It's been so long...

I didn't realize it had been 13 months since I last posted. I had no idea that this year would go by too quickly for me to notice, butI guess it has. I've been doing a lot of things recently, primarily doing art for show posters. Here are a few of the things I've made:


This is the poster we sent out to the people who supported the Emily Peal indiegogo project.


This is the flier I made for my show at Alphabet Lounge. Fish.


I just finished this one yesterday, for the Emily Peal album digi-release show in New York. Woo!

I guess that doesn't really seem like a lot of work, and I guess it isn't, but I'll blame it on New York City being a terrible place for a person like me to create things. We'll be moving soon, and that will make me happy.

leaving

Emily and I are leaving for Europe tomorrow, so I thought I'd post this drawing before I left. This was supposed to be a flier for an Emily Peal show, but I took too long with it. It's not perfect, but I like it all the same. The shadows are getting better, but my perspective is all wacky,


This is my last day with a computer until July 1, so if you want to get in touch with me electronically, here's your last chance. Otherwise, I'll see you when I see you!

work in progress

This is almost done, but I was getting impatient. This little guy is an accompaniment to a haiku I wrote, the one sitting in the cloud of smoke. It goes:

there is nothing left
for this creature to eat here
but rubble and mud

bunnies

Here's the finished drawing of my bunny.

You can see the change from the original post. I don't mind it. I think the textures are decent, and the shadows are decent, and its a pretty nice looking bunny. The stuffing poking out is fairly unrealistic looking, and I had some trouble making the walls look the way I wanted them to.

Here's a bunny with a pancake on its head:

I'm sure most everyone has seen that by now, but I still like to look at that picture every once in awhile. It reminds me of the good old days, when I'd give all my pets hats made out of food. The fashions were incredible: the pancake sombrero, the tortilla tricorn, the pot roast stovepipe. The list goes on.

Yet I digress; something adorable that I found when image searching "bunny"

SO CUTE. So cute. So cute I might pass out if I look at it for too long. It looks like a little anime bunny, with that big poppy-outy eyeball. I hope he has a matching one on the other side. Or an eye-patch.

more arts and crafts

Here's a little draring I did last night. I was going for speed and goodlookingness rather than perfection, and I used a photo as a guide. It took me a little less than an hour (fifty minutes or so), and despite the obvious flaws, I think its not too bad.


Also, here is the box that I'm using to display my CDs in at my show tonight. I'm really looking forward to this show, because it is my first rock and roll show of my own music. The band I have is AMAZING and LOUD and all the things a band should be. I can't wait.

easter scavenger hunt!

I forgot to put these pictures up! Emily and I did a scavenger hunt on Easter, and it was awesome! We made a list and checked things off as we found them. Some were incredibly fortuitous, seeing as how strange the list was.

People who are people-watching (I had to feign taking a picture of Emily so it wouldn't look like I was so blatantly photographing those people on the bench.

Hole in a tree for secrets

Rollerbladers

A horse

Duck with an entirely green head

A dog who looked like its owner

Twins


A man with a pipe (We kept it ambiguous in case we saw a plumber or something)


These weren't in the scavenger hunt, but really? Segways? Happy Easter everyone, we're a waaacky Segway gang coming to knock your ice cream out of your hands and ruffle your hair! Beware!

On an unrelated note, I found a curved noodle in my box of spaghetti the other day.
Oh my god! I've never seen anything like this before!

dwawing

I finished this one today. It started out as some strange creature, and turned into this incredulous duck. What's he looking at? I don't know, but he is having trouble looking away. I feel like my shading is getting better, but I don't really capture realistic light sources. Also, I'm utilizing a very conservative contrast scale. I think this picture would have so much more depth if the darks were darker and the lights were used more sparingly. Just a thought.

This little guy isn't quite done yet, but I thought I'd go ahead and scan him too, since I was using the scanner. Started him today. I used to draw all sorts of forgotten little toys, and I thought that maybe I should revisit that idea with my new tools and techniques to see what happens. I think this one has the potential to be really special, so I'm going to take my time with it and get the lighting just right.

