IPRC Seal
The Independent Publishing Resource Center asked me to come up with an official seal for them, based on the state seal of Maine, but with more IPRC-related icons. I was more than happy to oblige.
IPRC Chili Cookoff
The IPRC is having a chili cookoff and auction later this week. They asked me if I would create an image for the event that would be used as a newspaper ad and online. The IPRC is pretty Sasquatch-friendly, so I thought Bigfoot bringing his best pot of chili would make a fun image.
My roommate is a scratchboard artist so after months of hanging out with her while she scratches away, I had to give it a try. I have to say, I kinda dig it; I’m going to try to do more scrathboards this summer.
Does everyone know I have Facebook pages for my art stuff, Banner Year Press, and Man’s Face Stuff? It’s true.
IPRC Catalog Covers
Well, well, well… long time no see, internet. In my recent absence of nearly a month or so, I have officially released two books (one of which was awarded twice over), graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from Pacific NW College of Art, taken part in four art shows (one solo show, three group shows), tabled at two comic/craft shows, and taken on some interesting freelance work. In short, I’ve been busy.
The Independent Publishing Resource Center had me do this diptych for their catalog which gets released every other month. I’ve done a number of things for the IPRC lately, which I’ll be posting shortly.
I’ll probably spend the next few weeks getting back in the swing of things, posting here and such, and I’ve got a lot ready to show. It’s going to be a great summer, so keep in touch, yeah?
The IPRC: What are You Making?
Some of my perfect bound books and whatnot are featured in this short documentary about the Independent Publishing Resource Center. It’s narrated mostly by Jesse Reklaw. My books show up around 2:30.
Also, only TWO MORE DAYS to submit something to BEARFIGHT! I’ve got a lot of good submissions already, but there’s always room for more.
IPRC Mural WIP
The Independent Publishing Resource Center has recently acquired an additional room, directly across the hall from the rest of the Center. I volunteered to paint a lettered piece above the door in the new room, which will be used as an art gallery, classroom, and for perfect binding, which I supervise. I spend at least one day a week in this room, so it was important to me to be able to leave my mark on it a little bit.
It’s still a work in progress, but it’s at a nice pause point right now, so I thought I’d share.
That’s right, it’s got gold leaf! I spare nothing when it comes to the IPRC. Just a few more spots to brush away.
The gold is clean and the lettering can begin. I used a mix of latex and acrylics.
Lettering blocked in.
Outline ribbon, add shadow, erase pencils, sign, date, and we’re good! Sometime soon, I will fully finish it by lettering “Portland, Oregon” in the upper corners, but I like it where it’s at now too.
The two larger spots on either side of the door are currently being painted by the wonderful Lori D.
Typo Friday #9 - IPRC Letterpress Poster
Most of the letters I post on Typo Friday will be of the hand-drawn variety, but in the last week I’ve taken two letterpress classes at the IPRC, and I’m sort of in love with setting metal type, so I thought I’d show you what we came up with during the Intro to the Poster Press class last night. The teacher, Michael d’Alessandro set and printed the green, wooden type while showing us how to use the table top poster press. Then, each student got to set a small chunk of text and/or imagetype and that was locked into the press bed and everyone got a go inking up and rolling the paper over.
I did the eagle, ZAP, and stars, as if you couldn’t guess, so here’s a close-up.
Remember: 15% discount on orders of $20+ (before shipping) from the radrobot.org store or my Etsy shop.
Letterpress Love
After years and years of learning various forms of printmaking, I finally took a letterpress class at the Independent Publishing Resource Center on Thursday. I am, of course, completely enamored with the letterpress process already, and will be taking another IPRC class in letterpress poster printing later this week. There’s something about having a century-old hunk of cast iron under your control that just feels so much more heartwarming than say dragging a squeegee across a screen, not that I don’t still adore screenprinting. Anyways, everyone in class got to typeset and print a small saying and/or image, and here is mine. They are about the size of business cards in real life, printed in reflex blue on gold and recycled brown cardstock. Fun fun fun.
I’ve been working at a personal goal to fill my Etsy shop with 50 items before the end of November and promote it more to see if I can increase my views and sales, and it is paying off. I’m up to 48 items already and my Whoa Dang! t-shirt was featured on Alexander’s Designs blog this week. Go check it out and remember to support your local independent artists!
Also, check out this video. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a stop motion mural animation by Mike Nowland and Carson Ting, but what’s super rad is what happens right around 1:10. That dude totally looks familiar.
Perfect-Bound Journals +New Prints For Sale!
I’ve been busy making perfect-bound journals at the IPRC for the Center to sell at Wordstock this last weekend. I pulled out some old screenprinted off-prints and test-prints and used them for covers. I also found a free, airline safety manual, which made three cool covers as well.
These journals, however, will be for sale at my table at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco on October 17-18. The larger heart journals are filled with heavy, drawing paper, while the rest are a mix of different text weight papers, great for writing. All are perfect bound with a screenprinted cover, and most have rounded corners. If anyone here wants one, I’m thinking $3 for a small journal, and $5 for a larger one, plus like $2.50 for shipping.
There’s also a small journal with my “Mmm, Bacon” pig on the cover, but it has a slightly mangled corner on the cover. The first person to feel so inclined as to buy something from the store will get that journal for free. It’s still totally usable, it just ain’t as pretty as the rest.
I finally updated my Imagekind Gallery, after over a year with only my “Drink Friendly!” image in it. I’ve ordered a few prints through Imagekind and the quality is very good. You can choose what paper you’d like, and from quite a few different print sizes. They’ll even frame it for you if that’s what you’re into! For now, any of the five images above can be purchased for as low as $12.81!
So Much To-Do, Now In List Form!
As I mentioned last week, I’ve been volunteering at the Independent Publishing Resource Center and supervising the use of their new perfect binding machine. Along with the FADGE books, I’ve been doing some other experiments on the binder. Yesterday, I made these to-do list notepads because I’m a man that loves a good to-do list. Just a test really, I’ve been thinking of some other projects involving the notepad format.
If anyone’s curious about the binding process, I took a bunch of pictures last night, and I’m working up a process post for Monday.
Also, I may have a new favorite shirt. I just picked it up from the talented Frank Chimero. Frank just released three other new shirts, and has a ton of fantastic work on his site, check it out.