Ok, ok, its been awhile, but this summer was really bad for super art producing. I won’t get into details but my time was eaten up by summer classes, work, moving to a new apartment (finally in Toronto!), and battling a nasty sickness for practically 4 weeks. I don’t remember ever having such a busy summer without actually doing any illustration or design work for myself. I now have about two weeks before I go back to school, so I’m trying to do one really nice looking illustration zine, and I actually have a few ideas for some paintings (those who know me know that I don’t really like painting so this is mind blowing for me). I’m just a bit worried that I will get distracted by new episodes of Futurama and True Blood. But I’m trying to stay on track. I already registered for Canzine and I have 3 sweet prints that I will be selling. Here are some process photos of one of them:

Sugar Skull Screen Print Process Photos

Sugar Skull Screen Print Process Photos

My screen waiting to get inked.

Yup thats my Sugar Skull print. I just need to finish applying the 3rd colour and its going to be ready to go. I printed them on Stonehenge paper and they look really nice. I have 2 more other prints that will be ready for sale come October, but this is all you get. I did these prints while taking a great course at Open Studio. The instructor was Shannon Gerrard who is just the most awesome person ever. Check out her website for neat stuff! By the way, I’m also going to have some sweet sticker and button designs this year so keep your eyes peeled!

Also, Florence + the Machine did a really nice cover of Roger Palmer’s Addicted to Love. So good.

I didn’t have a lot of time but I worked hard on keeping it nice and simple. I only wish I had more time to fix those atrocious hands. I was worried about not finishing everything in time, but I just spoke to a few buddies of mine who haven’t even started, so I’m feeling fairly confident.

Work is good, school is good life is good!

Last night I saw The Big Pink for the second time. Thankfully the venue was Mod Club, which is a million, zillion, gajillion times better than Lee’s Palace, which is where they played last time. We got to stand right at the front for the whole show. They sounded a lot better than at Lee’s and thankfully they stayed away from the seizure inducing strobe lights that they used for the whole show last time. Big Pink is one of those bands that sound amazing live, better than the stuff on their cd. My favourite part was when they did a cover of Otis Redding’s “These arms of mine”, of course no match for the original, but still very nicely done. I got to stare at their bass player the whole time too, which is not a bad thing at all bahah.

I’ve posted new illustrations that I have done for my classes this semester. I’m also going to add a design category because I think that my graphic design pieces are equally strong. I originally was going to do a whole separate site for them, but it doesn’t really make sense to do that.

Recently I’ve been listening to this crazy South African group called Die Antwoord. I don’t know if they’re putting on an act, or if they really are the way they are, but its awesome I hope they come to Toronto sometime soon. Here’s Wat Pomp ft. Jack Parrow:

It was really good for me to go, because as much as I love being in Toronto, I really needed to breakaway for a bit. I did a lot of cool things there, including going to the Freedom Tunnel, which is a train tunnel where some graffiti artists do there thing. It was a great thing to see and even though we didn’t get to go right the end of the tunnel (we heard angry voices coming from the distance and we didn’t want to risk anything) it was still very inspiring to see some of the awesome works on the walls. Here is some of the graffiti adorning the tunnel:

It was really neat, next time I’m in NYC I know that I’m going there again. Maybe I’ll put something on the walls myself and become a part of it.

After I came back I had over 600 images of inspiration from the city that never sleeps and I realized I need to push myself further. So basically, I am trying to commit to actually do things instead of thinking about them or just doing half assed sketches. I’m going to try to update this thing with sketches, drawings, illustrations, inspirations and things that in my life that I find interesting. A couple days ago I realized how lucky I am to have a super cool group of friends that run around with me exploring abandoned places or doing weird things. Its nice. On that note, I’m ending this post with a cool Irish band called Fight like Apes and their song ‘Tie me up in Jackets”:

Now, first thing is first. I’ve been doing some more things for Canzine (which is only a week away, holy crap!) Here are some sneak peek preview photos of what I’m going to have at my table:

H’okay, so first image is a sneak peak at my second zine. It’s really small, 2″ x 2″ folded, and 2″ x 10″ when spread out. It’s double sided, again, just illustration. I will also have large prints of the main illustration for sale ( 4″x17″ so short, but wide).

