Dark Lord Day

Yesterday a group of us got a schoolbus and took it to Munster Indiana for Dark Lord day and Three Floyds brewery. It was pretty neat, a few of my friends are real beer nerds so they were really into it and waited in the line for a couple of hours to get the one and only Dark Lord beer that is only available on this day at the brewery. I tasted it... I don't like beers that taste like licorice, gross. It was a pretty fun day, got to taste some interesting beers and got some serious people watching. The crowd there was about 89% overweight men to 11% women. 100% crazies. My favorite I tried were: Hair of the Dog- Michael, and Brooklyn Local 2, and Nugget Nectar. Yeah, I do not like imperial stouts. Some photos here, the rest here: (at the end of the album)

Started...

Started Haydn's painting last night, and now have a 30'' x  30'' stencil in three panels. Excited to do this one. 

And also, my mom is awesome and sent me this in the mail yesterday. Seriously cool book if your'e into anything illustration. 

Columbi-uh?

So I'm wondering if anyone would have an interest in a print of the state house in Cola? I want to do something columbia-esque and the state house is kinda cool right? As long as it's sans confederate flag. Would any of you buy this? (With colors in the same style as my other skyline prints of course). I'll update full color version when it's done.

Last minute went to see Hot Chip and The XX with friends last night. Place was so packed we wandered to the very top of the upper level, but everything still sounded great even from there. 

Also I'm working on something I REALLY like right now, but can't post it until it is given as a gift! I will soon though. Teasers: 

ChiPUBLIB 2010...Revision 1

Revision 1: (Still have to work on the bundle on the bike)

CHIPUBLIB 2010...

I didn't think I was going to submit a design for the Chipublib poster contest this year, but I changed my mind...and this year I am going to win. This is the initial design, somewhat similar to what I did last year that wasn't the finalist. It's going off of the idea that all these concepts on the back of this guy's bike can be picked up from the library. But I need opinions. Things to consider:

-Do I add full color?

-Keep black and white and different background color?

-Add grays for shadows?

-Is he too hipster-looking?

-Is someone going to assume the bike is fixed gear and laugh that there is a rack on the back, because no one would put a rack on a fix–UGH...

-Are the items too jumbled, can't tell what they are?

-Should I add more things on the back? Like what?

- Is there too much cable wrapped around?

-"Take it home" or "Bring it home"?

-Uhhh?

Painting "sketch"

Rough idea of the layout of the next painting I'm doing for a friend. It's from photo of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ah I just love her, but I really don't want it to be recognizable as her... and most likely most people will never guess it's her. This is going to be BIG, the background will be all different colors (maybe?) and I think I may get back into stenciling. That way I can make myself a copy! WIN WIN.

and now... SEATTLE

coming to etsy soon...

Saturday

Mickey hates nature.

Chicago Monsters

This is how much of a nerd I am; I've posted before about the website I check many times a day Videogum. Well last night the website had their official 2nd Birthday party in Brooklyn. Turns out there was a handful of us commenters that live in Chicago so we had our own meet-up last night. I am not going to lie, it felt like I was meeting someone from match.com/going speedating and I didn't know what to expect. We got to the bar and I forced Mickey to awkwardly go over to a table we suspected to most likely be "monsters". We picked correctly and had a great night, everyone was just as smart and witty as their avatars. There was plenty of talk of Topher, Steve Winwood, BNPGs, and enough Boy Meet's World Trivia to last a lifetime. Here's a few pics from the night and the group shot we obviously sent to Gabe. 

Happy Birthday from the mid-west!

Topher and ?uestlove were there too!

and still checking Videogum via phones. 

It was nice to meet you all!

Elena

My cousin took this photo over in Russia in an orphanage while her family was there to adopt two new family members (not the girl above). I just thought it was a beautiful picture and think I want to start a painting of it. 

Grad Announcements

Lil Sis is graduating from USC in May and she wanted me to make her announcements to send out to family. (From Top to Bottom: Front and back). I wanted to do something besides the usual USC colors/palm trees/gamecock/ughh so we came up with these altered photos of the horseshoe. I like em, hope they're not too "I wanted them to look like a tag on an Urban Outfitters dress" but still cool enough. The layout of the type may still change...

My parents were awesome blog:

After Meg submitted this photo of our Mom months ago, it's finally up on Myparentswereawesome. (There's no direct link, but it's yesterday's 4/4 at 8:30 am). Yay mom!

Mugshot #9: Joshua

Charge: Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, seditious conspiracy, teaching the use of explosive materials and carrying or possessing a firearm during a violent crime

Drawing this really creeped me out.

HappyBirthdayMeg!

Happy Birthday Sister:

A pic of the necklace I made for Meg, all hand sewn. Not going to lie, I copied the idea from a girl on etsy who was selling these things for well over $50+, but I think mine turned out just fine. (And the envelope I sent it in, I was going stir-crazy at work that day).

MUGSHOTS are back: Vanessa

Charge: First-degree murder

Work has slowed down a bit and I've had some time to get back into drawing these mugshots, there have been some great characters to choose from lately. I think I like them with no background for now. Check out the previous ones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, more to come!

Work in progress: Tree house

I have done a good amount of work on this tree house painting. I am semi-happy with it so far. I think I should have made the house smaller than it turned out, but I'm not going back on that. I am not too happy with the background at the moment, I like the texture, but the color isn't right. There are a lot more details to add still, but this is where it's at so far... 

MCA

Got some culture today by venturing to the Museum of Contemporary Art with Katie P:

Jeremy's skylines

I finished and framed the three cities I did for a friend. The frames turned out really nice. 

Also, if anyone (local) want's a Chicago print framed, I'm selling  those now. I don't want to put the framed version on etsy because shipping a frame with glass makes me nervous, but contact me if you're nearby and interested. 

real TANKS

The crew at Rhythm is churning out tanks (or maybe tees from the pic?) from my design for their rail jam. They look great! So glad I could help out.