diskgrunt daily-ish doodles

New Pocket Notebooks, and price drop!

2012-01-21T16:59:00.000-08:00

Yeti Books are the latest addition to my pocket notebook line. Initially created as my holiday gift, I'm now offering them for sale via my shop. Each book is hand screen printed on the front and back of a cute Yeti enjoying the snowy weather. You can get them for only $4.75+s/h for singles or $12.50+s/h for 3 packs.

On top of that I've dropped the prices on all my pocket notebooks! Check'em out and stock up!

** Update - I got some feed back that my photo's where a bit to sterile, and my hand was a huge scary distraction, so I've updated my shots. Whatcha think?

Coming Soon...

2012-01-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

A lil peek at something new coming to the shop this week... Stay tuned for this and more soon!

Don't Mess with the Ness...

2012-01-07T18:50:00.000-08:00

This is one of my latest WonderTeam comics, if you haven't checked out the group, you should. All Portland Artist making weekly comics. Please forgive us if we miss a post here and there!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hoping you and yours are having a great holiday season! Mines been filled with friends, both new and old, and has me looking forward to what 2012 holds.

Sneak Peek - New monster print in the early stages

2011-12-11T21:47:00.001-08:00

I've been working on a new print,featuring my furry monster dude, most likely for shirts and posters... I hope to have the illustration done this week and then get production rolling. Stay tuned!

Drink and Draw - Invade!

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001-08:00

I had a pretty long day at the part time, afterwards I headed over to Moonshine to get a nip of whiskey and a burger. I also got a quick lil doodle in. I was hoping to do more, but being 1 AM, the whiskey, beer back and burger set me on straight course for bed.

Seasons Greetings Cards Now In The Shop!

2011-12-01T18:11:00.001-08:00

I'm happy to announce that my typography project is complete! And I have these great new Seasons Greetings cards in my Etsy Shop! Not only did I design the font, but I also hand screen printed each card using water based inks at my printshop The Pull. You can get them now, just in time to send them out to your friends and family! Be sure to use the HOLIDAYSAVINGS coupon code to save 10% on your order for any items in my shop!

Holiday Card 2011 Type Project Update!

2011-11-26T10:57:00.001-08:00

A few weeks back I posted about a type project I was working on. I've since finished the type and just got something new off press using it. I still have trimming, folding and photographing to do, but expect these guys in my shop in time for Cyber Monday. I'll also be announcing a 10% sale code and some special deals on monday via my email newsletter. You can sign up right over there to the right of this post!

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend! More soon, and stay tuned for a new poster/t-shirt design I'll be pre-releasing in the next week or so.

Spider Thief for Isaac K,

2011-11-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

I've been having a lot of fun with drink and draw and getting drawing prompts from friends via twitter, txt and facebook. This latest one, I decided to flesh out a bit more, and so I present, in response to Isaacs request for "...shady character stealing a jar of spiders", The Spider Thief.

Have a request? Tweet me up @diskgrunt and I'll send you a high res signed jpg scan of the results from my fancy new scanner!

Custom Type... aka Holiday Card project 2011

2011-11-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

I've managed to mangle type in the past with my hand written txt, but for one of my offerings this winter I'm working on developing a crisp clean bit of txt of my own. I mentioned this on FB just before I released my halloween skulls, but that wasn't the custom type I've been toiling over. I'm by no means a skilled typographer, and I'm only building out the letter forms I need at this point, but so far I'm pretty happy with the results of my efforts so I thought I would share my current progress. My hope is, to have the typography for this project done in the next week or so, and then get my final design on press asap.

Some points I'm already working on, the ends of the S break the curve and I don't like the thinness of the E right now compared to the width of the A and S.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-28T11:47:00.001-07:00

Art Swap with Sunlitrobins!

2011-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

A little while back I had the pleasure of getting to know Robin Willems, aka @sunlitrobins on twitter. She's an artist who is just starting her studies at the Hauge and has a love for water colors and mixed media collage. We quickly hit it off, and decided that an art swap was in order. So I sent her a three pack of my hand screen printed pocket notebooks, some stickers, and a screen printed card. She, in turn, sent me this awesome custom water painting, that she titled "Leafy Donathon". I enjoyed the subtle washes, textures and color of the piece such that I've since framed it, and it now resides on one of my night stands.

I hope this is only the begining of our art swaps. You can get a print of "Leafy Donathon", or one of her many other great works, over at her Society6 page.

If anyone else out there is interested in a swap, hit me up!

Awesome Sauce

2011-09-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

About a Year ago, artist, photographer, musician, Michal Garcia visited us. While he was here, the phrase "Awesome Sauce" was routinely used to affirm plans, actions, comments and pretty much everything else. So much so, that I found myself saying it after he left. This past May I had the chance to visit with him during my trip to Hong Kong. I found Michal as positive, friendly and as accommodating as he was when he visited us. He took the time to show us around HK, introduce us to new people and generally make sure we had an Awesome Sauce time while we were there. When I returned to Portland, I wanted to send him a thank you, and The Awesome Sauce poster was born.

