I'll miss you, buddy.

Almost but not quite 20 is a pretty impressive run.

Fun with Black & White

Up first is Corey's tattoo design, a stylization of the Manchester Street Power Station and its iconic smokestacks, nicknamed "the sentinels" by our friend Melissa. I feel it's important to tell you that it was drawn from life, not photographed and run through a filter. Corey parked his car illegally so that I'd have a good view to draw!

Then there is the cleaned-up Mob Squad logo. Before I knew anything about inking or Photoshop, I drew a logo for my fledgling roller derby team, which, to my embarrassment, is still reproduced on t-shirts, stickers, and all kinds of promotional materials for Providence Roller Derby. I got sick of looking at it! It was so ugly! I redrew the whole thing, so now it's the same, but slightly better drawn and much much cleaner. Fuhgettaboutit!

Futures and Sutures at Bargain Prices

My kingdom for a nice big Epson scanner! This one took me a long time.

Happy Halloween!

I have a witchy witch picture in the works, but right now it's time to enjoy the holiday!

Satisfaction is a Mere Bug in my Hand and a Gritty Pearl on my Knee

It's been a while since I've had a case of severe inebriation. Overall I don't really enjoy the feeling of being "duh-runk"... Still, though, it only takes two pints for my speech to get all kinds of mixed up.
Spoonerism is a speech trend where folks will switch letters (or sometimes even whole words!) within a phrase or sentence- mostly by accident, or sometimes as a joke. It was made famous by an Oxford professor named William Archibald Spooner, who apparently couldn't help but do it all the time. I do this sometimes when I'm tired or full of beer. Over the past few years (or maybe it's my whole life?!) I've noticed that even when I'm not tired at all, I have a diminished faculty for speech. Maybe, as some folks are uncoordinated and trip over their own feet, I just have a clumsy tongue and palate? All I know is it sucks when you try to tell a joke, and the punch line comes out, "Yarr! It's knivin' me druts!"

HOLY BALLS

My eyes hurt a little. How about yours? Also, all I can think of today is Lynda Barry at her lecture yesterday bellowing, "HOLY BALLS; HOLY BALLS." Not a bad thing, really. Not at all.

Small Sketches, Large News

Pawtucket City Hall.

A cat wrestler, plus notes from a meeting.

So, then, I've got a new job coming up, whereupon I'll spend 6 months working on a schooner out of St. Croix. I'm flying down on November 24th and sailing back sometime toward the end of May, so I've got a little less than 2 months to make as much arts as possible. I'm trying to feel like this:
...But I'm actually feeling more like this:

I Just Wanna Wrap You In My Tentacles

Here we go with another thank-you card. I almost got an anchor tattoo like that once. Thank goodness I went with another design, or I'd just be another Providence hipster with an anchor tattoo!

Jacket Makeover, part 2: Attack of the Bedazzler!

Front-side embellishment... Rev. Al had only a few guidelines for the design and one of them was that crosses had to be incorporated somewhere. He is, after all, a man of God.
Back design after lettering and rhinestones were added. I didn't feel the need to use a lot of rhinestones for the back of the jacket, as it's pretty complicated already.

Details.

For the front, I be-gemmed the lapels and crosses. Here I used less restraint. Given that the front design is simpler than the back, I didn't want it to seem like an afterthought. I'm kind of excited about the end result. I've never really done anything like this before, so it was a scary experience. Y'know, new and untested frontiers an' all. I think maybe I will take Lauren's suggestion and decorate a pair of skates next!

Jacket Makeover, part 1

At the beginning of the roller derby season, I was commissioned by one of our two announcers, the Rev. Al Mighty, to overhaul a jacket and "derby that fucker out"- Which is to say, make it loud and embellished so as to be seen from a distance, say, at a championship bout. (SHAMELESS PLUG: The championship is on September 19th! Go to www.providencerollerderby.com to find out more!)

Anyway, here is the sketch I'm using:


All outlined out and ready to start painting!

Gray and white go on smoothly; neons not so much.

Color is added... plus sparkly gold puff paint! Thank you, Wal-Mart, and thank you, Cranston.

Adding in the lightning. I mixed the flourescent orange with white so it'd be easier to lay in. Plus being lighter and less saturated, it wouldn't compete so much with the rest.

End of day 1. Still to come: Lettering, studs and rhinestones, plus clouds and lightning for the front of the jacket.

My room is a mess!

My New Favorite Card

...with apologies to AC/DC. Also, my mom came over and saw the file open before I'd super-imposed the kid and thought "NERDY DEEDS" was the title of my to-do list.

Choking Hazard

This is one of my favorites from the series I just finished.

I'M FREEEEEEE!!!

61+ illustrations in a month... I'm DONE, man! There may be some edits here and there, but essentially the crunch is OVER. Now I can work out for like 3 hours straight on my off days... Or cook real food other than yogurt and granola, or finally crack those accordion songbooks I bought 4 months ago, or see my friends (if I still have any at this point), or see a movie, or ride horses, or EVEN MAKE SOME ARTS.

EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Charlie Foxtrot

Life feels a little like this at the moment!

Give Me A Fast Ship, For I Intend To Have Sex..tants.

