My own personal HP printer hell.

Today and yesterday were portfolio day. I spent all of yesterday preparing files in Illustrator (yeah, that's right), and then last night went to buy ink and photopaper, to prepare to start printing today.

issues and problems with this scenario:

- i don't really know how to use illustrator, but after messing around i figured out how to print full bleed borderless tabloid prints high quality.

- rachel's printer is the only one that will print borderless, mine is a piece of shit.

- the ink for rachel's printer is $20 more expensive than mine...even though my printer was more expensive.

so basically what i needed was 40 pages for my portfolio....38 pages of images (including double page spreads) and a title page, as well as a back contact page. Not only do i need this, i also need at least 3 copies of the whole thing...keeping one for myself as a master copy. Initially i was going to just go to kinkos and do the whole thing there...but figured since i didn't really know what i was doing i would print the master copy at home, and then go make copies at kinkos.

So after spending 100 bucks on ink and paper at Office Depot Last night I have now run through 2 color ink cartridges, and i still have 10 pages to print...and no way of getting new ink until tonight. Not only this, i have no idea how much 120 + color gloss copies is going to cost me at kinkos when this whole thing is done. Needless to say, this has become a pricey endeavor....and i am hoping to god that kinko's color machines do full bleed...because of not i am basically screwed.

and this could all be very easily solved if my fucking HP printer did full bleed...because i have plenty of ink for that. Oh, and on top of that...i cant find my rebate for rachel's printer.

So yeah, a bunch of shit. But the good thing is that these prints look absolutely gorgeous...i am jealous of rachel's printer. And now, with the Illustrator knowledge i have gotten out of this i have big plans for the future....in other words, GIANT pieces that will fix any concerns i have ever had with doing gallery shows.

Also, i have basically figured out what i am doing with the redesign of Ghostco...so as soon as things settle down, and i get a bit of time i will work on that.

so in the end, my apologies to anyone who is expecting work from me in the next day or so....oh, and NEVER play Rapala Tournament Fishing for the Wii....NEVER.

Antlers and Outings

- Finished this up today, with the intention of using it as part of my cover sheet for the portfolio...which i haven't even gotten started with. Hopefully all of tomorrow will be dedicated to that, and hopefully i will learn how to use Illustrator at the same time. Mike had mentioned after seeing my last freelance gig, that i might be loosing my style....Which is a concern i have a lot. I tried to mix my old work with my new work for this....i don't know how well it came off at all.

I went out last night and hung out with good buddy Anchovy and a few other guys...it was my first time in 6 months really being out of the house without Rachel around, hopefully this will become a much more regular event. It was a good time, and it was especially nice to actually "work" outside of my studio.

In the mean time i am on a mad hunt for decent figure drawing classes in St Louis. If there is anything I miss from school, its figure drawing classes. I have some decent leads, but nothing is looking too promising.

Got a call from Corey Wade from Sandbox Strategies last night. I haven't talked to the guy in over a year, and it was nice to hear from him. He had some pretty exciting things to let me in on, and i am now really looking forward to this job....It will be a nice break from drawing mopes. I did a lot of odd and end stuff with Corey a while back...a good chunk of it buried deep within my memories...but apparently this game is being considered the best wireless game of 2006. I did the majority of the "promo" art for the game....it was a few months of conjuring up megaman fanart from 6th grade, and learning the ins and outs of gradients. That job was also what really motivated me to get a Tablet.

Sleeping Pills

- I love the guys over at More Magazine. I was asked to do a editorial illo for an article of the dangers of sleeping pills. More is usually looking for "lighter" work than i usually do, so i always try and lighten up my palette a bit. This is not the actual final version...they didn't want any text on the pills, but i ended up liking it more this way in the long run.

I think i am finally getting to a point where i can really mesh cell shading and gradients as well as i have been wanting to. Somehow in my frenzy of work i was able to go from sketch to finished piece in a day.

In other news i was reunited with my old friend Panda Express today, much to my stomach's dismay.

Dog's Day End

A super secret sneak peak for everyone:
- Dogs' Day End, written by Brian Wood. Out in 2008, through TopShelf Comics.

My hell month isn't even close to over. As soon as i finish one chunk of something, it seems like something new just flies up. So much for complaining about not having anything to do. My main complaint at this point is the fact that technically my "weekends" are Tuesday and Wednesday, because of rachel's day off....unfortunately, no one else's weekends are. i gotta figure something out about that. And now on top of everything, I'm fucking sick and am constantly worried about the taxman a' comin'.

tentative checklist for the rest of the week:

-Finish chapter 2 roughs for Dog's Day
-Inks and color for editorial sleeping pill thing
-Character sketches for crazy New Zealand job thing
-Roughs for new album cover with Type
-Format portfolio for Art-Dept, and do cover image. (this will be my real first crack at Illustrator...terrible timing)
-Sleep.

Nothing New...Well, kind of

So...i haven't written anything on here in a while. I have been eating, sleeping and drinking Dog's Day End. My slacking finally caught up with me and i got some stern words from the guys over at TopShelf. I have been basically been doing nothing BUT drawing comic pages during my waking hours for a little over a week. I have until Friday to finish 12 pages....Which is doable, i hope. And then after that i have 2 small jobs right in a row, on top of getting my print portfolio together for The Art-Dept...and all i really wanna do is play videogames.

Other things:

- This is now available at threadless. Its good to finally see it in print.

- I have officially listened to nearly 38 hours of shuffle on itunes while drawing pages....i don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

- Country Time lemonade is saving my life.

- I had a small interview thing that went into a huge amalgam of interviews in the latest issue of Computer Arts Magazine. It's a little disappointing.

- Apparently i have an interview in MacUser Magazine too...but i cant buy the damn thing anywhere in the state.


Hopefully i will get to post some pages from DDE soon, i really have no idea though.