This is a limited edition hand pulled screen print, that I both designed and printed at The Pull. The prints were made using non-toxic water based cyan and magenta inks. The violet coloring of the * pattern in the A was accomplished by overprinting the magenta on top of the cyan. There are only 21 numbered and signed copies of these posters around, the first of which I shipped off to to Michal in HK. The second, I framed for myself. As for the rest, dear readers, they are for you. You can find them in my etsy shop now

Harkin Family Retreat

2011-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing our efforts at The Pull to make reunion shirts that don't suck, we present The Harkin Family Retreat shirts, hot off the press. Jessica and Matt Watson will be spending a weekend with Jessica's family, The Harkins, wearing these shirts that they designed. For those of you not familiar with The Made in Oregon/WhiteStag sign it's a rift off of this iconic Portland sign.

We also made some for the kids, I was able, with some rigging, to get this cute 12month t-shirt printed fairly successfully with the original full size chest print. Normally I'd setup another platen and burn another screen, but they only wanted one of these and I think the end result gave it a nice vintage feel.

Jessica has a total of 16 shirts made up in mixed sizes and styles. All the adult t-shirts were American Apparel 50/50 ( poly/cotton) Heather Blue in either the Standard America Unisex style or the Women's Short Sleeve, while the kids are American Apparel Standard 100% Cotton. Printing was all hand pulled using non-toxic water based inks. In the end the cost of each shirt was just under $18 per, and that includes a rush shipping charge to get the t-shirts here in time to print on.

Harkins I hope you love 'em and I wanna see a group shot from this weekends retreat!

I know family reunion season is almost over but if anyone wants/needs an unsucky reunion shirt let us know, we can print your design or help you create the perfect image to show your family luv!

Surf Skank

2011-08-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was happy to have Rebekah Signh of SurfSkank come and make some t-shirts at The Pull! We had a bit of trouble with our water based inks as the late afternoon sun and heat set in on saturday, but we persevered and got this great batch of 4 color women's shirts done this morning. Thanks to Nick Wood over at @Ryonet for giving me some great suggestions for battling the heat. Speaking of Ryonet, I also got to use my new 16" x 22" plattens along with a new platen glue, that did an amazing job of keeping the shirts still despite flashing between each of the 4 colors and even after curing the shirts on platen. This stuff makes the spray mist stuff seem like a complete waste of time.

Let me know what you think of the prints below, the design was made for SurfSkank by Margarita Yerastova to see more of her designs check out: www.yerastova.com

And as always, if you've got an project or idea you'd like to see printed, or would like to actually pull your own prints on, let me know!

Talking to Myself

2011-07-30T12:37:00.001-07:00

I started this drawing at a drink and draw with the Wonder Team gang, I've changed it a bit since, and colored it in... I think I'm gonna go buy some new pants.

Print Swap with Almost Monday!

2011-07-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

I met Serena a while back at one of the many portland craft shows. She's a fellow print maker who loves doing linocut prints, and she's also an amazing portraiture painter. She's know on the web as AlmostMonday We've been talking via twitter pretty much ever sense and we met up this weekend briefly for a print exchange. I swapped one of my Bee Scarfs and a Penguin Pocket Notebook for a set of bicycle themed hand pulled linocut prints.

I'm super excited to have these prints, and if you wanna grab some you should really check out her shop, there's plenty of awesome prints there that I'm sure you'd love. Thanks Almost Monday for the awesome work, if anyone else is interested in swapping some prints or art, let me know!

A Good Man...

2011-07-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Wiegh In

2011-07-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is the first post from my new Comic group, The Wonder Team. I'll be posting a weekly comic there on Fridays, that in most cases won't be posted here. There's also three other great Portland Artist who are posting there, Eriq Nelson, Seyoung Yeo ( who organized this effort) and Melissa Dalluhn. It's a great group, and I'm happy to be contributing along with them, so be sure to check it ( and them ) out!

Voicemail

2011-07-07T12:04:00.001-07:00

The Run

2011-07-03T11:36:00.001-07:00

Asleep at the Airport

2011-06-30T10:58:00.001-07:00

I don't have many drawings of Laura and I, mostly because I always felt my doodles of her never did her justice. I found this doodle in an old sketch book as I was looking for some paper to do some drawing on. Last year around this time we traveled to Texas together, and then from there we went to NYC to attend a friend of mines wedding.

While we waited for our plane from Dallas to NYC she cuddled up and fell asleep on me. And there was something in that moment that made me feel loved, trusted and depended on like I hadn't before and so I wanted to capture that feeling. Finding this drawing now is a mixed bag for me. I'm glad I captured this moment, cause it's one I want to remember, it's just not one I want to remember right now.

Stuck

2011-06-28T09:06:00.001-07:00

What now... Pt.1

2011-06-23T16:16:00.001-07:00

Sun Break

2011-06-22T09:31:00.001-07:00

Fathers Day

2011-06-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Future...

2011-06-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Together Forever...

2011-06-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

On my mind...

2011-06-16T11:02:00.001-07:00

Walking in the rain...

2011-06-15T09:02:00.001-07:00

Remembering...

2011-06-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Not anymore anyways...

2011-06-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

If this is summer...

2011-06-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Sigh...

