doggy door

Although my final drawings usually end up having a somewhat cohesive comic sensibility, most of my personal sketches are far more abstract, a lot more focused on line than character. I wanted to tap into that with this week’s Blotter illustration, which sort of mixes those two worlds. And, I always love drawing dogs, for some reason.

Blot: A middle-aged woman said her neighbor came over and taped dog feces to her front door ...

shopping maul

Beyond all the cover stuff I did for the Loaf last week, I also contributed a regular Blotter doodle.
The story involved a lady brandishing a fake samurai sword in a furniture store. I wanted to go with a different composition from the stuff in the cover package, thus the unusual layout and extra spacing. I was pleased overall.

Blot: The fake-sword woman paid for her merchandise and left the store ...

balloon ranger

I've been meaning to post a link to my piece that ran in Time Out New York last week, but it kept slipping my mind. Anyway, if you happen to be in NYC, the Museum of Sex's new exhibit "Kink: Geography of the Erotic Imagination" looks to be a twisted delight.
Here's my perv-alicious preview.

Getting the Kinks Out: Explore the erotic games people play at the Museum of Sex

the usual suspects

The Loaf's Best of the Blotter is on newsstands now; I finally got my hands on a copy this morning. I don't have a PDF of the actual cover but my illustration appears above.

Inside, looks they used almost all of the artwork I contributed. I'd thrown in four sketchy faces to use as incidental accents around the text, and oddly enough only the three males got placed. Here are all four of them.
While drawing these guys, I was listening to an NPR interview with John Waters, who was discussing his new Valentine's CD. I think some of Waters' trashy aesthetic informed the final outcome, especially with the hooker lady.

kiss you off

Happy V-Day!

I’ve been neck-deep in illustration work, mostly thanks to the Best of the Blotter package that the Loaf is running this week. A small preview appears to the left. It’s the "kissing bandit" who frequented an area McDonalds. He’s loving it, apparently.

Meanwhile, last week’s Blotter doodle continued our recent trend of alcoholic women. Enjoy.

Blot: The man said he informed her that he was calling police, and she took off running -- to a bar.

moving questions

• Why doesn’t the heat work in our new place? (Duh, because you have to put new batteries in the digital thermostat! Wish I’d figured that one out two days ago. Brrr.)
• Why doesn’t my AirPort work in the new place? (No clue. Seriously.)
• Why does our shower suddenly go from ice water to Guantanamo Scalding Torture then back to ice water with no warning?
• Isn’t it supposed to be warm here in the South?
• If I eat fried chicken every day for lunch and dinner, how long until my arteries shut down completely?
• Do I really need to learn how to drive a stick?
• How come I’m just now getting into The Decemberists? The Crane Wife is sublime.
• Where are all the remote controls?
• Is that really the correct plural form, or should it be “remotes control”?
• Where does one shop for custom-built bookshelves in Atlanta?
• Can somebody come in and unpack all this shit for me?
• Seriously, just batteries. Who knew?

irreplaceable

To the left, to the left
Everything I own in a box to the left.

So I’m misquoting Beyoncé here, but there’s a reason I’ve been listening to “Irreplaceable” on repeat for the past three days. It doesn’t exactly fit my situation: B’s kicking her no-good man out on the street, I’m just moving to a new city, but something about the mood matches my mind set these days.

We made it to ATL late Wednesday night after finding out that our flight had been canceled due to an ice storm bearing down on the city. The moving van should get here on an undisclosed date next week. There’s something subtly Zen about sending your every last belonging out in the universe and just hoping for the best that it’ll come back, not knowing when or how. All those material things are, ultimately, replaceable, even if not having them around can be a pain. It's forced me to stop and consider what it is that I do actually need, versus what I want.

The hard part about all of this is that I have a couple of illustrations due for various clients, and here I am with limited art supplies and no flatbed scanner. It’s going to be a weekend of creative improvisation. Stay tuned to see how that turns out.

Speaking of drawings, here’s a new one. I was going for a loosely Lichtenstein feel for the lady’s face. Not sure where the fiery drink came from. It frankly startled me when it burst into flames on the page.

The Blot: A blond woman went to a Mexican restaurant and ordered a pitcher of margaritas ...