My new job has me in charge of sending out it's two newsletters. The small one goes out about once a week to less than 100 people and the big one, the monthly newsletter, goes out to 1000+ subscribers. I've already sent out a few of the smaller one but the big one, the monthly, will be my first. And because there hasn't been a monthly newsletter published since April, this next one is gonna be chunky! The deadline to get everything submitted is at 5:00 PM tomorrow, so today I worked on getting everything formatted in preparation. I'm a little nervous but I really can't wait to get it over with and get started on next one.

I colored and inked the kaiju & the rubble today and I'm calling it done. No background, but I think drawing FRANKIE MCFLY behind the monster's head and tentacles would have looked really cool.

I spent the day checking off things from my to-do list. I updated & organized documents, checked all my emails, synced my calendars, and all sorts of shit I'd been putting off for weeks. I did take a few breaks to step away from the computer and did a little drawing & coloring with my old Prismacolor markers.

After a long day of working in front of the computer I got the urge to start painting a new canvas. I had one lying around that I'd been wanting to paint over. I got the hankering after Meeting of the Minds on Wednesday night. I really liked the way my canvas came out that night and I wanted to do it again but on my own.

I made some more sketches today for the upcoming project I'm working on. It's still super early in the design phase and I'll share more details as the design gets fleshed out over time. I'm pretty excited about this and can't wait to share with everyone!

After work today I met up with the Meeting of the Minds group for a fun painting session. It's a group of artists that get together once a month and are paired up at random and take turns painting a canvas. Tonight I was the odd man out, painting by myself until another artist arrived, Jessica. We both worked the canvas below.

What did I do today? I worked but didn't doing anything art related besides take on a new logo design job and sketched some ideas. This should be a fun little job!

A few friends & family received their t-shirt orders today and I started sketching ideas for a big new project coming up! More on that later! 

Is that a thing? I made the red FRANKIE MCFLY one last night while I waited for the lights to come back on from a power outage after my gig. I made my pixel face tonight after washing dishes & cleaning all day. I found I can do 16 of the square emojis across in an Instagram post but when you click to comment it gets cut to 15 across and it fucks up everything. 🟥⬜️🟦🟨⬛️

I DJ'd my friend's birthday party today and during dinner my buddy, Robin, texted me that he received the t-shirts he ordered. I dropped all the orders off at the post office last night, right as they closed, and thought it would take a few days before they reached their destinations so I was surprised to hear to hear that he got his already. Later I saw my friends Amy and Alondra both got their packages too. In the pics below you can see the cards I drew for them and the candies I threw in each order, Pop Rocks and Cry Babies! Both are candies I used to love when I was a kid. I'm still holding off on showing the surprise gifts, inside the brown envelopes, till more people receive their orders, but you can see one on my Instagram stories right now!

That's right! After countless delays and being 2 weeks behind schedule, all the custom & pre-order 1.0 t-shirts are now on their way to their new owners! Each order includes some throwback goodies, a hand-drawn Thank You card and an extra special surprise gift! After everyone receives their order and opens their gifts I'll share what the surprise was! Stay tuned!

I've been saying the shirts are shipping out tomorrow — all week. This time it's for real tho! The shirts and the individually sealed surprise gifts have been put in mailers along with some extra goodies and hand drawn "Thank You" cards. (I realized when I was almost done sealing the mailers that I forgot to sign most of the cards... Doh!) All I have to do now is pay & print the postage and drop them off at the post office. The home stretch!

I had work meeting that ran long then had to catch up on other work so I didn't ship all the t-shirt orders today. I did deliver one though. It was for a friend and it was exciting to watch her open up the bag and pull out the surprise gift I made! Can't wait to get the rest of the orders out!

I folded all the custom & pre-order 1.0 t-shirts and sorted them out. I also finished assembling the surprise gifts. Tomorrow I'll package everything, pay for postage, write short Thank You notes to everyone and drop them off at the post office. Hopefully they'll all reach their owners by this weekend.

The shirts are ready to go! The only hold up now is finishing the work on the surprise gifts that are going out with every custom & pre-order 1.0 shirts. I did the last bit of painting today and tomorrow they'll be assembled and maybe individually packaged. I can't wait to show everyone the gifts but it's a surprise to the people who bought the custom & pre-order 1.0 shirts and I don't want to spoil it. After enough people receive their t-shirts and open their gifts I'll post the pictures I've been taking during the whole process.

