lately i’ve had lettering projects to do:

pretty exciting!!!

Dave called me up the other day because he wanted to make a new t-shirt.   i was all for it, not knowing then that i was agreeing to work on a project that would require more revisions than anything ever created by anyone, ever.

we started with this, the old peace bomb design.  dave wanted to do a revised take on this with some extra characters added.  sounds easy enough.  i did some sketches:

dave liked these drawings but wanted to add a character from a newer type of bread, the sin dawg.  i did some sketches:

things were going well.  we monkeyed around a little more with dave’s pose:

we seemed to have a pretty good idea of where things were going so i started to pencil what i thought was the final version:

dave decides that it’s a little off…  we agree to move some characters around and then we go through some drafts of alternative poses for dave:

finally, we arrive at a new pencil draft:

dave decides that he’d really like to see what it looks like if he is riding the dog.  i am not thrilled about taking another step back, but i do some quick sketches anyway:

dave decides that this is the way to go so i do a new pencil draft, copying parts of the earlier draft on a light table.

im starting to worry that there might be something a little funny about this image and i send dave a quick sketch that suggests a new way for him to hold his guitar:

dave agrees with the change and the pencils are altered:

then dave decides that we should get rid of the bread guy who is falling in the air and change the seed guy on the back of the bomb to a piece of bread playing a stand-up bass.  i tell him a regular bass would be a lot easier to draw but he insists that a stand-up is funnier.  i do a quick brush sketch:

dave likes it so i put it all together and ink it:

dave asks me to move the peace symbol, which is easy to do in photoshop, and the bass player, which is harder and requires some redrawing.  i tell him it’s impossible and then he offers me more money:

and then it’s all done.  next we show it to some of the other fine folks at daves killer bread and they all immediately tell us that this is a disturbing image and its probably a terrible idea to put it on a t-shirt.

we decide that maybe we ought to put it down for a few days and in that time some helpful solutions are cooked up.  shobi makes a mock-up of how he thinks it can be fixed and i copy it using pieces of what’s done and some really quick doodles:

that seems to be where we want to put everything so i do another draft:

and it works so i ink it:

and then its done!  its really done!  its finally over!!!

and that is where t-shirts come from.

latest logo for daves killer bread, spelt!

one of the greatest teachers of my whole life, daniel duford, invited me to do a pin-up for his upcoming graphic novel, the naked boy.  what an honor!

in other news, sorry for no new blogs lately! ohyesverynice studios’ move to brooklyn is eating up a lot of time!  things should be settling soon, at which point i’ll be posting more regular glimpses of to teach.  since the due-date is arriving soon for that project, this pin-up will probably be the last non-to teach post for a few months….

remember when we had a little preview of the new daves killer bread project?  well now i am going to tell you all about it!

dave calls me up and says they’re making a sprouted wheat cookie and he wants to call them sprookies.  i told him maybe he could come up with a better name and hes like “its my company!”  i really need the money so i keep my lid zipped and doodle out  some lettering and cookie guys.

dave tells me he likes the little cookie man so i redraw him in pencil for the logo.  

dave runs this by his peeps.  they all know how dave loves to work out in front of the mirror and think maybe the cookie guy should be flexing big muscles…  adjustments are made:

this goes over pretty well except dave wonders if he could be more gigantic, just like how he pictures himself when he works out in front of the mirror.  adjustments are made:

then dave is like, “just make him ridiculously muscular.”  adjustments are made:

finally dave is happy.  then i ink it!

 then i pencil the letters:

they seem to be fine so i ink ‘em up!  boy do i like inking!

then daves people meet with my people and there is lots of contracts and signing and i sure hope that money comes soon because im very hungry!

seamus e-mailed me this picture of his hip new flask and i thought i ought to draw it because i’ve been on the same sketchbook for over a year and it makes me feel awful. it’s been a productive year except sketchbook-wise.

hello everybody. here are some drawings i made.

first a bit of mail art for my beloved editor, meg lemke.

and then the very very beginnings of a dave’s killer bread idea that we’re kicking around.

and finally, i just unearthed this portrait of abraham lincoln while i was scanning. i’m not sure exactly when or why i drew this, but i thought the whole world ought to see it.

it finally came out! about ten million years ago, i drew some back cover and about-the-author illustrations for the comic book adaptation of studs terkel’s working and the book arrived in my mailbox just the other day.

i did the lettering for the quotes but the rest is typeset.

working has been an important recurring text throughout my education so it was a real honor for me to be a part of this adaptation. if you are compelled to buy it, you can do so here.

one of my favorite contemporaries, lance christian hansen, is putting together a pin-up anthology of sexy girls reading comics and he was nice enough to ask me to contribute!