elie's show

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

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.

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!

wagonride

This is just a proof. I still have to fix the type so that it prints darker.
I haven't been drawing lately because I have been working on this, so I thought I would post it. The image is a linoleum cut, and the type is 10pt. Caslon. The whole thing is printed with rubber-based ink on vegetable parchment.

by Wednesday

Technically, there is no drawing in this piece, but I just made it, and I wanted to include it here, too.
The real piece is blue ink on white paper, but for some reason, when I uploaded it, it came up as brown on Blogger... I don't mind so much. Originally, I'd wanted to print it in brown, but changed to blue when someone in the studio had some extra blue ink and someone else had some extra black. I don't know why it's brown here other than some synchronistic happening to allow me to see what I missed.

Alia's Birthday Card

I barely got this one done in time!This is probably the weirdest thing I have ever drawn..

frank and bertha

Someday, long after I'm dead, I'll be a famous artist, and people will have portraits of my obscure relatives on their walls...

This is a commission for a friend.
He will be riding his bike from Seattle to Portland, and he wanted a "goat dressed as a cowboy riding a bike."
This should make him happy.
Now, part two, I need to learn to screenprint so I can slap this on some shirts for him....

the goat party platform

I don't really mean anything by this. I got a commission to do a funky goat, and I wanted to practice before I do anymore detail on it. I think the "JOIN" is my favorite part... that and the idea of a four day work week with six hour work day (I'm thinking a two-hour lunch). Where is the Labor Movement now?

the view *outside*

I did another drawing of my view at work today. This time I sat outside and stared at the REI building. I wish we had more public art and less public advertisements. From what I gather -- and I must gather this information, not only as a public record, but because the building was finished before I moved to Portland -- the REI building sits on the site of the original Dignity Village that the city moved out by the airport so people in their condos wouldn't have to look at a city of tents beneath the overpass.

another idea

It's just an elaborate doodle, really.

nice view

the text at the bottom reads, "i worked in the art gallery all day, and this was my view."
I'm not complaining. I'm just saying.

keepin' it real

I may use this for my banner for a while... until I think of something better.

quantum spirituality

I think the Beatles were more successful at explaining this than I. The image made more sense when I saw it in my head than when I saw it on the paper.

totalmente

My daughter's grandma gave her a 3CD set of early Sesame Street episodes from the late sixties and early seventies. Annelise has been crazy about them, which might have more to do with this being her first real exposure to TV. This is a line from one of the many songs that have been stuck in my head lately.

us vs. them

Continuing my Sociological study of the Hipster Subculture.

community vacuum

I decided to make a sign for the vacuum at work.
The sign I have on there now says: "This is the community('s) vacuum. Please don't just take it,"
but I feel that that must be too complex of a sentence, because no one else ever uses it besides me. This sign should be more to the point.

momma's mama

Alia and I gave our daughter, Annelise, my Grandmother’s maiden name for a middle name. My Aunt Dianne then put together a beautiful photo album of some historical family photos to give Annelise a little insight into her namesake.
This photo is one of my favourites from that album. My Aunt Dianne is on the right, and my mom is seated in my Grandmother’s lap. Uncle Buck, the Air Force pilot, was still yet to be born at the time this picture was taken.
This was my gift to mom for Mother’s Day, even if it was a few days late.

big daddy warbucks

Here's a rough study of some relatives of mine. I *think* the girl is my great-grandmother on my mom's dad's side.
I wish I knew for sure. My granddad gathered all of these images. I wish I could ask him about the particulars, but technically I'm not even supposed to have these until either he dies or my mom does (I'm not too sure on the particulars of that bit, either.)