2011-06-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

Stamp Collecting

2011-05-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

Chair Affair 2011 Wrap Up

2011-05-01T10:43:00.001-07:00

* Close up of the fur from "Theodor" by Brook Ashley more...

The 2011 Chair Affair took place April 28th and 29th at Pioneer Place. It featured a collection of furniture based artwork being auctioned off to raise money for the Communiuty Warehouse. This was my first year to attend the event, and my first charity event to have artwork in. I don't think my piece actually sold, sigh, but it was great to be a part of the event and, I think, over all, many of the pieces were auctioned off. Theodor, featured in the photo above, was a crowd favorite. Unfortunately my only photo of him in his full furry goodness was super blurry.

As I walked around the event I started taking shots of some of the work with my little canon camera and decided I would share them here. Where possible I've added the artist name and info. If you're the artist and would like a copy of the picture at higher rez just contact me and we'll get it to you. Obviously I didn't photograph everything, if you want to see more, almost all of the pieces are viewable at the Chair Affair Website.

*Artist Unknown

This was part of a kids room table set that featured adorable children's drawing themed bugs that I think were pasted onto the surfaces and then covered with a lacquer of sorts. Unfortunately I didn't get the artist information, and I don't see this piece listed on the Chair Affair website. If anyone knows who I should credit, please let me know.

* artist unknown

* "Relax" by Tripper Dungan III more...

I enjoy the tiki styling here, but I'm not sure I would consider this a relaxing place to sit, with such large teeth so close to your ass.

* "The Pearl Graffiti Pair" by Denise Whitney Dahlke more...

I got a chance to talk briefly with Denise about this piece and how she made it. The images on the chairs are all photos she took of portland street art. She then cleaned them up, collaged them and printed them digitally onto the fabric she used to reupholster the seats on these chairs. I'm always conflicted about street art being used as pattern. While I like it visually, I worry about the lessoning of the meaning of the work taken out of the context it was originally placed in. I also think one has to consider who actually has the right to use/reuse work that is placed anonymously, or otherwise, in public spaces.

* Close up of the spinal column from "Cat's Tail" by Fredick H. Zal more...

I didn't get a good shot of the "Cat's Tail" chair in full, but the spinal cord should be a good indicator of what the rest of the chair looks like. Certainly the goth-est of the chairs at the event, and another most talked about peice amongst the crowd.

* "Chair Number 4" by Kim Short more...

I really enjoyed the simplicity of this chairs design, and was happy to see the "Sold" sign on it right at the beginning of the Friday night event.

* "Ode to Napoleon Dynamite" by Erin Ridle more...

The Napoleon chair put a smile on my face, and I think the styling overall felt very at place with Napoleon. The artist also made several keychain photo viewers featuring scenes from the movie. She makes custom photo viewers at her etsy site.

* "Looking Up" by Nely Johnson more...

I really enjoyed the line work of Nely Johnsons pieces. The weight of the seat actually seems to bear on the lady featured at the bottom of this stool. She had a second piece in the show, that I didn't fully notice till I saw the portrait winking at me from behind the bar cart door.

* I believe this is a close up of "Lying In Her Single Bed By The Window" by Nely Johnson more...

* "Home and Chrome" by Jan Peterson Kelley more...

* "Merely Wanting It Won't Be Enough..." Sam Hull more...

*Artist Unknown

This chair is unique in that it's made of mosses, and with weekly watering you can actually keep it growing.

* Artist Unknown

* "If Fish Were Bigger We Would Grant Them Chair Space" Tim Combs more...

* "Happy Chair" by Amy Estrin more...

When I saw this chair, I thought I know that pattern, and this looks professionally reupholstered. Turns out both where right. Amy Estrin runs The Whole 9 Yards and has been making fancy chairs for quiet some time now.

* "Rocking Bird" by Wendy O'Brien more...

Ok... I think this chair takes the prize for the most birds ever. What you don't see in this shot are the 10 birds on wires above the chair. I'm not sure if this was an attempt at "Put a Bird On It" irony or not, but either, way it's a bit much for me.

* "Ocean Fresh" by Thomas Rude more...

So after about 3 hours of walking in a big circle, talking with the artist and patrons, and shooting photographs the night came to an end. As I took visual tally it looked like a good bit of the work had been bid on. I haven't heard yet exactly how well the Community Warehouse did but it seems well. If you were in attendance I'd love to know what you thought of the artwork and the show in general.

Plan B - Drink and Draw

2011-04-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last night at the Chair Affair I ran into a friend who happened to be running the sound for the event. He mentioned a couple bands playing over at Plan B afterwards so since I wasn't busy and had consumed a couple free drinks already, I decided to head over. I carry my sketch books around with me almost always and so while I waited for the bands to start and for Joe to get done breaking down the "pipecloth" I started sketching a bit...