It turns out that I'm actually pretty terrible at coming up with things to draw (that are easy enough for me to draw (not much detail, lots of room for shading)), so any suggestions would be very welcome and very appreciated.

ruining the shot

I got this video from Joe:


And similarly this picture, sent to me by Rupa, might just be the most fantastic picture I've ever seen (though Emily doubts its credibility):


I don't know whether or not I think this is real, but I like this one too:

please come down

I've got a show on Wednesday. With an actual band! This is something that I've been looking forward to for a long time. Actually, I got tonsilitis a few days ago, and that pretty much scared the shit out of me. However, after a rousing acupuncture session it seems to be resigned to its fate, and my voice is almost back where it needs to be. Woohoo.

Anywho, I made packaging for Please Come Down, and I'm going to sell it at the show. You can get it (or Icicle Island, Crickets Instead, or The Dust Didn't Clear for Days) at the show for $3! I don't charge much, because I make it all by myself (with Emily's help, of course), so my overhead is pretty low. Here's what the cover looks like:

So my band is Annie Hoffman, Adam Hand, and Emily Peal (and myself). It is going to be loud, and crazy, and loud, and dancy (which is new for me).

Looooooooove it

mushrooms

Here are some mushrooms. Did the shading with these new blending stumps. I got them mainly because of the name, to be honest. I like the way they look, even though the lighting is unrealistic. I'll try to do one of these sketches a day, using photos for reference.

slugs

I've been reading about slugs recently. It turns out, they are absolutely incredible. This one is Glaucus Atlanticus. Its a type of sea slug that floats on the surface of the ocean. Because of the location of the air sac that provides the floatation, it swims belly up. The silver stripe is its belly. Woo! And it has "six appendages which branch out into rayed cerata" [Wikipedia]. Look at this thing.


Similarly, I found this video of a nudibranch eating a tube anemone. It takes him [for sake of confusion. nudibranchs are hermaphroditic] a while to get going, but once he gets close... POW! He just dives right down the anemone's tube and gorges on delicious anthozoan flesh (well... tentacles).


I got some new drawring stuff yesterday. I'll upload some new pictures once I get motivated and finish them.

Oh no! Garden slug attack!!!

some birds

So here's something that I drew last night. The idea is going to be incorporated into a comic hopefully in the next few days. I'm just posting this because I like the picture, and because I haven't put anything up here in a while. I hope you like it. I'm still getting used to doing any sort of drawing with pencil, particularly shading. It just takes so long to do. I guess it proves that I don't have a future as an illustrator, since I don't have the patience to spend more than a few minutes on a drawing. Maybe that's the point of pencil drawings though...



This is one of my favorite animals. The lyrebird is unique in its ability to reproduce sounds it hears to incorporate into its mating call. For the lyrebird, the more exotic the sound, the more attractive the mate. This video is of the Albert's lyrebird, which lives in a specific part of the Southern Queensland rainforest in Australia. The end of the video is pretty devastating, as this lyrebird heard some very peculiar sounds for its environment.



Finally, some art for a record Emily and I did last summer. The record isn't finished yet, but its about birds, and I thought it was appropriate to post. I'll probably try to finish that up in the next few weeks so that it can be finished and posted before Europe happens.

the very first unicorn

I've been thinking recently (surprise, surprise) and determined how the first unicorn ever came into existence. Obviously, at the hands (or forehead, rather) of some malicious flying narwhal. This is why most unicorns are seen in the forest, rather than the vast mongolian plains in which they originated. They've had a staggering aversion to open spaces since the beginning. Coincidentally, though not nearly as interestingly, the particular scene depicted in this cartoon also depicts the very first beluga whale.


Also, I've been doing a lot of research on octopuses. Everything I read about them makes me so much more amazed. Watch this video. The extent of their camouflage ability absolutely blows my mind.

new greenpeace ad

Just found this new advertisement from Greenpeace accusing Nestle of using palm oil (which the use in just about every single product of theirs) from manufacturers who produce it using nonsustainable methods. I don't agree with all of Greenpeace's ways of changing the world, but I find this video particularly wonderful. Sustainability is one of my biggest concerns with the environment, since not practicing it will obviously lead to... duh... no environment, so I'm glad that Greenpeace took the initiative to make this advertisement (or anti-advertisement, I guess). I love how it keeps you guessing what this poor man is actually enjoying until the bitter end. Yum!

header!!

Hey everybody! Look at my awesome new header graphic! I made that!