but relatively few for other important moments, like when you just want to tell someone that you appreciate them.

This one was obviously inspired by Hindu mythology.
The world rests on the back of an elephant standing upon the back of a turtle.
The question, then, is what does the turtle stand upon? The answer, evidently, is a turtle, and that turtle rests upon another turtle. In fact, it's just turtles all the way down.

In Stephen King's book It he describes the death of the turtle. Pretty creepy, and what a giant shell!

christmas '79

Sometimes, when I don't know what to draw, I open the family album. It's funny how these albums contain more than what's in the pictures.

another show for elie

The hardest thing about New Year Resolutions is keeping them. I read somewhere that the average lifespan for such a resolution is six days. Bummer.

Anywho, I did another show card for my friend Elie. She's much nicer in person than she looks here. This image only resembles her, really. Elie disliked this image so much, in fact, that she only used the text for her cards.. ouch!

Oh well. I'll keep drawing, if no one likes them. *sniffle*

I wonder if I can have 365 drawings done by the end of the year. Is there any way I can "make up" my late drawings? I guess it's up to me.

burnt norton

Well, it's a new year with new goals. One of my new goals is to draw more. My daily drawing scheme for last year kinda petered out by the end of the year, but this year things will be different *wink*. An auxiliary goal is to draw more of the images for our cards. Alia's been drawing most of our images, and I'm feeling rather envious.

So, yesterday I was riding the bus to work while I was reading "Burnt Norton," by T.S. Eliot, and one line in particular conjured a powerful image in my head. This isn't the whole image that popped in my head -- the image was actually a moving image, which is a little harder for me to draw ;P -- this is just the first attempt.

elie's show

My friend, Elie, has a show this weekend.
If you're in town, you should check it out.

everyone's got a story

Years ago, in another life, I was a Graphic Design major. At that time I acquired some graphic design magazines for reference and inspiration. After a couple of years, I changed my major and then dropped out, moved to Portland, etc. I have held onto these magazines for almost ten years, after moving six or seven times, traveling across the country despite their physical weight and increasing demands from the wife that they disappear (apparently, in a 760 sq.ft. house a handful of magazines take up a lot of space ;).

Well, the reason I've held onto them is that I wanted to draw some of the images therein. (admittedly, I did go through a brief collage phase, and I had thought these would be nice for that, too, but no!) I am starting a small series of drawing montages using these ancient images.

Here's the first.

card for ruth

Well, this past weekend was a busy one for the old letterpress biz. We printed up some fliers in exchange for a C.S.A. share -- a pretty good deal I think. We also designed a new "thank you" card and a new birthday card for Alia's grandma, "Gma", who is turning 70(!).
Those pictures will soon be posted on our other blog, here.

In addition to all of that, I still had time (well, I stayed up until two in the morning, after the fam went to sleep) to finish inking our friend, Ruth's, business card/hang tag. Most of the elements were from her sketches. I just arranged them nicely.

Photo by Alicia Carrier

Note: This is not the actual size for the card. I will, of course, shrink it down.

The next step is to contact a die-maker in town who can make us a die.
Woot!

the usual suspects

Two of the biggest trouble makers I know -- happy as clams.

This drawing is mostly about the telephone pole across the street. I stare at it whenever I'm waiting for the bus. Slowly, it's percolating into a painting. I just have to stare at it a little more...

stay the course, making progress, honor and sacrifice...

This is Four Star General So-and-so at a photo-op, speaking to the troops in Afghanistan. I liked this AP photo especially for the body language of the guy in the front row. He's like, "WTF?"

magnanimous magnate

This is the second time I've tried this drawing. Sometimes the idea for a drawing is as far as it should go.

view over cavanaugh

This was a recent commission for a friend's mom's boyfriend who is a rocket scientist/bull rider.
What do you get the man who has it all? A portrait of his plane, of course.

sketch and a haircut, two bits

Things are so crazy right now, I had to squeeze in time to do a drawing while Alia gave me a haircut in the kitchen. I used one of those Copic pens with a brush point... pretty fancy. They work really well for producing a variety of line thicknesses and quick pools of pure black.

mother of all comebacks

Well, after an unusually long hiatus I have decided to start drawing again. It's not that I haven't been posting, I really haven't been drawing. With my new job taking so much of my time, the lack of a dedicated studio space, and launching a new business venture, I haven't had time to draw daily, much less post and blog about my drawings.
My wife and I started a letterpress business last December, Darling Press, and this is a sketch for a Mother's Day card idea I had. Alia and I are both strongly influenced by the aesthetics of Art Nouveau. This drawing was done after spending four or five hours researching borders, fonts, imagery, and artists. It's a slow process, but looking at art is always fun. It might be obvious to see Gustav Klimt's influence on me.
I am leaning towards a four color card, we'll see what happens!

a mildly surreal wedding reception

jer gives eric good advice
alia ponders paper folded
and annelise knocks three times

nadir malfunction

Well, I got the extension.
This is what I came up with.
I hope they like it. These last two drawings were pretty complex.