As I was drawing a picture of me thinking about monsters to draw one of the bartenders asked if she could draw me a picture. And then asked this girl, who was only identified to me as "Almost a Doctor" to add onto her drawing... The result is this charming doodle of someone confused as to why they are being pee'd on by a dog. The bartender drew the person, the "almost doctor" drew the pissing pooch.
Shortly after this the music started, and with the small crowd and my prime bar stool, I couldn't resist trying my had at capturing them... The first band was a husband wife combo called Destroy Nate Allen. Their energy was pretty awesome, talking the crowd into singing, clapping and participating with them as they sung silly punk folk songs about riding bikes and how he hates the song she likes..
Next up, and probably my favorite act of the night, a group called Dangerous Ponies . Their band is pretty massive, their music catchy, and their tambourine player is so hard core that he cut his hand up on his tambourine. Plan B must be used to this, as they dressed his hand quickly and returned him back to the stage before the next track was complete.
About this time Joe show'd up and another group came on who's name I didn't catch. Their music was pretty mellow/dark sounding with an 80's new wave edge to it.
Finally the band that Joe is friends with, Cat Fancy, was on. They were pretty rocking, I drew the lead vocalist a second time, cause I felt she came off way to manish below, but I think that drawing ended up with, as I drew a pretty silly and ill drawn picture of him on the back side.
There are more non-band related doodles from the night but I think I'll save them for another post. Also, I'll be posting more about the chair affair as soon as I download and sort the pictures I took.

Mountains Made of Fur

2011-04-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

I recently began exchanging tweets with Jessica Gowling of Natures My Friend. She's a printmaker and artist from Canada who's work often centers around nature. Recently she finished making the "Mountains Made of Fur" zine pictured above and sent a tweet out asking if anyone wanted a copy. I, of course, tweeted quickly back that I would love one.

The envelope arrived in my P.O. Box held together with a furry triangle sticker. And after careful consideration I opened it down the right side and slide the contents out.

I can't show you everything that was inside the envelope but here's a few glimpses...

And some fun stickers, including my favorite "When Life Gives You TENDONITIS Make ZINES" .

The back side of the Zine folds out into a poster, and that's going up on my newly made inspiration walls ( more on that in a later post). The stickers should be finding their way around town soon. As a thank you for sharing her art with me, I'm sending a package back ( should be in the mail soon) with one of my comics and some other goodies... I haven't really done any mail art swaps before, but if anyone else is interested in a swap, let me know! If you want to get in on Jessica's mail art, be sure to find her on twitter!

Packages from Afar

2011-04-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

If there is any benefit for me about Laura, aka CuriousDoodles, traveling and leaving me here in Portland, it's that I often get cool things in the mail. I haven't shared any of these mailings publicly but she was recently in India, and I just received the following package from her.

I forget the name for this type of mailer but the whole thing is wrapped in a soft canvas like fabric and held together with string and what appears to be wax.

I think it's by far one of the coolest looking packages I've ever received in the mail. I have yet to open it though, as I'm not sure how to do so without ruining it. My guess is to start with the string and sort the rest out from there. I have a hunch though that this is a storage package ( she's been sending back stuff she doesn't want to lug on the rest of her 6 month trip), so once I check in with her I'll see if I should even bother to try and open it or just leave it for her return.

Night Yeti - Chair Affair 2011 Entry

2011-03-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today I drop off my Community Warehouse Chair Affair 2011 entrant, "The Night Yeti". It will be auctioned off starting April 28th, along with several other wonderful furniture creations from various Portland Artist! The proceeds of the auction will go to the Community Warehouse, who collect and redistribute donated furniture and household goods to low-income individuals and families in Oregon and Southwest Washington. The Chair Affair is their biggest fundraising event and I'm proud to have my lil feller on their auction block.

There'll be two chances to bid and support the Community Warehouse on April 28th and 29th. Be sure to checkout the website, http://www.communitywarehouse.org/chair-affair-2011 and to reserve your ticket today.

I don't often work with 3D objects, so making this guy was a unique challenge for me. There was also the stipulation that the object should retain it's functionality so I started off by cleaning and sanding down the nightstand I picked from the Community Warehouse back in Nov. and then spray painting it with a powder blue exterior and red interior.

Finally I brought him inside and did the detail work with a mix of polyvinly stickers and arcylic paints, the end result...
There are little hidden gems ( like the brains in the drawer) that I think the buyer will enjoy finding as they use this piece. If you like my lil Yeti and would like to bid on him to support a great cause, please be sure to checkout the Community Warehouse Chair Affair 2011 event.

Monsters and Waffles

2011-02-24T13:50:00.001-08:00

This morning I decided to make some tasty waffles from scratch, following this recipe, and of course I tweeted out a photo of a stack of waffles awaiting consumption. In response to that, Almost Monday, a fellow printmaker here in Portland, asked if monsters like Waffles... And at first I assumed they all would, but then I remembered a friend of mine from college who has seriously super hairy arms and feared syrup. So I came to this conclusion, scaly and bald monsters would probably love waffles, but furry critters might not be so fond.

Think Fast!

2011-02-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

Wait, that's not what I meant...

F.U. Booger

2011-02-20T23:20:00.001-08:00

Peanut Butter asks the question that will change lunch forever...

2011-02-06T14:31:00.001-08:00

How milk gets involved is another comic all together...

Even Wrapped Fish Can Pine...

2011-02-03T22:31:00.001-08:00

Dumb Bread

2011-02-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

This is how my toast get's made most mornings... Other times it involves dodge ball, but it's always fun.

