This is one of the two Thank You cards I drew this weekend. This one is was for my friend, Ferris, who bought an OG white 1.0 t-shirt on Black Friday. Ferris is also a local business owner. She’s a massage therapist and owns and operates Inhale Exhale Bodywork here in San Jose. I’ve already reached out to her so I can get my first professional massage in the near future

I got 2 orders ready to go out! One to be delivered tomorrow via The Frankie Mcfly Express (that's what I call it when I drop it off myself) and the other via the USPS on Monday. I also edited a short video with a crawling banner to promote my sale going on till December 25, 2020. Use the coupon code: IGOT5ONIT at checkout and get $5 off each t-shirt.

Incase you missed the sign on the front page or my Instagram posts earlier this evening... I put my t-shirts on sale for $25 each (including shipping & handling) by using coupon code IGOT5ONIT at checkout. The offer is limited to t-shirts currently in stock and runs until December 25, 2020. This sale is in response to Black Friday, (which was today) Small Business Saturday, and all live vending opportunities being shut down due to covid. It’s a small effort to make a few sales before the end of the year and get rid of some inventory that’s been sitting in boxes all year.

I also made my FRANKIE MCFLY kiss-cut stickers 2 for $5. No coupon necessary.

AKA: Netflix and Eat.

Gettin there...

I recorded myself doing a quick drawing using a GoPro Hero 3+ that I'm borrowing from a friend. I'm still waiting on parts to mount my DSLR overhead so I figured I'd test a different camera while I wait. The GoPro has three Fields of View and I used Narrow in this video because I didn't want to distort the image. The downfall is that I can't fit the entire page on the screen. After recording myself draw I edited the video in iMovie to speed it up (from 10 minutes to 30 seconds) and added some transitions, titles, & stock music.

I did laundry, watched the movie “Slither,” (which is fucking good!) and started inking (digitally) this EMN Phoenix piece.

I’ve been lagging on this project but I’m almost done. Lots of minor tweaks.

The rig is slowly coming together. The big stand made of metal pipe is to mount my camera onto. I got a DSLR camera that I bought years ago, and never used, that I want to use that to record myself drawing from overhead. I bought a clamp-on arm but the camera is too heavy. I’m either gonna return the clamp or use it with the GoPro I’m borrowing or my cellphone and maybe shoot from multiple angles. I also got some new light fixtures and bulbs. Next, I still gotta figure out a solution to securely mount my big camera to the stand, learn how to use the camera, and hang a 4’ fluorescent light fixture above the desk for more light. In the end I just wanna record fun videos and upload them online.

I’m back on my bullshit! Today I left one of my 1-Up buttons at Lake Cunningham Park on a little sign near the Tully Road entrance. I hope someone finds it otherwise I’m taking it back, or moving it, the next time I’m there.

Only a few minor tweaks

I went hiking again today at Alum Rock Park and went to see if the button a I left on the log 4 days ago was still there, and it was. It sat in the rain and got a little rusty and I took it back home with me. I decided, prior to taking back the button this afternoon, that I don’t want to do sticker or button drops (for people to find) at Alum Rock Park anymore. It was a lot of fun the couple times I did it but I also felt weird about leaving stuff behind at the park. It felt like borderline littering. I also don’t want to encourage others to leave stuff, in hopes someone else will pick it up, and I don’t want people to come to the park if it isn’t to hike or experience nature. I still want to do Finders Creepers drops in the future but not at a place like Alum Rock Park, out of respect.

These past few days I've been trying to come up with a solution for recording myself draw. I have a DSLR camera that I want to record with but need to mount it on over my desk. I'm leaning towards building rig from steel pipe and buying new lights. Tonight I did trial recording using my phone and gooseneck phone mount clamped to my desk. My phone ran out of storage before I finished my drawing but I got a much better idea of what I want to accomplish. 

I’ve vectorized the name and added a drop shadow. The background still needs a bit of work.

I redrew the name and vectorized it. It looks a lot better now. The background got moved around a bit and still needs some work but it’s almost done

Friday afternoon I went on a hike at Alum Rock Park on some trails I hadn’t gone on before. This time I took a button with me and left it on a tagged up, fallen tree, on The North Woodland Trail near the #18 sign post. It started raining a couple hours later and I don’t know if it got claimed or sat in the rain and got wet. The button doesn’t have my Instagram handle, email or web address, just a pattern with my log on it, so it’s highly unlikely whoever finds it is gonna contact me. I wonder what they’ll think it is when they have zero reference to my logo or who I am.

Besides watching some YouTube videos on how to light an artist workspace I got nothing artsy fartsy or businessy to report today. I did check off a few things from my To-Do list which was nice.

I started reworking the names and I'm liking them both better.

I spent most of the day fixing images I created in Adobe Fresco, on my iPad, then converted to printable formats on my computer. First were these 6 drawings of mine. My brother is going to get them printed and framed. I think they were in RGB format on the iPad then became dull when I converted them to CMYK on the laptop. It took me hours to figure out the best way to select the individual colors within the images, based on how I drew it, and finding approximate color matches. The next problem was when I exported a PDF from Illustrator that I originally drew in Fresco. In the PDF I there were thin lines around every brush stroke that wasn't showing up anywhere else before. My buddy Adam needed the artwork I made for his band's album, "Elysian," minus a the background, to put it on merch. He requested a PDF and I thought it was going to be as simple as one-click. Now I'm reading a 31 page guide trying to understand transparencies because I think that's what's causing the issue. I sent Adam some hi-res JPGs, hoping that they'll work for him, until I figure out how to fix this. I thought computers were supposed to make things easier for us.

I sketched some more eyes, mouths & noses tonight.

I started sketching out new eyes, mouths & noses.

Nothing artsy fartsy to report today except for I redrew the letters in the name Phoenix, who's getting an EMN background treatment like the Layla-Mae piece I shared yesterday. I'm still not a 100% satisfied with the letters in both of them so I might tweak them again. I also sketched the little dude at the bottom and really like the way it came out.

I’m almost done with this one. Just needs a few more tweaks and color changes.