I'm Gonna Be Busy!

Upon my shirt going on sale on Woot, I've received a ton of good comments as well as a job offer! An underground rapper of the West Coast contacted me and inquired about doing some merch design for him. Long story short, I developed 3 concepts and to my surprise, instead of buying 1, he bought all 3! Over the next few weeks I will be busy working away on these illustrations and bringing them to life.

Lost Pirate Results Are In

Well, I received a sales report email this morning from Ript Apparel. I won't divulge how many shirts sold, but I will say I'm pretty disappointed. I really wish I could have done a lot better, especially because I need the money, but what happened has happened and that's the end of it. "The Lost Pirate of the Black Lagoon" has been officially retired forever. I won't be selling it in my Redbubble store. I will stow it away in the depths of this computer quite possibly for eternity. Who knows though, maybe one day I'll take a look at it and want to make some changes to it to make it sellable again. But for now, this is the end.

I do hold out hope for my other octopus tee "It Would Be Epic If." I was informed Woot! was going to have a meeting this week to discuss the next set of daily's to be printed and my art would be discussed there. I am hoping to be notified of a ya or ney this week. If Woot! doesn't want to sell it, then I will shop it over at TeeFury.com.

Thanks to those of you who bought a tee. I'll end this note with a reminder that my "Cloud Toys" tee is currently on sale and available on the panel to the right of this post. Sure, I wish it was priced a bit cheaper but Redbubble's minimum tee price is a bit higher than I would like it to be.

The Derby is Over

Well, after an exhausting week of living on the edge of my seat and promoting my maze design like crazy, the voting has finally closed and the winners are being announced. 1st place was announced this morning at 1AM Eastern Standard Time. It was a goblins design that I was sure would come in first. It's really a fantastic sketched piece utilizing great detail and a great sketchy quality that makes it feel more organic and artistic.

Second place will be announced again at 1AM tomorrow morning, and 3rd place at 1AM Sunday morning. I think I've bitten my nails to the bone. I know I'm in the top 9, and judging by the voting patterns I was watching, I think it would be safe to say I'm in the top 7.

A win would be huge for me. Coming in 2nd or 3rd at this point would mean $1000, plus $2 for every shirt sold after the first day. If the shirt does good in sales, this could mean a nice little royalties check every month until the shirt is retired. I could catch up with the bills I'm behind on, and with the royalties check, put money aside for the vacation in May, and start putting some money aside for a down payment on a house.

I started this year with 1 resolution, to make an extra $10,000 this year with my illustration work. I think it's both a modest and an ambitious goal. Totally achievable I think.

Also, more big news! A certain well known T-Shirt company has contacted me this week to inform me they want to print one of my designs! I don't think I should discuss the details of this little transaction yet. I will say, it's a design we've all seen, and it will be on sale for 24 hours and 24 hours only with very little hope of a re-print from this company. During that 24 hours, I will be making $1 for every shirt sold. This would make a nice little paycheck for the few hours work it took to design. I will update when I have anything official to say.

I'm working on a couple illustrations this weekend that I think are absolutely hilarious and have gotten great responses from the people I've told the ideas to. So, with any luck, by Sunday I'll be able to post sketches and finals in a new post.

The Final Hours Within the Fog of War

Ah, the fog of war. The fog of war to Wooters is a very special place. For those of us who enter the weekly derby, the fog of war is right where we want to be. The fog is place reserved for the top 9 shirts in the derby according to votes. The reason it's called "the fog" is because these top 9 shirt scores are hidden from view. Since I started entering derbies, I have dreamt about entering the fog of war.

Since day one of the maze derby, my street signs design has been in the fog. It's more than I ever could have asked. It can be a double edged sword though in the sense that I am on pins and needles all day. I'm terrified to click on the page and find that I've been knocked out of the fog. Luckily, this hasn't happened.

I've tasted the fruits from the top of the derby tree and now I want more! I want to win this derby so very badly. Should I lose though, sure I will be disappointed, but I will mostly be thrilled that I came so far this derby.

In any case, if you are reading this, I need your help! With the game this close, and only 36 hours left in the voting, every single vote I can get counts. Please, follow this link

and vote for my design. There's something important you need to know before you can do this though.

In order to vote on Shirt.Woot.com, you have to have previously purchased an item from Woot! If you have done this, then you fit all the required criteria! Just follow my link, sign in to your account and leave a vote by clicking the "I'd Want One" button in the upper left above my shirt submission. Also, as long as your there, why not drop a little comment to show some love?

