I just finished this piece for my Beginning Illustration class. Our assignment was to illustrate a musical artist or group of our choice, and I went with a young Hasil Adkins. I wanted something somewhat recognizable within my illustration style, but experiment with materials and push myself a bit. It’s oil pastel, vine charcoal, acrylic paint, ink, and graphite on found wooden slats and a 45 RPM vinyl record, and some staples thrown in for good measure. It looks a lot better in person, the flash really brought out the edges of the record. They’re a lot less obvious in real life. Roughly 15″ by 21″.

An old favorite, renewed!

Saturday night was the first meeting of Portland Drink and Draw, and it was a lot of fun. Drinking, trying to draw in a dark bar, being around other people trying to draw in a dark bar, more drinking; it’s my kind of time. This is the first page of three that my buddy Bryan tossed into my sketchbook that night. I’m including it because I totally dig his drawings of me. (I’ll refrain from posting the other two pages, in which he decided to draw us both naked.)

If you want to see a jam comic and some other things from the group, click here.

Two of my sketches from Saturday night. These are sketches for the illustration I’m doing on the back cover of my school’s upcoming comics anthology. More on that as it develops.

Finally, I sketched this on Friday afternoon, during a school trip to the Portland Art Museum. It’s from a painting by Milton Avery. It really doesn’t look much like the painting, but I really like that expression.

My schedule was completely thrown off this week by two snow days and then starting school. I just realized that I totally forgot to post a Robots Are People Too yesterday. Here it is! Looks like I’ve been asked to keep doing these too, so they will keep updating every Thursday for the time being.

Boredom + fake fur = Messenger bag moustache!

In other good news, I found out that the gallery where my solo show is hung is open to the public again, starting on Tuesday the 16th!

I got together with some friends yesterday to learn a little bookbinding. This is what I came up with: a 4.75″ by 6″, pocket-sized journal, complete with four interior folder pockets. Not suprisingly, I think I’m hooked. I’d been mulling over the possibility of hand-binding the Baby Otto Zeplin comics when I have enough to print, and now I’m pretty much convinced that I will. Also, old hanging file folders are quickly becoming one of my favorite materials with which to work.

Click for a slightly larger view.

Totally new! My third robot comic appearing in the Portland Mercury.

I’ve got a friend visiting from out of town, so I’m not sure of what my production or posting schedule will be this week beyond Thursday’s robot comic.

I had the big opening of my first solo show on Thursday. Let’s just say the best part was that I got to see a lot of my friends whom I hadn’t been able to see for the last few months because I was too busy working on the show. Everything looked quite good up on the walls, but for various reasons, the turnout of actual art patrons was not what I had planned at all. I sold a few prints, made a few bucks, and had a great time hanging out with my friends who showed, so I’ve got no regrets, but I totally know a few things I’ll change whenever I decide to have another solo show.

Click for a slightly larger view. Another rehash of two old strips. The next few of these should be all new.

Everything for my “Spoke Up!” show got hung yesterday afternoon. It looks good all together, if I do say so myself; or at least better than sitting in piles on my floor, which is how it’s looked for the last few weeks. I’ll be taking some photos at the opening tonight, but here’s one of me, triumphant, at the end of the hanging. (I was a cowboy yesterday.)

At roughly 2:30 this morning, I put the last brush stroke on the 16th and final piece for my “Spoke Up!” show. It’s this umbrella-headed biker guy that I also have on the show flyer and is painted on one of these free biking maps of Portland that are given away all around town. I have to hang everything tomorrow for the opening reception on Thursday night. At this point, I can’t wait until 9 pm Thursday night. One last plug for anyone in Portland:

Thursday, January 4th
6-9 pm
Working Artists Gallery
2211 NW Front Ave. - Suite 301

Happy New Year Chatter
I hope everyone is enjoying the new year so far. For no concrete reason, the beginning of each new year has always been one of my favorite times of year. I always feel so excited and optimistic for everything that might happen over the next twelve months. When I was about 20 years old, I somehow decided that the ages of 23-26 would be the best years of my life. There are two camps arguing over that statement: those people that think that I meant that 23-26 would be the best years up to that point, and those that think I meant that 23-26 would be the best, and it would never get better. I always liked leaving my meaning a little bit open to interpretation, but I can at least say for sure that 23-26 has been the best and happiest years of my life, so far. I have a little under six months before my 27th birthday, so I’m looking to make the most of it, just in case the second group is correct. I really do feel like 2007 is going to be a breakout year where a lot of things come together for me personally, creatively, educationally, financially, etc, and I’m really looking forward to it. Not to sound so sappy, but I truly wish that everyone reading this will have as amazing a year as I plan on having.

Oh, and my only real resolution is to use my sewing machine more. Maybe some plush robots this coming year?

Robot comic on Thursday!