Small sketching from a trip to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. The museum's had stuff added on since the last time I was there, which was disorienting- but a good trip nonetheless. I learned something new about John Paul Jones- naval hero during the Revolution and former captain of the sloop on which I sailed as an awkward 14-year-old- He's totally a looker. Who knew?

Also: DON'T PAY FOR WITCH LESSONS. I've never been to magic class, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to fly on a broomstick. Plus, how would you be evaluated? "Ashley's astral projection seems to have improved in past weeks- or at least that's what it looks like. I mean, I don't know where she's going, but her physical presence looks pretty spaced out. So like, wherever she is, she's not here. I think." What was it P. T. Barnum said? "There's a sucker born every minute."

They Call Me "Beastmaster"

Actually, they don't call me that at all. This is a fun little aside in beginning stages. I'm still figuring out my colors. I know I've joked before about Lisa Frank neons, but when I drew this, I really wanted it to leave an acidic aftertaste. "Ahhh, my eyes!" Y'know, like that. Progress on this might be very very slow given my work schedule.

More work should have happened

Just got back from a nice trip to Vermont- My dad and I took a road trip to visit my aunt Val at her home/studio in Burlington. She has a bunch of cool projects going on and a studio space that'd make any artist intensely covetous. I went to a skate park near her house to try some ramps on my roller skates, but nothing they had was under four feet high, so I tried a few,

got intimidated by the skateboarders, and took off down the bike path feeling like a total idiot. I later redeemed myself by skating up a very tall, steep hill. The moral of the story was, "Stick to your own kind."

Sunday we all hopped in the car and went to Aunt Val's gentleman-friend's house in Milton. Frank is lucky enough to live right on Lake Champlain, so we could watch the rainstorms travel across the lake before they hit us. All in all it was a relaxing weekend- Except for the part where I was furiously drawing a million robots. I'll sleep when I'm dead!

Oh, oh- AND I'm now a licensed driver!

Stand By To Stand By to Stand By

Many doings afoot... There is an illustration project, inspections by the US Coast Guard, my driving test (take 3), a trip to Vermont, and a persistent case of hiccups. BUT as busy as I am, I get to feel like a winner right now because yesterday I handled the foresail peak halyard by myself! SHAZAM!

Roller Derby Ref Thanks

A reworking of the original Spanks Thanks for Providence Roller Derby's dedicated referees and coaching staff- They put up with angry sweaty girls four nights a week and they do it all on skates! Let's give 'em a hand.

I Would Walk A Thousand Milos

Love, Loyalty, and Feeling It Out With Your Tongue

Is Providence Roller Derby to be once more without a steady practice space?
Will I ever be able to use my new iPod?
Am I doomed to have to alter every uniform I'll ever wear?
Will my students' parents crucify me for showing uncensored comics in class?

Whatever, I'm going to have frozen raspberries and beer for dinner again.

Small sketches: actual size

Around RISD, drawing with Laura on her visit. View from my therapist's waiting room, with words overheard.
The office.

Finally, an update!

A cruel, cruel sea monster.

Something for a contest.
A birthday card!

Current events are a bummer

I'm bummed about Eight Belles. My mom and I were watching the Kentucky Derby together and I was all, "A filly? Holy cow! I'm rooting for the girl!" I got so excited when she came in second. It seemed like such a cruel joke that she should be injured and euthanized just seconds after the race ended.
On a different but no less somber subject, I wonder when the curfews and watches will let up in Central Falls and Pawtucket? Gang violence strikes me as especially sad because in most cases perpetrators and victims alike are just kids. Helder Tomar was just 19, and the other kid that died was 16.
I'm not at all a part of that world, and never have been. My high school, however, was full of kids that were, so we'd get the lectures about why not to join a gang- One of the reasons cited as to why kids do join gangs is fear. Gangs offer protection from, well, rival gangs, I guess. I think it actually has less to do with fear of "the other"- being in this case other gangs, other kids, the boogeyman, whatever- and more to do with the fear of a larger, intangible enemy. For many of these kids, especially kids from CF, the world is so pathetically and oppressively small, and the future simply doesn't exist. I feel like kids join gangs as a desperate attempt to inject meaning into their lives and feel as if they belong to something bigger than themselves. They fight for a cause, for their block, their school, their friends, for respect- against kids just like themselves.
You could say, "Work hard in school, get a scholarship, go to college," but it's easy to say when your school isn't a fucking wasteland of budget cuts, anger, and stillborn idealism. There is no easy solution. I can't say that my theory is right, even. I'm just ranting because it blows and I'm angry.
Oh, yeah, and I made a card. : )

Shippy Strippy

So my captain chose these two as a front/back design. I really hope they'll print them as big I meant them to be, because it'll look totally badass. Also I think it's up to the screen printer to convert this to an Illustrator file, so I'm worried I didn't make it clean enough. Will things get lost in translation? Who knows? I did my best.

This next set was from last night's ProvSketchy figure drawing session, which is double-breasted fun for every artist of every skill level or age. Well. Maybe the 11-year-olds should stay home. My compatriots and I were all kind of rusty. I hadn't done figure drawing in almost a year. I'm a bad person! Good thing I disciplined myself by drawing cute girls with big boobs. I have to say, though, if you looked at my sketchbook it'd be kind of hard to pick out the life drawings from the idle sketches because the subject matter is EXACTLY THE SAME. Could it be I'm just a prurient creep after all?