A couple friends and I got up early Sunday morning to hike up to Maple Falls at Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos. At least that was the plan! I printed a map I pulled from the park's website and soon learned that it wasn't very helpful with the poor/lack-of trail markers at the park. We made our first wrong turn early on and were able to get back on track with a little help from runners & bicyclist. Further along we made another wrong turn onto a trail that wasn't on the map. After a while I started getting suspicious and when we came upon a dirt road I knew were definitely off track. Because the climb was so steep we decided not to go back the way we came. We hiked further north a bit before taking the dirt road back to the parking lot. It was still a great hike and we had a blast even though we didn't see the waterfall. My friend and I also got stung by wasps. Me, once behind the ear and a couple times on my chest. My friend, on her finger and on her back. But like I said, we still had a great time. Next time we'll be better prepared and actually make it to the waterfall.

Today was all about trial & error as I worked on the surprise gifts for the 1.0 custom & pre-orders. Plan-A didn't work, neither did Plan-B, now everything is riding on Plan-C. I'm almost done. The gifts and t-shirts are being mailed out Monday. After people receive their orders and see the surprise I'll post the finished products as well as process pics. The gifts are gonna be so much cooler than the actual shirts and I can't wait to share!

The last of the custom 1.0 t-shirts are back from the printers! I picked them up tonight. Tomorrow I'm gonna finish putting together the special gifts that'll be going out with each custom & pre-order shirt. I can't wait to show everybody what I'm making! 

I dropped off one package (a couple prints) at the post office this afternoon and was reminded that the mailers don't fit inside the mailbox slot in the drive-thru so I had to go inside to drop it off. Then I went to deliver a t-shirt order across town. (Usually if the shipping address is close by and I can leave the package in a safe location, by checking Google street view maps first, then I'll deliver the order myself.) Today I left the package on a front porch behind a statue. I took a pic (obviously) so I could email it to the customer and let them know their order has been delivered and where to find it.

I went on a 7 mile hike tonight at Alum Rock Park. After only going on two short hikes in July, and feeling bad about myself, I decided to start going on longer hikes again and being more consistent. So far I've hiked 5 out of 11 days in August going out every other day. Go me! A couple weeks ago I was ready to rejoin the gym but with all the new cases of coronavirus being reported, and restrictions being enforced again, I figure I'll keep hiking in the meantime. Where else am I gonna see foxes taking shits on the trail?

I didn't use the artsy fartsy side of my brain today. I just had a work meeting, went to the movies, then got back to work putting away gear after Friday's event. Nothing to write about, sorta like my thought balloon in the sketch below. I sketched this last week while trying to come up with a new Frankie Mcflyer design but ended up reusing an older one.

My buddies and went hiking along the coast at Wilder Ranch State Park this morning. While we were there we saw a vulture eating away at a dead seal thru it's eyehole. Pretty fucking metal! Afterwards we went to a brewery in Capitola for beers and lunch then off to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for more beers, deep fried Oreos, a train ride, bumper cars, & arcade games. After coming home I didn't have much energy to do anything else besides draw a couple new button designs on the iPad. I drew six of them last night. The plan is to have new buttons available for the next First Friday Street Mrkt in September.

Today I dropped off the remaining blank shirts at the screen printers for the custom 1.0 orders. I think they'll be done in a day or two. I also started working on the gifts for everyone who purchased custom & pre-orders. I'm not gonna spoil the surprise but here are some teaser pics of what I'm making.

I went to bed real late after the Street Mrkt event on Friday. Only got a few hours of sleep. Didn't drink any coffee. Was really tired from working and hiking so I stayed in bed and watched tv, and soon after I was out. Zzzz... I don't know how long I slept for but it had been 4 hours since my first missed call. I didn't get shit done today! I still have all the gear from Friday to organize & put away, and I need to count all my t-shirts and update my inventory online. I guess it'll have to wait till Sunday.

Another great event! I sold a few shirts and prints tonight, but most importantly, talked to people in person! I talked to friends (some who I haven't seen in years), people who had never seen my stuff before, folks who have. I even saw a guy wearing one of my pink & black San Jose shirts and asked if I could take his picture! I had missed vending so much! I can't wait to be back out there again, choppin' it up with folks, at the next two First Friday Street Mrkts in September and October!