Julekalender - 24 Dec.: The End (Belated)

The end of the project. It came and went so fast. I missed drawing something on the 25th, though there were plenty of family distractions to not have me worry about it too much.

I purchased a brand new set of Micron pens to work on the last three drawings. My old pens were all on their way out. Split tips, missing tips, low ink. The new ones worked quite well on the Rives heavyweight paper I used.

Many thanks to everyone that followed along as I tried this little experiment. Scans should appear in a book soon. Look for it next holiday season. It'll make a perfect stocking stuffer. Any input on future projects, drawing- or whatever-related, is much appreciated.

Here's to much more art being produced in 2011.

Julekalender - 22/23 Dec. (Belated)

This diptych evolved as the first drawing (the one on the left, the 22nd) was finishing up. The second drawing was done on Festivus.

Julekalender - 21 Dec. (Belated)

Julekalender - 20 Dec.

The final Julekalender drawing done in Oregon. In honor of the supposed lunar eclipse (it's cloudy here), here's an ambiguous diagram that looks like it tells you something important, but really doesn't.

West Coast Biennial Show

Good news, everyone!

I just received word about the West Coast Biennial show happening next year down in Redding, CA.

Pretty excited to get this work into a show, especially with the faculty show coming up soon at school.

These works, motorbicycles, and LEMON PIE are from Sketches I, and can be seen in book form here or digital form here. They were both selected for the exhibition.

Julekalender - 19 Dec.

A few things about the Julekalender project:

1. I'm leaving town tomorrow.

2. I won't have access to a scanner for a while.

3. Because of items 1 and 2, there will be a slight disruption of the frequency of posting these images.

The drawings will still get made, they just might not show up every day. They might come in batches. They might be shoddy digital photos and not nice scans.

But you'll see the drawings in the end. And there have been rumblings around the home office here that drawings might continue beyond Christmas day. So stay tuned, I guess.

Julekalender - 18 Dec.

It was seven years ago. It was just a normal night in Ann Arbor, until I misinterpreted the layout of a regular sidewalk, and I was launched into the air when my bike brakes locked up.

The mayhem that ensued included finding out my roommate had been in a car accident that same day, getting into the ER to have x-rays, a cast, and 9 stitches in my chin, and figuring out how I was going to make it with one hand free for a couple of weeks.

This map is a brief visual summary of what happened that night, minus my roommate's car accident. This drawing has unlocked the following achievements:

- Largest drawing (9" x 12")

- Longest drawing (3+ hours)

- First drawing first planned on another piece of paper

- First drawing outlined first in pencil

A first-hand account of what happened that night (12/18/2003) can be found by clicking here. Please note this was from back in my emailing days of not capitalizing letters. Entire email was written with one hand. Names have been erased to protect the innocent.

*Warning: File above is higher resolution than normal. May take a while to load on slower connections.

Julekalender - 17 Dec.

Two things:

1. It snowed last night. And it makes everything look nicer outside. It had been getting to that mid-December-cold-but-not-snowy-and-everything-kind-of-looks-covered-in-soot look that kind of annoys people. So, the snow is a good thing.

2. Yesterday (the 17th) marked the birth of a good friend's new baby, and this drawing has nothing to do with that. It just so happened that I had an idea for a cake being struck by lightning. Nothing more. I swear.

Julekalender - 16 Dec.

Oh no! Those balloons are about to be cut loose by those scissors. Watch out balloons!

Julekalender - 15 Dec.

I've had two potatoes sitting around in my vegetable bowl for a long time. They were supposed to go into a recipe I was going to make a couple weeks ago. But I ended up getting a couple new potatoes and didn't use the original ones.

Last night, feeling a bit hungry in the later evening after dinner, I decided to slice up those older potatoes and see what they'd do roasted in the oven.

They turned out great. A little olive oil, some seasoning, baked a bit on each side, and it was like I was at a cool little restaurant where you can watch tv and draw.

So I ate my french fries and drew a picture relating to that notion. Where the handbag and slime ideas came from, I'll probably never know. But you need a place to keep your extra fries, right?

Julekalender - 14 Dec.

Rushed. Sloppy. Haphazard. In honor of the half birthday of Flag Day. Happy half birthday, Flag Day!

Julekalender - 13 Dec.

Quite possibly inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's appearance on Conan last night. She had an electrical gadget near the bathtub in The Royal Tenenbaums. Hey, tenenbaum is a holiday thing too! (Sort of.)

Julekalender - 12 Dec.