Fancy Monsters Drink Wine...

2011-01-26T22:56:00.003-08:00

Been a while since I just posted a doodle, soo... Please enjoy my fancy monster friend as he sips his wine.

HiP at The Pull

2011-01-07T10:05:00.000-08:00

Just before the holiday madness Bettie, of HandMade In Portland aka HiP, paid a visit to The Pull to get some totes made. She's posted this great review over at her blog about her time with us and what you could expect if you want to get some screen printing done. HiP is a great resource for learning about Handmade vendors and events here in Portland!

** Update ** HiP is no more, Bettie has started a new site called Little Paper Cities as she focuses more on her love of photography. Be sure to check out her Etsy shop for prints and notecards in the near future.

*photo credit Bettie Newell

Introducing Stuffies!

2011-01-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

Those of you who came and saw CuriousDoodles and I got a sneak peak of my plushie toy collectable line, Stuffies! I've now added the Pengies and our beloved lil Monster to my etsy shop! Stuffies are hand screen printed using water based non-toxic ink on organic fair trade cotton. This makes them oh so soft to touch and snuggle. The backs are carefully chosen reclaimed scrap materials, often cotton plaid flannels, or wool. They are then machine sewed by me, and stuffed with a Bamboo based Natur-Fil® rayon stuffing. Finally they are hand sewn shut. It's been a lot of learning and work to get these lil fellers done, I hope you like them!

There's more Stuffies on the way... I wanna thank CuriousDoodles for all her help as I'm learning my way around the sewing machine. More soon!

Holiday Card Time lapse!

2010-12-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

While printing this years batch of holiday cards I thought it would be fun to show you some of the process that goes into silk screening by making a fun time lapse of the penguin cards being made! I take you from exposing and hosing to getting the job off press in under 2mins! Don't forget, the cards are now available in my shop!

Holiday Card Pre-Sale Ends Today!

2010-11-20T14:33:00.001-08:00

Just a reminder, my Holiday Card Pre-Sale ends today! Order now from my Etys.com shop and save up to 50% on the Penguin Happy Holidays card, or the Monster Merry Christmas card!

The Pull - Ladies in Hats

2010-11-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

This past weekend The Pull was lucky to have Angela Sun come and use our studio to help create her Lady In Hat prints on muslin and a striped cotton fabric. When you use our D.I.Y Custom Screen Printing options to pull your own prints, you'll find your screen exposed and on press waiting for you to print when you arrive.
We mix the inks, and give you a demo on how to proceed. Then we are there with you through the printing process to make sure you get the best prints possible.

Here I am running the flash curer to properly set the inks while Angela continues to run prints on the press. The end result, these lovely 6" x 6" Ladies in Hats wall art pieces.

Angela will be offering these in her Etsy shop soon. I'll update this post with a link as soon as I have one. If there's something you'd like to print, please check out the D.I.Y Custom Screen Printing section of my website and Together, Let's Make Something!

Update!!! - As members of my email list should be aware, Angela has opened her Etsy shop and is not offering these lovely items for sale!

Something Cute this way comes...

2010-11-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

Just a sneak peak of something in the works that I'm really excited about... more soon!

Holiday Card Pre-Sale starts today!

2010-11-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

The holiday season is almost upon us. Soon we'll be wrapping gifts, sending cards, traveling to visit loved ones, and just enjoying the winter months the only way we know how, with warmth, love and togetherness. To help with your holiday gift list, I'm busy making new gift items and cards. With that in mind, I am very excited to offer my new Holiday Greeting cards available for pre-sale!

These two cards will be hand screen printed using water based inks on Mohawk 30% PCW recycled Via Vellum Kraft paper. The cards will feature an original illustrations of either a gaggle of adorable penguins lining up to wish you and yours Happy Holidays! or two adorably furry monster about to exchange gifts while wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Each style is available in a 5, 10 or 25 card pack.

Order your cards now via my Etsy.com shop and save up to 50%! The pre-sale starts today and runs till Nov 20th, after that their prices will increase. Cards will begin shipping on November 22nd via USPS first class mail. Stay tune to http://www.diskgrunt.etsy.com for more announcements and new gift items over the next couple of weeks! Thanks for all your support!

Penguins and Zombies

2010-11-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm working on something that involves a lot of little cute pengies ... So I've been sketching a lot of them!

And while a little late, I give you Zombie Penguin... "Herrings..."

Pup and Sheep review!

2010-10-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

My Pup and Sheep t-shirts have received a lovely write up from Bo over at Loving This Tee. Loving this Tee is an awesome t-shirt review blog, and if you're looking for what new threads to buy I'd suggest checking it out.

Roscoe's Hopped Barley Tea

2010-10-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

I was approached by Cristina Dunseth to help make her 1 year wedding anniversary gift something special. Her husband brews his own beer, and she was getting some letter pressed 24oz beer labels made but also wanted to get some posters and T-Shirts done up. The artwork was printed without knockouts, so we achieved a three color effect by printing on top of the white in some spots and directly on the paper or t-shirt in other spots. I also found out that the poster was submitted to the HOW Poster Design Contest! So you might here more about this print in the future.

