Vinyl Kid ends TODAY

Heads up - today is the last day that my t-shirt design Vinyl Kid will be available to order. After that, it's gone! Hurry! Hurry! (No pressure, but HURRY.) For show & tell, here's the rough sketch of Vinyl Kid:    

After that, I did final pencil lines using regular graphite pencil and a Prismacolor black pencil, which has a thicker, blacker line:



And here's the final with color added:

 

End of day today! Go and get it!

Vinyl Kid T-shirt Design

Oh yay! My very first t-shirt design for Shirt.Woot is now available! Titled, Vinyl Kid, it's part of a special sale on the site called Jukebox Heroes, featuring all music-related designs. The shirt will be available for ONE WEEK ONLY! Sale ends Sunday, May 20th.

If you love vinyl (and I know you do, since you're reading this blog), then go and buy a shirt (or 2, or 3) for yourself - or for your favorite crate-digger.

Coast to Coast, Baby!

I guess you could say that it's a soft release, but I'll have you know that my two newest books are now out! Behold, the covers:

NEW YORK, BABY!
SAN FRANCISCO, BABY!
One of the coolest things about the social networking aspect of having books released are the responses from friends who've spotted your books in storefronts or bookstores and then send you pics of the books. Checkit:

New York, Baby! spotted in a Brooklyn window by my friend Justin Lee:

 

San Francisco, Baby! spotted in a San Francisco window by my friend Bill Robinson: 

What's even better is that these photos are from each side of the country. Coast to coast, baby. I love it! Big ups to both of you, Justin and Bill, for your book-spotting ways.

Well, hey - if you see a City, Baby! book in your store, take a pic of it and share it with me! I might have to start up a Facebook page for the books and share the photos with others "out there."

(Note to self: email Chronicle Books about this, pronto.)

On the Eve of Teaching

I am sitting here in a mad scramble to finish up these notes for my very first class I'll be teaching tomorrow. Yes, that's correct. I'll be teaching a class on children's book illustration for Portland State University for the second half of this semester. I'm scrambling to get these notes together, to make sure I don't sound like an idiot and what am I doing? Posting something for the blog? I know, it doesn't make sense, but I don't care. I need a little bit of a break from all this note-taking and image-gathering, just to gather my thoughts somehow. It's been a long time coming, some folks have said to me. I agree. To a point. I've always enjoyed talking to students about what I do (I've done several appearances in the past couple of years wherein I've talked about my career, shown a few tricks of the trade & how I work, and showcased some of my vintage book collection), but it's an entirely different thing to actually teach. The more I think about it, the more nervous I get.

I hope I'm up for it. I guess I better be, huh? After all, it's only the potential careers of 11 some odd art & design students that're on the line here, right?

Many thanks (or blame) to Kate Bingaman Burt for roping me into doing this. She & her co-horts got a good thing going on at the Graphic Design department at PSU. Looking forward to being a part of the mix.

Cool 45 covers

When Andrea & I vacationed in Italy back in 1999, we checked out this cool flea market in Rome with lots of fun old stuff. Found this 45 record (above) in a record bin. Love the design. I've always cherished it. One of these days I'm gonna listen to this record. It's imperative that I do.

Fun Characters from Pageant

Here are some fun characters by a mysterious "Greenwald R." They're from Pageant Magazine, a smaller, "digest" size magazine for the "gentleman." Bordering on the cheesecake from time to time, the magazine actually has an interesting connection to Mad Magazine. Well, I wish I knew more about "Greenwald R." I've seen similar work done by this artist, but never have been able to find anything more about him/her.