12 Days of Drawing--I Mean Christmas

I dedicate my tenth Derby win to my parents. I recently spent Thanksgiving with them, but I spent a great deal of my time working on this design. They weren't hurt, they didn't complain, they didn't even pick on me. Instead, they were excited, helpful, and encouraging. They are two of the most unconditionally loving people I know, and that quality among many others makes me a very fortunate person.

I'm also fortunate to be able to offer you all a Christmas shirt this season. I've always enjoyed this crazy song, but even if it instead drives you crazy, I think and hope you might still enjoy the shirt. You can at least brag about the fact that you would be wearing the entire contents of the song. Woot has given it the title of Aw, And I Didn't Get You Anything (originally Inspired By The Twelve Days of Christmas.)



This thing was tedious to do, but for some unexplainable masochistic or challenge-junkie reason I welcomed it very soon after the theme was announced. Here are a few WIP shots of it:

Initial overall shape:



Fleshing out of characters:



Cleaned up and inked:



Coloring in progress:



Final:



Again, thank you for supporting this. And even though this was one of the most labor intensive designs I've done, it was worth it to be able to contribute to the holiday spirit.

Brilliant Pictures

My friend Sherri received her copy of Brilliant! the other day. I'm jealous because I still don't have mine! But I'm thankful to see it and thankful to be able to say it printed very, very well. I'm sure most of you know the fiascoes I've had with disappointing print results, so let me shout a big thank you to the folks at Springleap. Here are some pictures. Sherri and I are extremely amused at the fact that if you wear this, my name will be on your butt. I think that's a good reason to buy it, don't you? Enjoy the pics, and if you catch this blog post before noon today, allow me to plead for your vote for my rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas at Shirt.Woot. Thanks, and happy December to you all! :)

Propaganda Derby

The newest Derby has been strange, to say the least. The theme is Propaganda For Everyday Life, which is weird enough to be the only reason, but this is also the first Derby to use the new Fog of War format. In an attempt to deter cheating the system, the fog has now been extended from four designs to nine. The last notable strangeness though is that my design has stirred up a little controversy. I really wanted to drive home a Russian style, so I made some of the letters of my slogan look like Cyrillic characters. A lot of people think this contradicts the overall message because it doesn't make sense if pronounced. I can see where they're coming from, but I just look at it like it's a font. That's all.

Anyway, if you are a fan of proper grammar and spelling on the internet, and you're not offended by my font, please check out Use Proper Grammar at Shirt.Woot.

Silver Lining?

The other day I was going through some of my old posts and it made me realize that I've become more lazy and distant with my blog. I really don't like that I've become that way, and I apologize. Being lazy unfortunately can be part of my character, but when it comes to personal expression, I'm not typically distant. It's usually a challenge for me to NOT wear my heart on my sleeve. The truth is I've been going through a lot of personal stuff lately, and it's affected my online involvment overall. This will pass. I don't know when, but I know it will. And eventually I hope to be more involved again. I hope to get back to a point where I can update this once a week consistently, and I'm considering a redesign as well. Anyway, don't give on me, k?

I'll leave you with a quick update of the recent Silver Lining print at Teextile. Yeah, I know it's kind of cheesy that I'm advertising this particular print in this post, but it really is just a coincidence. To be honest, at this very moment I'm seeing more tornados than sun peeking out of the clouds, but here it is anyway, lol. I apologize for posting this a bit late. Yesterday was the day it was $12, but it's still available until Sunday for $15 if you'd like to pick it up.

Painted with Water Update and Piranha at Teextile

I'm still smiling and floating high from Painted with Water's Threadless score. I can't thank all of you enough for giving it so much support! This definitely moves me in the right direction for meeting my newest goal. Even if it doesn't print, I'm still so excited to break a three.



The next news takes place at Teextile, the new temporary home for Piranha Still Life (last seen at Tee Fury.) Grab it today for $12, the rest of the weekend it will be $15, and then it will be gone. Some of you have mentioned missing it the first time, so here's a second chance. :)

Can't stay for long today, just wanted to say hi and keep you in the LOOP! (I know, sorry.)

Painted with Water Design Ready to Score

Last month I mentioned I was going to take some time off Derbies to concentrate on Threadless. I have to say, it's been very satisfying to be able to devote a lot of time to one design and not be rushed. I enjoyed being able to work on it and then come back the next day with fresh eyes and refine it. The design I'm referring to is Painted with Water, inspired by Paint with Water books.

I thought it might be fun to share the entire process of it. To begin, I have to thank AdderXYU again for reminding me of those books. One of our conversations made me think of the design.

The first thing I did was order a couple books to experiment with. I found a new one and an old one. The old one was so old in fact, that it didn't work! It was still great to study though. The old ones used more artsy and decorative patterns, like the snowflakes on Barbie's sweater here:



The new one used simpler patterns, but at least the paint still worked. I dripped water on it instead of painted to see what it would look like, because that's what I had in mind for the design.



Then I drew for a long time and finally came up with a sketch of things that depended on water. (If you need to, click on any of these images to see them larger.)



I inked it in Photoshop:



The easiest way to color it, I thought, was to first make it look like it would before water was applied.



And finally I "added the water." During the critique process at Threadless, the drops of water caused minor controversy. A lot of people thought they were distracting, but when I took them out, it looked too flat. I really wanted to accentuate the water so I decided to keep them.



Even though the process was lengthy, I enjoyed it--especially the "painting" part. It reminded me of painting watercolors with my dad when I was younger, except with less risk of me absentmindedly drinking out of the water cup with paint in it (which I did, once.) Anyway I hope you found this interesting and please take a moment to score it if you can here: Painted with Water

Thanks for reading!

Brilliant! A Print at Springleap!

I'll be honest, I've been a bit stressed out the past few days, so my serotonin levels got a much needed boost when I checked out Springleap this morning and saw that Brilliant! won first place. I almost didn't believe it because I hadn't yet received any email from them. Regardless, it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. Thank you to all of you that scored it!