This afternoon I went on 3.65 mile hike, then delivered my blanks to Jimmy at Downtown Screen Printers so they can print me a new batch of San Jose (EMNSJ) shirts. Later, I went to Meeting of the Minds, the collaborative paint party, and painted a fun piece with my fiends Catrina & Eddie. When I got home, and in bed I started sketching out the design for a new mural I’m working on. Tomorrow night I’m DJing & hosting karaoke for a high school graduation party at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk from midnight till 2 AM. Busy, busy, busy…

It was a long but fun day. It started with visiting a few comic book stores and thrift shop I’d never been to before and bringing home a few sweet books. Later, I went to Meeting of the Minds to paint. I got paired up with my buddy, Henry. We made graffiti-like 3,W, E or M, depending on how you look at it.

I didn’t draw or create any art today but I did buy some new art books. I visited a local used bookstore, for the first time, and spent almost two hours browsing through their shelves of art & comic books. I spent $50 on three books by Daniel Clowes, Keith Haring and Mike Giant. There were a bunch more, by other artist, I wanted to buy but didn’t want to spend so much money.

About a week ago I got a DM on Instagram from someone who bought a couple shirts from me at an event a few years ago. He's a photographer and is about to release a new magazine and asked if I was interested in putting an ad in it free of charge. We talked on the phone a bit and he seems like a good guy so I said yes. Tomorrow is the submission deadline so of course I waited till the last minute to get it done. This is what I sent him

Today was great! I slept in after working the Street Mrkt event last night. Later on, I went to the local craft brewery, Narrative Fermentations, where local bad-ass artist, Patrick Hofmeister, is painting his latest mural. I had an alcoholic slushy from the bar and a fried chicken sandwich from Scratch Cookery food truck while I was there. Pretty damn good! Afterwards I went to The Arsenal art supply store & gallery in Japantown. I went to see the current exhibit by my friend Amy Brown and cousin Alyssarhaye. There was also a pop-up outside the store where a couple other artist buddies were selling their merch so I bought a few items to support them. I went home after and checked movie showtimes and bought a ticket to see Shang-Chi, the latest Marvel movie. I loved it! It was a perfect end to a good day!

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!

The second shipment of shirts arrived today! I took them, and the shipment that arrived yesterday, and dropped them off at Downtown Screen Printers. I'm still waiting on 5 more shirts to arrive but they're gonna start printing, the ones I already dropped off, tomorrow. I'm pretty stoked because now I'm back on track and should have my shirts for Friday's event and be able to ship out the custom & pre-orders next week.

I finally finished a logo design for a friend after 3.5 months. I kept getting busy or sidetracked with other projects and she let me know she needed it sooner, rather than later, so I did the final touches today and knocked it out. This is only a portion of the design. I’m going to wait till she reveals it before I show off the whole thing.

I’m all done installing the 3D wall panels at Redwall Studio! I went full vampire mode and worked at night and slept during the day. It came out pretty badass. Check out the notes I made before I began installing the panels on the wall.

Today at Local Color, Ben from Brush House printed out my map on 5 long sheets of paper and trained me how to operate an electro-pounce to make a stencil. I took me about 8-9 hours to finish. Now I gotta assemble the stencil and hope that tomorrow, when I hit it with powdered chalk, I get a good transfer on the coarse asphalt.

Today I got a covid test and it was much more pleasant than the last time I got in June. I made some minor tweaks to my heart-eyes logo and uploaded it to Instagram for Valentine’s Day. Several friends said I should make it into a shirt and I just might. I also finished the “Scents by Drea” label design for my friend. I’m still working on a logo design for another friend which I’m almost done with.

Here are the three designs my friend liked from the 10 sketches I sent. They’re slightly cleaned up and with a bit of color. I’ve sent her these samples now I’m waiting on feedback before moving forward.

Here’s a sneak peek at some rough sketches for a 2” x 2” label I’m designing for a friend.

