Lots of Fauna, Not A Whole Lot of Flora

Every time I do one of these Art-Dept promo pieces, they always end up a lot better than anything else I do. I guess that is a good thing, considering they are used to promote me. But it still gets on my nerves a little bit....I haven't done an actual job in a while that I am particularly happy with the outcome of.

I somehow did all the colors for this in one day (after photoshop totally crashed on me Sunday night). After staring at the amazing Jillian Tamaki's work for probably too long, I attempted to go a different route with how I actually laid the color separations...and while it ended up really successful, next time I am going to do it on a job where I have a little bit more elbow room when it comes to deadline. This thing nearly killed me.

I haven't given up on the ectoplasm drawing, just been sidetracked by work....or well, but a lot of things (and no, none of which are Super Mario Galaxy). I need to figure out a place to board my dog so I can go home for the holidays, and this seems to be much more of a daunting task than I was expecting.

I am starting to get irritated with everything again (top of the list is online personals). I think I need to take a break and just draw until my fingers cramp. Thankfully I have a long list of unfinished jobs to help me complete that goal.

It has officially gotten cold here, and there is supposed to be accumulated snow within the next few days. My short stint in St Louis somehow sucked my tolerance for cold out of me, I have even considered buying a coat (something I have never owned after 6 Chicago winters). I keep thinking about St Louis a lot, how it never really got cold...nothing ever really changed, and how I would wake up almost every fucking day wondering if it was humanly possible to asphyxiate yourself at well just by holding your breath.

Cheese Cloth & The Innards of Sheep

So, since basically all I have been posting on this blog is crap for a while, I figured I would give you something a little better. I have had this drawing in my head for a few weeks now, after my new found obsession with turn of the century ectoplasm photography. Initially it was going to be much less gruesome, and more tied to what they actually used as "ectoplasm". But once I started drawing, I couldn't help but just tear the shit out of my own face. Though, this is far from even being a finished under drawing....the crap to the right looks far too smokey and squishy to be how I want it to look. God knows what I am going to do with this in the end.

In other news, Super Mario Galaxy is probably the most soul-sucking time-consuming thing ever invented. Though the magic of the third dimension can be a bit nausea inducing, i swear to god I would take a bullet for that little Italian.

Capitalization is the best!

Feet And Their Accesories

So, after being totally confused by a client for over a month, it was brought to my attention that I had been doing something completely different from what they wanted. With the deadline being December 3rd for the final work, it became painfully clear that there was no way in hell I would be able to give them what they needed. It's the first time in a long time where I actually feel like I failed at something....and I am still trying to figure out if it was my fault or not. At least I drew some good looking shoes:

Aside from this job, I have another major job involving drawing feet (which thankfully I haven't fucked up). Needless to say, I am getting pretty tired of drawing anything involving feet.

The party went well (or at least my part of it did). Though I can't say that it was necessarily a GOOD party, which can be proven by my entirely blown out speakers and my quickly fading black eye. I did however love DJing, and am still trying to remember why I quit it in the first place. Since Saturday, every time I hear a song I sit and think about what would be a good follow up....unfortunately, my dream song never comes true. And I am still compulsively trying to come up with a decent name for myself.....thought of DJ Me You & The Holy Ghost last night, and I can't really say that that would be the best route.

This will be my first Thanksgiving alone ever, and quite frankly I don't really see the problem with it. I am starting to think we all get ripped off having the winter holidays so close together. Why don't they spread this shit out so we can go see our family twice a year, instead of trying to decided which holiday is more convenient to visit? Total bullshit. I am going to start a petition with my family that we move Thanksgiving to like June, though I doubt it is going to fly.

I was threatening to close the 2007 Dating Season, but am now having second thoughts. Fuck, I have no idea what is going on....which anything, to tell you the truth.

I have also made a decided effort to work on my proper capitalization of words and the beginnings of sentences, so that people that read this won't think I am totally out of my mind. And to tell you the truth, writing in all lower-case is a bitch of a habit to break.

neanderthals had rocks, we've got beats

so here is my incredibly poorly designed flyer for the party i mentioned earlier.

it is a benefit to help raise money for the Lloyd Dobler Gallery, which two of my best friends run. And as the flyer says, i begrudgingly settled on DJ Stab. If you have nothing to do on saturday night and have 5 bucks to spare, you should absolutely head down. i have a ridiculous line up of music sure to make you loose control, should be a hell of a lot of fun.

the address is:

1545 W. Division, on the second floor.

right off the division blue line stop.

and no, saying you know the DJ will not save you $5.

we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

My good friend Kate asked me to make her a new business card since she just started at a new salon. I had a lot of fun with this one...nothing better than silhouettes and helvetica. If you are here in chicago, i would highly recommend getting an appointment with kate, she is ridiculously talented and easily one of the best stylists in the city. i have had one person other than myself cut my hair in the past 7 years, and it was Kate....easily the best haircut i have ever had. all the kids agree.

I spent the evening making homemade mustache wax, and bathing my dandruff stricken dog. The mustache wax either turned out fantastic, or terrible...i can't really tell yet. it is amazing what kind of recipes you can find online.

i have basically spent the last week making a total ass of myself. first this whole online personal thing, then poorly worded myspace messages, and last but not least dancing myself into an asthma attack and then the next night taking part in a dance-off at a bar in which i have never seen anyone dance in preparation for the following day's chili cook-off. now, dancing may seem like an every day sort of ordeal in the hipster bars of chicago...which it is. but personally, i have never once danced in public....EVER. and now after this weekend i have officially danced at least 6 hours, and had about 13 shots of either maker's mark or black label. take that pneumonia!

in somewhat related news, i have been asked to DJ a gallery party. this is all pretty exciting, since i haven't had a thing to do with the world of disc jockeying in years. there has been some excitement in coming up with a stage name, it is currently a toss-up between "DJ Stab", "The Grey Ghost", and "DJ CHITOWNDAZZLE". choices choices choices.

some albums i have rediscovered and been listening to on constant repeat all week:

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young - Deja Vu
Blanche - If We Can't Trust The Doctors
A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Darkness At Noon

Text Messaging, Personals Ads, Pneumonia, Mustaches

Another finished piece for Penthouse. This one was about sexual text-messaging, and my idea was to show fantasy in the every day life. can't say i am super happy with the outcome, but at least my palette is changing a bit. still have a huge amount of work on my plate, and the speed at which i am going through it is painfully slow.

so my "flu" symptoms ending up being bacterial pneumonia. now taking 800 mg ibuprofen, antibiotics, codine, and SUPER decongestants i am starting to feel better. unfortunately i have nearly 2 weeks left of the antibiotics and have to eat every time i take them....i still barely have any appetite at all, which makes this all the harder. thank you quaker oats, for your magical oatmeal square cereal!

the only real plus out of this illness has been my ability to grow an amazing mustache which now has to be groomed daily and waxed. this may sound ridiculous to the average reader, but to me its the best thing since Polaroid film. This all has influenced me to start dressing a little more...i don't know...victorian? a little later probably. slicked back hair, velvet blazers, wool sweaters. it's all pretty fantastic if you ask me. i have so far been compared to Nikola Tesla, Jac k The Ripper, and some sort of carnival worker....none of which i have any complaint about. Revel in all that is 19th century mustaches.

speaking of making a total ass of myself, i have been recently putting myself in front of the firing squad that is known as internet personals. apparently the only people that i have anything in common with, are people that have no preference for anything.