A rough and stormy night called for a rough and stormy drawing. It's funny how some of these look best viewed full size on actual paper, but others look nicer when they shrink on the computer.

This one is one of the latter variety.

I have a sink full of dishes that is now calling my name.

Julekalender - 11 Dec.

More more more. Working on a humorous look at the holidays. Whatever. It's supposed to be a joke.

I'm thinking that when I'm through with the drawings, they'll all go into a new Blurb book. That would be fun, right?

Julekalender - 10 Dec.

Longest drawing so far. Probably a good two hours or more. Had to look up "wooden scaffolding" on the web for reference material.

Easily my favorite. I think I'll come back to this subject again before this is all said and done.

The Insanity Continues

Last night's dream:

I took a break from whatever it was I was doing to go use the bathroom. While in the bathroom, I noticed that I was uncharacteristically congested in my sinuses.

I lean over the counter to look closer in the mirror. There's a small, red object coming out of my nose. I give it a tug. Out comes a medium-sized maroon, mesh football practice jersey. Out of my nose. Removing the jersey cleared up the congestion nicely.

Then, as I'm still standing at the mirror, I notice this blemish on the side of my nose. It's ready to pop. So I give it a good pop, and out comes this insect, which then flies around the bathroom for a while.

Then I woke up.

Julekalender - 9 Dec.

End-of-the-term revelry-inspired drawing. Note: the martini cannon is not a real thing.

First Proof Printed

The first image from my newest body of work The Our Father EP just came off the printer. There are some new things with this group of images (a few of which will make their way into the upcoming faculty exhibition at EOU), and I was just running a print to check color and texture on the handwritten elements. They look good. There will be much more coming soon.

I have a handle on the printing corrections for the new printer, and it's been making recent printing a breeze. The newest works will show up in a Blurb book sooner or later too. But until then, it's back to the computer.

Was Sammy Davis, Jr. Murdered?

This cold I've got has me taking NyQuil before bed. It helps to minimize my coughing so I can fall asleep.

The side effects are the dreams the NyQuil gives me. We won't get into the one the other night that involved Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss (and Dr. Pepper) nakedly wandering into my room.

Last night was a real trip. I found out that Sammy Davis, Jr. was murdered and his body was being kept in a tomb. He had been mummified and a girl who may or may not have been Alison Brie led me to the tomb for a reason that I'm forgetting at the moment.

So Sammy Davis, Jr's mummified corpse is in this large room that was padded with tons of red pillows. And you could climb up there and look at him if you liked. So I did. He was interred alongside some other female movie star that I'm also forgetting at the moment.

The whole thing made me think - upon waking - that maybe Sammy Davis had been murdered. Turns out it's not true. He died from throat cancer in 1990 at the age of 64.

Julekalender - 8 Dec.

Sometimes, you just have to speak the truth. And sometimes the truth is that all of the things are going in the same direction.

Incidentally, I find that I'm doing many of these nightly drawings while watching Conan on television. The drawings have nothing to do with anything I'm watching, but it's funny to look back on some of them and remember not what I was thinking about while I was drawing, but what was on the show I was watching.

Like the Kardashians. They're terrible. And their interview on Conan was about as big a trainwreck as I've seen on recent late-night television. (And I saw Harrison Ford's pseudo[?]-stoned appearance on Conan.) And all I remember is their stupid tangents and not why I drew a calendar and a thoughtful fish on December 2nd.

And I've started several sentences with "and."

Julekalender - 7 Dec.

Hanukkah is almost over. So there's that. And then vacation will be here. Vacation's a good thing. So is Hanukkah. So is sunshine. Today we have all three.

Julekalender - 6 Dec.

I wish that there was a giant dispenser of nog. At school. All the time. It'd be heaven.

Julekalender - 5 Dec.

Ah, the first cold of the holiday season. Not the outside cold type of cold. The head variety. Small drawing to accommodate the lethargy of lying on the couch while your sinuses do their thing. Better to be ill now than in a few weeks when your time is truly free.

(It's supposed to be an ice pack.)

Julekalender - 4 Dec.

Julekalender - 3 Dec.

#3 from late last night.

Julekalender - 2 Dec.

Christmas carp. Hanukkah halibut. Kwanzaa koi. Diwali danio. Festivus flounder. Solstice sole. Yuletide yellowfin.

Ok, I'm done. More tomorrow.

I've also decided all of the pieces for Julekalender will be drawings. I don't draw enough. So that's what I'm going to do.

Julekalender - 1 Dec.

Tune in every day for a new piece. This will go on until 24 December. Not every piece will be holiday themed, but I'll get to some eventually.