Update! While mostly focused on the lables, the poster is shown over at Lovely Packages!

Update two! The poster, labels and shirt were featured on FPO recently! The identity also won a 2010 Portland Ad Federation Rosey award! Congrats to the hard work and excellent design skills of HUB Creative!

Marker Doodles

2010-10-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

Just some fun marker doodles, I've been playing with my Copic markers lately trying to learn them as a coloring medium. I haven't figured out the blending marker yet but hope to get a better handle on them soon.

Inside the Rainbow

2010-10-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

Inside the rainbow where bear has never been before. Never before now.

This is my first submission to Threadless for their Tron Legacy challenge. There's some great designs, and mines really a parody playing of the 80's time frame, mixing Care Bears with Tron. It may take a couple days to get approved but please check it out, and, if you like it vote it up via the link below!

Watson Invitation Suite

2010-10-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

This lovely Wedding Suite was printed here at The Pull by Laura Trimmell, of CuriousDoodles, and myself for the Watson wedding.

Laura designed them and I helped print them. We used a combination of printing techniques, including inkjet for the small detailed txt on the back of the RSVP's, to Silk screening for the front of the RSVP's and the actual invites and even stamping for the envelopes. They are featured on the Oh So Beautiful Paper blog right now if you want to see more, and of course you can see more of them at Laura's Blog.

And as always if you have something fun you'd like to print, be sure to check out my DIY ScreenPrinting section.

Tummy Terrors

2010-10-07T10:06:00.001-07:00

I've been working on a new t-shirt design that I'm thinking of submitting to a t-contest site. Figured I'd see if any one had any comments/suggestions before I move ahead. The concept is pretty simple, even monsters can have nightmares... It's a 3 color design, intended to be printed on an AA Slate colored t-shirt. Do you like the colors? Would you wear it? Thanks!

Big Foot Activity Book

2010-10-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

A while back I made a post of some big foot drawings, that eventually became the Big Foot Activity Book! These Activity books were commissioned for Matt and Jessica Watsons wedding reception and are part of a larger body of custom prints and artwork. Each book features an illustrated day in the life of Big Foot as he try's to be on time for their big day. The tale is told over 8 colorable pages and features a custom word search. They were made available with crayons for the children in attendance at their reception.

The book's cover was printed out via lazer printer on letter sized Green Grocer's Brown Bag Paper, and the contents on plain letter sized, 28lb Hammermill txt paper. The book was then saddle stitched and folded for a final size of 8.5" x 5.5".

I really enjoyed making these custom books, if you have any illustration needs, be sure to email me!

New Me, and other updates!

2010-09-27T12:26:00.001-07:00

So I haven't posted for a bit, mainly because diskgrunt.com has been getting an over haul. I've updated the site with a few design changes, added a bunch of work and created a new D.I.Y. Screen Printing section. I'm now offering hand silkscreened goodness to the masses, and for those of you who want a bit of ownership on your prints, you can now pull the actual prints. I've only listed out the most commonly asked for options but if you're interested in doing something different, or using more colors, just email me and let me know what you want!

I also wanted to introduce the new me, I've been struggling with how to draw myself lately and noticed that I was getting a wee bit to garfieldy/simpsony in my bio comics. So I've simplified the style a bit, made it match more of how I draw my other characters, and from now on you'll be seeing me drawn more like this.

Wedding Ties

2010-09-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

So there's going to be a lot of work being posted from my good friend Matt Watson's wedding, but I thought I would start with these. These ties are the result of a collaboration between Laura, aka @Curiousdoodles, and Matt, with me setting up and pulling the prints. Each tie was intended as a gift for the groomsmen, the ushers and the fathers. The green tie, was the tie Matt wore as he was married.

We managed to print the ties with a 156mesh screen, with water based inks and with some tape registration, we were able to tile the pattern across the length of the tie. There was definitely some difficulties to overcome, and the ink didn't always lay evenly but overall we were pretty happy with the end results.

I'm really enjoying helping people print on items beyond t-shirts and loving doing work that holds so much meaning for the people receiving it. As always, let me know if you need any custom screen printing done.

Petri Baby Announcements!

2010-09-07T18:44:00.001-07:00

Paul and Basia Petri came to me with a unique announcement idea to let their family know that they are expecting. The end result are the onesies above that Basia designed and I screen printed for them.

I was happy to help them spread their good news and in an effor to extend my own congradulations to the couple, I made them this wall plaque version of their design to hang. Congratulations you two!

It's our last First Thursday event of 2010!

2010-09-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Come out and see us tonight! Curiousdoodle will be showing off these rad wood panels she made and I'll be showing off some of my new wares!

Journals for Chase Jarvis and Crew

2010-08-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited to post these images now that the gifts are in hand. About two weeks ago Laura got a visit from a college friend of hers, Michal Garcia, who happens to be an amazing photographer. He currently lives in Hong Kong but, he won a contest Chase Jarvis had held, and that brought him to Seattle to hang with Chase and his crew. He then came to visit Laura and did some wonderful portrait photography of us, our work spaces, and our crafts. As repayment we collaborated and made these custom Moleskin journals for Chase and his staff.