Here’s a couple snippets from a design I’m working on. Still in the early phases, and a bit rough, but slowly coming together.

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.

This afternoon I went over to Orange Moon Salon to hang my four drawings. They'll be on display there for a while. Go make an appointment to get your hair did and check out my art. Tonight I finished my last two drawings for Inktober 2020. The 30th is my face, all beat up, broken & undead. The 31st, which is Halloween night, I drew a trick or treating kid with tentacles wearing a ghost costume holding up 6 candy buckets. This was my fourth year doing Inktober.

I finally framed these four drawings because on Saturday they're going to be on display at Orange Moon Salon in San Jose. My friend, Catrina, is a hairdresser there, and also an artist, and she asked me to hang some work. These were originally going up at my exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in May but covid ruined that. Six months later and they're finally going to be available for others see. Please wear a mask if you go!

I bought a new sketchbook for this year's Inktober, which is a "challenge" to draw something new, using ink or other mediums, everyday in October. The last three years I used smaller sketchbook, to make it easier, but today I picked up a book that's about twice as big. I also bought some new pens to try out. I picked up everything at The Arsenal in San Jose's Japantown.

As things started to reopen during the covid-19 pandemic I chose to stay at home for 2 weeks after DJing a wedding. I'm happy that before the gig I tested negative for the virus and afterwards I never developed any symptoms. What sucks is that during this time there's been an increase in reported cases and hospitalizations. Today, California's mayor, Gavin Newsom, ordered bars to close back up in several counties including Santa Clara. I believe things reopened too soon and a roll back is probably a good idea but I have a feeling we're all going to be dealing with the pandemic for the rest of the year if not longer. I just read about the 1918 (Spanish) Flu pandemic which lasted 2 years and hit in 4 waves, where the 2nd wave was much deadlier than the first. There are a few similarities between 1918's pandemic and our current one so I really hope we can hit the brakes on covid-19 and keep it from getting worse.

This morning I and a bunch of volunteers helped paint a boarded up window in downtown San Jose. It was organized by the arts non-profit Local Color. I didn't do much besides fill ins. Local artist & sign painter, Ben Henderson did the lettering. It was fun being out there working with everyone and hanging with friends.

This morning I saw a post on Instagram to meet up at city hall and help clean up downtown San Jose. I grabbed my work gloves, rubber gloves, mask, hat and couple large garbage bags headed out after lunch. This was my first time going downtown since the protesting started and I was a little nervous driving in. When I drove by Santa Clara Street, between 4th & 6th, I expected it to look like warzone but it didn't. It was clean. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary happened there. After parking a block away I DM'd the person who originally made the post, because I didn't see anyone cleaning, or any groups besides protesters (holding up signs or fists,) so I decided to walk around till I heard back. I hung out were the protesters were for a little bit before cruising down Santa Clara street and making a left on 1st street. I snapped some pics along the way: protest signs on storefronts, graffiti over murals (which bummed me out,) artwork on the windows at Local Color & the boards covering up Good Karma Cafe, and the peaceful protesters in front of city hall and the food & drinks that were provided to them (that made me happy.) On my way out I drove past the protesters, fist up and out the window, trying to honk my horn to the "No Justice, No Peace" chant. I sounded like shit. Later on, I finally heard back from the clean up guy. I guess they were told to leave by police once the protesters arrived.

I had so much fun at Local Colors Daytime Market today. I hung out with my artist/vendor buddies, saw friends who came to visit, made new friends, got a surprise visit from my cousin Rick and his wife Sabrina, drank some delicious coffee from Tono Coffee Project followed by some IPAs, brought home a new t-shirt, sketchbook & button, sold a few of my t-shirts & stickers, and ended the day with a big ol burrito before heading home. In the next day or two I need to count & fold my shirts, update my inventory and make sure my gear is prepped for the next gig which is San Jose Day on April 11th.