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Alright kids, it’s time for Uncle Dave’s Art Blog. This blog is mostly a spot for me to force myself to draw with my Wacom Tablet everyday, and perhaps a chance to vent out the days frustrations and joys. The subject matter of the blog is pretty much based on the topic, whatever I damn well please. Enjoy, and if I don’t know you and you tripped into this site, be not afraid…Well, maybe a little.
10/7/08 Life Isn't What You Thought It'd Be
This is actually one of the first ideas I had for a picture for the year of 2008. I had just come off of a awesome 2007 in my home state of Michigan (313, Detroit What!). I had finished college, I had a job lined up in Tucson, Arizona, which would help me get one step closer to my dream of being a 2d animator in LA, and I had a stunning girlfriend who actually managed to cheat the system and have a brain in her head. As soon as I moved early 2008 the shit hit the fan, and piece by piece it all started to fall apart. The job I moved out for did an internal hire, my great college knowledge wasn’t doing dick to get me a job in what I actually studied for, and romance fizzles a bit when you’re half way across the country. I had a really bad 2006, so 2007 was a breath of fresh air. I guess when I filled out my change of address form, someone sent life my information and it was 2006 all over again. I used to tell people, life has a funny way of grabbing you by the hair, bending you over a table, and taking what it wants, and that’s what this picture shows. I like the bottom version because it just looks scary.
10/8/08 Perspective Be Damned
After a month in Tucson, I got a job in an Outdoor Store selling hiking and camping gear. This is great except for the fact I’ve never really backpacked or camped with the exception of suburbia campsites. Still, I learned many a great things about bear mace and how to properly fit a boot, (for the love of crap people, wash your feet and by bigger shoes ladies.) Now, this is my forth stint in retail, and every time I make sweet dirty retail, I die a little inside because I know there are people doing the exact same thing in hell. Anyway, we get a free pass to a climbing gym which is great unless you’re a lazy ass artist. Finally I broke down and went a few times, but I have about as much upper body strength as Stephen Hawking so I have to do most of the girly routes. I tell you it’s pretty humbling flexing your muscles after climbing a 5.5, then watching a 12 year old girl do a 5.9 in half the time. Still, for an artist, I feel it’s not too shabby, and at the end of the day the fact that I’ll never have to have a period every month offers some solace. I realize this perspective is wrong, and at this time I would like to play the, "Oh yeah, your mom!" card.
10/12/08 Tiger Uppercut!
To go out of order for the story, this month I got to finally go out to LA and try to find an art related job because after 7 months of outdoor retail, I had had enough. Plus, being from the great lakes state I was really missing water (and our plain blue license plates, why did we have to get rid of those?) Also, I don’t know if anybody told you guys this, but the desert is frickin’ hot. And not Michigan, swamp-ass hot, but do-your-balls-hang-low-do-they-wobble-to-and-fro-throw-them-over-your-shoulder-hot. Anyway, I got and room with one of my old college buddies, and his friend has this horrible purse size dogs. You know, the kind where every time you see it you want to do a Jason Hanson style field goal and see if you can kick it through the screen door? Sadly I never got to, it was too busy humping my leg or peeing on stuff. I really wanted to uppercut this dog but I couldn’t really be mad at the dog after meeting its owner. She was what the French call, a “fucking moron.” I equivilate (which is a word now) her teaching this dog to act properly, to a kid with autism teaching a group of “mentally Handicapped” children how to fix modern day plumbing; They aren’t gonna do the job right and you just know everything is gonna turn out shitty, most likely literally. If you own one of these purse dogs, please drop your purse in a fountain until the bubbles stop, then put it over your own head,and repeat.
10/16/08 An Ode 2 Boobies!
The large number of pink ribbons yet again reminds us that it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month, and if you are a woman you are probably already aware of your own dynamic duo, but it’s important that men do our part to keep America’s Jumblies strong. A while back I went to a soccer game in Chicago with my sister, who was hell bent on raising something like $5,000 dollars for Sweater Meat Science. So she stood outside the game holding the jar, wearing a big sandwich sign, reciting facts and asking questions and I would say roughly 38,000 people walked past her. After the game got out, she changed her tactics to short and sweet as the guys drunkenly staggered past. She lifted up her shirt and held out the jar. No, I’m just kidding, she just said, “Dammit guys! You like Boobs don’t you?” 5,000 drunk guys try to nod in unison. “Well put your money in this jar so we can keep ‘em healthy!” I think she walked out with almost $200 bucks. On a side note, if I remember right, she made the goal too.
Although currently unfinished, this drawing is a mad kudos to my sister and for Rib Cushion Research everywhere, because after I turned 10, breasts became my favorite thing(s), just narrowly edging out my Super Nintendo. So guys, do your part. I’m not saying research it or actually go to the website, because that takes time and effort. Just walk into a grocery store and hand the clerk a couple of dollars; even if they aren’t taking donations. Just say, “Here is some money because I like boobs, make sure it gets to the right place.” I suggest giving a pair of bills, one for each chestical, because you aren’t supposed to show favorites. Keep up the great work ladies, because if you didn’t have them, I would have had to pay attention in church, and most of the cheerleaders I know would have had to get real jobs.
10/17/08 Austin Power
I haven’t done a nice caricature of anybody in a while, and after making the “Ashes 2 Asher, Dave’s 2 Dust,” My friend from work asked me to make her a shirt. So this is it, with her trademark greeting of, “Heeeeeeeeeeey.” I made it in exchange for fish tacos (get your mind out of the gutter) but I’ve yet to have them so the shirt will remain hostage until the transaction is complete.
10/20/08 ASC to NBA
I haven’t heard anything back from California so I’m trying to find jobs I can get in Michigan that don’t involve me folding clothes, so it’s my fallback of my first degree of Graphic Design. Realizing I haven’t really touched this kind of work since I got the degree in 2003, or really made any modern logos, I’ve been working on that as opposed to online coloring and sketch work. The first picture is a logo I did for my roommates group the Arizona Swing Cats, which if you are at all interested in Swing dancing and live in the Southwest, you should probably check out their site here. Anyway, the idea was to make a swing logo that avoided all the usual cliques like cats, fedoras, pin stripes, silhouettes of people dancing, martini glasses, and all that great stuff. Leaving me with not much to work with, I made a retro logo that reminds me of a mix between Krispy Kream Donuts and Pepsi Cola.
It really fit the bill and worked well, but there were quite a few diehards that wanted a more traditional logo that would look really cool on a shirt so I opted to make an NBA style logo (which I thought was pretty original until I looked up the logo online and found other examples of the idea ranging from cow-tipping to extreme underwater crocheting. I didn’t really see these, if you make them I would like to see them though, and I want a quarter for the idea.) Still, I’m very happy with how it turned out and I would totally wear this shirt.
10/26/08 Take a Dump
A photo dump! I'll write stuff in for these later, I've been crazy busy filling in stuff for my portfolio which you can check out here.
