I don't mind text messaging, I do it often and it's pretty useful for trying to coordinate people if you're all meeting up somewhere. But for the love of God if you're having dinner with me, PUT THE FREAKING PHONE AWAY!!! Your friends can live for 1 whole hour without receiving a single text message from you. You can even send them a text message and say you're having dinner with someone and you'll talk to them later. I find this incredibly rude and annoying. It's hard to carry on a proper conversation with you if you're constantly looking down to send a message. STOP IT!

I think I would call this "Natural Frequency" though I'm not sure exactly. The legs would probably look more like tree trunks. What do you think?

THE SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS CHOSE ALICE'S SEWING BASKET TO BE ONE OF THE WINNERS IN THEIR ILLUSTRATION COMPETITION! It's gonna be in a real gallery and a book and EVERYTHING! I'm going to NYC in March YAY!!!

See details here!

It's coming up on my 3rd year thread-versary, and here's a list of awesome things being on Threadless has taught me that, interestingly enough, can also apply to life in general :D

1. Don’t be afraid to start over: If a drawing just isn’t cutting it, don’t be afraid to start over. Don’t give anything less than 110% because it’s not going to get you anywhere, especially not here.

2. Practice, practice, PRACTICE: You can only get better! I totally had no direction when I started here and Threadless helped me find my illustration “voice,” if you will. My drawings totally stunk when I started here and I’ll be the first to admit it. Just keep going, it gets better!

3. Find your own style: Everyone has their own jive, their own way of drawing that works for them. People like to see a distinctive style, it makes your work stick out. This takes time to figure out. Don’t be ashamed of that, it’s a learning process. You might try out other artist styles while you’re learning. Since art does not exist in a vacuum, this is kind of inevitable. You’re going to be inspired by what other people do and that’s ok. However, try to take that thing that you admire and make it YOUR OWN. Again, this just comes with time.

4. No matter how good you are, there’s always going to be someone just a little bit better: This isn’t a bad thing, just reality. Rather than let it get you down, see others who do well as an inspiration, something to work towards. But don’t beat yourself up over how bad you and your art are, or how many prints you haven’t had, because no one is or ever will be perfect – not even those people who crank out more great stuff, who are more experienced, more etc. etc. etc. You can only do what works for you, it’s not a one size fits all kind of thing. This one took me a while to learn but it’s important.

5. Patience and persistence are virtues: If you keep at it long enough and practice your talent, it WILL happen.

6. Friends help: The community here is AWESOME. They are a great support network and give great advice regarding art and life in general. And it’s all about networking. I’ve found some other creative gigs and done some great collaborations here. I’ve made some fabulous friends that are also my cheerleaders when I have a new design on the way and up for voting, and I do the same for them, for one because they are super nice, but MAINLY because they are EXTREMELY talented people. On the other side of the coin, don’t be mean and knock people down! It certainly doesn’t help you or make others around here want to spread the word about your awesome new design or give you good advice. It also makes you look like a very small, petty person, even if you’ve got talent. You reap what you sow. I also can’t imagine future freelance clients or bosses wanting to work with someone who is unpleasant. Everything is public on this site, probably best to keep that in mind.

7. Threadless = Amazing.

I wish Threadless had a "Loves the Audobon Society" contest, based on birds. There would be a boatload of awesome bird designs and that would make me happy. What do you wish some of the loves contests were? I know Dee would like a horse themed one :p

So, I am sad that I missed out on Secret Santa because I just wasn't paying attention. But I want to get in on the fun, and I'd like to give away some posters of mine. You can look at my etsy to see what I got. I've also got a poster with a poem on it that I did for a professor that someone's gonna get cuz I love it. Quister gets a poster just cuz I love him and he's always giving out great advice. Other than that, first five people to respond get a random art print from me, I pick randomly and you get a random peice of awesome.

Go!

1. B7
2. Aphte
3. Mismonaut
4. Robotwaste
5. Fleck

Looks like my list is full!

Today was one of the few days where I saw a really nice tee I'd actually wanna buy on the front page (namely the magical Alexmdc). The other 85% of the time it's zombies or dead pirates drawn in the same extra detailed macabre style. What's up with that?

I've been working on a poster for a local radio station here, they are having "The Laughing Prairie Dog Music Festival" at the beginning of December. I'm finishing up the line drawing and adding color later; I am probably going to post a process blog of how I silk screen, if I remember to take pictures :D Anyways, I had a nugget of an idea a while ago as some of you may have remembered that doodle, and it grew into this:


Colors to follow later! YAY!



Update:



THE PROCESS

First, you have to coat the screens with a light sensitive emulsion. It's a green goop liquid that you put in a scoop coater which looks sort of like a metal trough. A not so great shot of me coating a screen:


After that, I stack the screens and hide them away in my canning closet in my basement, but any dark place will do. I don't have a drying rack big enough for these guys so I put peices of wood in between the aluminum part to get air in between.


Then I print out the transparencies which will be taped to the screen during exposure. I have to splice mine together since I have only 18 x 13 sheets but the poster is 18 x 24. Here they are all stacked up:


I then tape the transparency to a dried screen and lay it on the floor. I have a piece of foam underneath the screen that's covered with black felt. The felt keeps light from bouncing around behind the image and the foam makes sure that the transparency is properly smushed against the screen when I put the glass on top. I've suspended a light from the ceiling so it's just the right distance to expose the emulsion. I use a 750 watt halogen lamp which has enough UV light in it to do the trick.


Then you hose out the screen. All the stuff hidden by the dark part on the transparency is still soft and it comes right out. I've luckily got a shower in my basement but otherwise you'd use a washout booth:




I'll start actually printing with this stuff tomorrow and I'll have more to show you then :D

I have almost 200 more (822 so far, more to come probably since it ends tomorrow) on my most recent sub than on my last one (660). I did post on Emptees but I didn't think I'd get that many extra people. What gives?