Sure, this is shameless promotion, but I gotta do what I gotta do. I would hate to lose and think that I didn't do everything I could have possibly done to promote my shirt to a win. Thanks for voting, and as always, thanks for reading.

A Meeting of the Minds...

12:52PM:
At 2:00, I have a meeting at the Spot Coffee a half a block from my house. I'm meeting a gentleman who made a post of Craigslist looking for an artist to make comics from his stories. I responded, he visited this blog and we setup a meeting.

Today's meeting is really gonna be about feeling each other out. See, this project is a non-paying project. He needs an artist, and though I don't really need a writer, I don't have the time to write.

The only way money would come into the picture is if by some miracle, this comic was a masterpiece and gets published. In that case, royalties would be split 50/50. This is a big "if."

Like I said before, I don't need a writer. In fact, I have 7 or 8 different stories in my head and various notebooks just waiting to be developed. But, as I said before, I don't have the time right now.

When I think about 2 guys taking a chance on something that could easily become a waste of their time, I think, "Isn't this how the greats started?" All of them I'm sure. I bet Stan Lee himself took a chance and stepped out onto a ledge. Now look at him.

I should say though, this is just to feel each other out. I don't hold much hope here. If I consider his stories particularly amazing and I'm confident I can do them justice and find the time to do it, then we are golden. Other wise, it's no big deal. I'll post an update after the meeting.

UPDATE! 3:26PM:
Well I'm back from the meeting. I gotta say, I think this guy had 2 very interesting ideas. I don't know where I stand on whether I will be able to do them or not but I have something to ponder. I'm going to get a transcript from him to read, brainstorm and doodle from. I will decide from there.

All in all though, he was a great guy with the unique kind of mind writing something unbelievable would need. He's got promise and potential and no matter what we decide, I wish him a lot of luck.

I Took The Weekend Off...

I've got about 4 different tee projects in various states of art production. That being said, I took a break this weekend. Well, not just this weekend, I also choose to sit out this weeks Woot Derby. I love the art being submitted in it though.

In any case, my girlfriend asked me to take at least a night off from drawing since it's all I do anymore and that one night turned into a very lazy weekend. It was great. Besides, my office is a mess ever since we pulled the Christmas tree out of it. In any case, I'm by no means retired.

I've got some designs that I'll be posting sketches as well as finished drawings on. I am working on a funny "Lost" tee that I think everyone will love. It's really cool re-drawing all the characters from that show in a cartoon form. I'm going to be finishing and submitting the cloud tee this week to Threadless.com. I also have a funny Clue tee I've been working on. I'm having a bit of trouble planning the color on it but I suppose I should just draw it and worry about the color after I pick a shirt color to drop it on. I also have a Mario shirt in it's concept stage right now. I think I have a pretty funny concept, but I gotta figure out how to draw it as a satire and not worry about copyright infringement. There is 1 tee site I know about that is really into video games and pop culture and seems a little lackadaisical about copyright laws so maybe that would be a better site for submitting it to.

So, I promise some new artwork this week, definitely before Christmas. I just finished my last course of the year and will have more time at night to work on art. Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Blogging and Drawing in General...

It can be frustrating to come to this blog space and see no new readers, and no new comments. I am trying to be as diligent as possible with updating this space and posting new work. Clearly I'm not doing this well enough.

I've been reading quite a bit about promoting your blog and getting readers and I am taking some actions to remedy this situation. Anybody have any tips?

Also, the robot tee seems to have bottomed out at 40 votes. It's sad and disappointing I guess. I have 1 or 2 other sites to test this design at before I retire it.

In the mean time, I am working on a brand new design. I was sitting there last night with my sketchbook just wracking my brain searching for some kind of inspiration when the light bulb went off in my head. I don't want to talk about details for the design yet but I think everyone will like it. It's a funny design more so than an artistic one. I'm going to be doing a vector based design for it so I will post my steps and my process.

I've had no instruction on going from a drawing to a vector illustration. Everything I know I had to teach myself, so I'm hoping a fellow vector artist will see my process and be able to tell me what they do and what works for them. In the mean time, I just took a break from work to post this. I will be posting sketches as I have them, and I'm hoping to have the final piece ready some time next week. I wish I could just sit in my studio and create all day, but I got bills to pay.

Thanks for reading if you have been, and if your a new reader, stick around and give it a chance. I've always wanted this forum to display what I'm up to, but more importantly, I want to network with other illustrators and graphic artists.