Each cover features an original illustration of Chase and crew heading for a photo shoot as flock of crows. We tried to embed a lot of jokes and details into the illustrations so I hope they came through. In addition to the covers, each journal was customized for it's recipient, Laura hand embroidered their name on the first page.

Michal was in SanFran and then Back to Seatle while we tried to get these printed up, so we ended up mailing them to him, I threw in a small surprise hand made Kraft paper journal for Michal. I hope you like it!

Arriba Ziba!

2010-08-25T18:39:00.001-07:00

Arriba Ziba Hood to Coast team shirts fresh off the press! Featuring an original design by Heather Cummings these shirts were printed using water based ink on Slate colored American Apparel Sheer Jersey T-Shirts.

These shirts were a bit of a pain to print with the little heat wave we have passing through portland. My studio lacks AC, and with the high heat and low humidity my inks were drying faster then I could pull them. I ended up washing out the screen 3 times to finish this job up. So I think it's time I cough up the cash and get some climate control, it seems I'll need an AC for the temp and a humidifier to keep the air from being to dry...

If anyone is interested in custom silkscreening, give me a shout and we'll work something out!

Find Diskgrunt stuff locally!

2010-08-24T15:39:00.001-07:00

Just a heads up, you can now purchase my Monster v. Robot Panels and Cards at Tender Loving Empire and my comics over at Reading Frenzy in downtown Portland. These are two of my favorite stores in Portland and I'm glad to be on their shelves surrounded by so much talent.

Stop in, tell'em Diskgrunt sent'cha and check out all the great local and independent goods! And, Of course, you can still buy direct from me at my Etsy shop!

Hot off the press - Pocket Notebooks return to diskgrunt.etsy.com !

2010-08-19T20:09:00.001-07:00

Just in time for back to school, there's two new pocket notebooks in my shop featuring a cute lil monster trying to remind you to bring a pencil and a penguin thinking of his favorite meal. Joining them is a reprint of one of my most popular notebook designs from last year, Herding Your Thoughts, featuring a loving sheep dog herding a group of sheepies.

Get'em while their hot!

Portrait Challange

2010-08-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

So when I was younger and teaching myself how to draw I used to do a self portrait as a litmus test. I'd do these portraits once or twice a year then compare them to the prior years drawing and see if I improved, stalled or degraded in skill level. I think the last one of these I did shortly after my first year at college. Foundation Year was full of more technical drawing but as I shifted into my major my drawings focused more on cartooning and I let my more traditional skill set rust a bit.

So this self portrait, admittedly not my best work, is my new starting point. Instead of a year, I want to start doing a weekly portrait ( not of me) and a bi-monthly one of myself. On top of that, I want to get back to life drawing. I started going just prior to leaving ZIBA but haven't kept it up since.

Anyone want to join in on the challenge?

Fresh off the press - Custom order

2010-08-17T11:29:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd share these bachelor party t shirts I printed up late last week. A shirt was made for each member of the party, with the Bachelor getting the red one. The design was supplied to me and the shirts were printed by hand with water based inks on American Apparel sheer jersey shirts. If you're interested in custom prints, either printing your design or having custom artwork made, let me know.

Bear Fight!

2010-08-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last time I was at Reading Frenzy I picked up this book. The cover drew me in right away, it's 3 colors silkscreened and the title feels like felt. The book above is #4 from their limited run of 500 and features 77 different artist take on the title Bear Fight and I have to say, bears have it pretty tough on these pages. From fighting the common cold, badgers, space men, bees, cops and even bad relationships there's no end to the conflict and strife of a bears life.

You can pick this up from Banner Year Press for $12 directly and can learn more about all the artist involved here

I can help but think that this Bear v. Cat doodle of mine was inspired by this book

Party in a Can Tilteed.com Submission

2010-08-10T13:40:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've tried my hand at a tshirt contest, but I want to do more of it now that I have more time I can spend on it. This, of course, will be in addition to my own prints and designs that I'll continue to make available directly at my shop. The design above originaly started as a Bird BBQ but eventually turned into the can party as I worked on it. If you'd like to see the above get printed, take a few moments and vote it up here at Tilteed. Thanks!

Space Bear

2010-08-09T19:32:00.001-07:00

Another space themed doodle from this weekend...

Space-i-Corn Tim!

2010-08-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the "Hip Happening Art Bazaar" which was not really "Happening" per say. With the Bite of Oregon going on, and apparently 6 other events ( including a sand castle competition in Lincoln city). The Bazaar had a very low volume of foot traffic. Mostly people who lived in the neighborhood and were on their way to either get coffee or head elsewhere for the day. That said, I did meet some new people, made a few t-shirt and sticker sales, ate some amazing cookies, and got some good doodle time in. Like Spaceicorn Tim, an Astronaut Unicorn searching the cosmo's for more of his kind while fending off evil alien Kurge who's out to get Tim's head and mount it on his wall of earthly mythical creatures.

Mini Stickers!!

2010-08-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

These mini stickers are fresh off the press today! While silk screening stickers may not seem the most prudent way to print them, it is at least the most fun. These stickers are 1.7" wide by 2.75" high. This allowed me to use an entire 8.5" x 11" sheet with no waste, getting 20 stickers per page! I printed two sets of 20, one in red and one in black for a total of 800 stickers!