Second and third are just two of the 6 boxes that I hand painted and will also be selling.

Fourth photo is buttons! Many, many, many buttons, which again, you’ll find at my table! So please come say hi!

Last week I had a small part in a art exhibit called Xpression against Oppression at University of Toronto. I’m not sure how big the exposure is/was, but any exposure is good exposure. My friends Myra, Mimi and Guru were also showing. Here are some shots from the opening:

Apparently none of them know how to look at the camera (From Top: Group, Mimi, Myra, Guru). Before the show we went for delicious Chinese food at a surprisingly clean place in China Town. I will return again.

Finally, because Jeannie asked, these are the business cards I ordered awhile back:

There! It’s 2:26 a.m and I am watching infomercials and I am so ready to buy the Bullet Extreme! I need sleep!

I’m also going to be selling handmade notebooks and stickers. The following is just a prototype. The books are pretty small, 4.25″ x 5.5″ and the paper I used is thick bristol vellum, so they are suitable for light wet media (watercolour washes and gouache mostly) I also bought glow in the dark sticker paper and wanted to see if my printer will handle it. I’m happy to report that it did and I’ll be buying some more sheets tomorrow so I’ll have a bunch ready for Canzine.

That’s all I’m showing for now. Stay tuned for more.

Today I hit a couple of thrift stores with my friend, in search of old children’s books and National Geographic. I find that they are the best for collages, especially nature books. We actually ended up finding a whole series of animal books, with really awesome vintage photos. I can’t wait to do something with them. I also found a really nice old copy of Aesop’s Tales for only 99 cents! I always loved those stories and I’m thinking that for one of my zines I’ll do a little accordion style book based on one of the stories. After we hit Deserres to get some cheap art supplies. They’re having a huge sale for Back to School so I wanted to stock up on spray varnish and little tiny cradle board that were only a $1. Good Day.

I’m geeking out a little bit because I just ordered my first business card. With rounded corners! I hope they’ll come in soon, I’m so excited. For now I got 500, I thought that was a decent amount. I didn’t out my address on them because who knows where I’ll be. I’m also geeking out about the fact that Apple finally came out with a 64GB iTouch. I want it so bad but honestly, I had my iPod for three years now and it works perfectly fine. Its filled to the brim with music, so maybe for now I’ll just have to uncheck some songs. I’m sure by the time my battery dies, the iTouch will be cheaper.

Monday I went to another session of Dr. Sketchy’s, with a Tank Girl theme. Honestly, it was my favourite one. I got some awesome poses and and drawings, and the music was sweet, and the MC was as dirty as ever. It’s become my new favourite thing to do on a Monday night.

Yesterday, my dad and my sister went to Buffalo to some outlet mall. We ended up buying winter coats and freakin’ 4 pound of Lindt chocolate. FOUR POUNDS. It’s like an early, gourmet Halloween for me. It was a pretty epic trip I must say.

Today I came back home, and cleaned up half of my apartment and then spent the rest of the day doing roughs for zines, commissions and a birthday present for a friend. I’ll post what I made after I give it to her in case she reads this!

I finally got registered for Canzine! I have so much to do, I hope it all pays of the in end. I need to order business cards and postcards soon, but I’ll have to wait until OSAP transfers my funds to my bank account (starving artist no more!)

I’m leaving you with Club Feet’s ‘Teenage Suicide”, a song that played at a previous Sketchy session.

It always interests me how my digital designs differ from my hand-drawn drawings. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not and I’m wondering if I should incorporate the same style throughout the different media I use? Hmm.

Last week I attended the Passion Pit show. They were pretty good, but the opening band, The Grates, stole the show in my opinion. Patience, the lead singer was smiling throughout the entire set and was bouncing along to every single song. She gave off such a great energy and you couldn’t help but smile back. After the show we actually go to meet them and take some pictures, but according to my sister, we all look like sweaty hell, so I will spare you hehe. Here’s a video for Aw Yeah, enjoy!