I stepped up the setup at The Pull a few months back with the introduction of an exposure unit. So far I've been amazed at what a difference it makes in the level of detail I can pull off. This run was printed using a 230 mesh screen with a dual coat of emulsion, which was crucial for the very fine line and font details. As always, everything was printed using water based inks.

Anyways, if you're in PDX tomorrow come join CuriousDoodles and I at First Thursday! I'll be giving out stickers and showing of my new stuff. Hope to see you there!

Monsters V. Robots

2010-07-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

I mentioned these prints in a previous post but have finally gotten them up into my etsy shop. Each one is hand silkscreened and chronicles the start of the Monster V. Robot wars that are sure to occur once they've finished wiping us out. Each illustration was printed only 10 times, creating 10 sets of the 4 prints, each signed and numbered on the back. You can buy them all together for $120 or pick and choose at $40 per panel.They come with an easy to affix wall hanger and each panel was treated with a light poly coat to protect the image. The plywood is FSC and the inks are non toxic and water based. Everything was hand made by me. You can order them from here.

New in the Shop

2010-07-23T10:42:00.001-07:00

My Tweet & Qwack greeting cards are now available in my Etsy shop. Each card was hand silk screened using water based inks on Mohawks 100% recycled Via Vellum Kraft paper. They're the perfect way to say just about anything.

Will You Still Love Me If I Wet The Bed - Liz Prince

2010-07-22T13:32:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to post about this book for a while now. This collection of comics are adorable, personal, sweet and funny. They involve corn on the cob kisses, kitties, boogers, snuggling, and more as Liz Prince journals her relationship with Kevin. If you don't know Liz Prince, well...you should.

The funny part about this book is that Laura and I both bought it for each other last Christmas. She picked it up while she was visiting in Texas, at a store called We are 1976 in Dallas, and I picked it up here in Portland at Reading Frenzy. It was definitely one of those absurdly cute and kinda weird moments when we opened each others gifts.

StoermerVille - Texas/NYC trip part 1

2010-07-21T11:24:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a long vacation. Laura and I spent the 4th with her family in Texas, then some time in Dallas and we wrapped up the trip with a few days in NYC. I'm working on getting some condensed trip comics made. This is my first, and there's lots left out but it's some of the highlights.

Monster in a Suit

2010-07-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

I've been messing around and learning how to use some Copic markers I recently picked up. This guy is just a quick lil monster doodle, any ideas as to what he's saying?

Shooo Rain!

2010-07-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

I've been traveling in Texas for the past week and it's rained almost every day. It was even raining when we got off the plane at DFW and from what I've heard it's been nice and sunny back in Portland. So, I believe the rain is stalking us... and since the forecast for the next leg of our trip in NYC is predicting rain there too I decided it was time to put an end to it. Hear me rain? Go home!

Big Feets

2010-07-08T21:04:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a project for a friend of mine that involves a Big Foot, and I've been having a lot of fun doodling different sasquatches that I thought you might enjoy a peak.

First Thursday with CuriousDoodles and Diskgrunt!!!

2010-06-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Fresh off the Press! Tweet and Qwack cards!

2010-06-30T16:18:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty busy the past two weeks, mostly printing stuff for other people, so it's been nice to have the press to myself the last couple of days, allowing me to get my "Tweet" and "Qwack" cards printed up! These will be available in my shop soon but if you happen to be in downtown portland for First Thursday art walk you can swing by to visit CuriousDoodles and I. We'll be between Kearny and Lovejoy on 13th from about 5pm till 9pm (weather permitting).

I'll also be showcasing a set of limited edition "Monsters v. Robots" wood panel prints tomorrow ( more on those later). So come visit and check out all the great artist and crafters. Thnx.

Reunion Shirts that Don't Suck

2010-06-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

This is the second Reunion shirt to come out of The Pull this summer! Super low run ( only 15 shirts made along with a handful of posters) but a lot of fun to draw and print. This was originally design for an AA slate shirt, but do to the hastiness of the job we ended up using these heather gray shirts. While I still like the design, the line work doesn't pop as much as it could and part of me would love to see a second color. Click the image below for a closer look at the details of the illustration!

And speaking of reunion shirts that don't suck, check out this shirt CuriousDoodles recently printed at The Pull.

If anyone needs custom tee's designed/printed, let me know.

Minor Changes to the Blog

2010-05-16T12:24:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty frustrated with the way images appeared in my blog, making most of my comics unreadable unless you clicked on it to open the full size image in a new window/tab. Finally, after a few complaints about my last post, I decided to take some time to fix it.

So I switched over to Edit Html and found 2 interesting things.

1) Blogger/Google set a scaled size for an uploaded image to display in your post

For my post blogger set the image size to 400px x 160px, really to small to read.

I simply adjusted that up to 600px x 250px But then I got a large fuzzy image.

That lead me to this second bit.

2) Blogger/Google creates a custom preview image at that scaled size. So you need to adjust your link to point to the original image and not the preview.

Great right? Wrong… Depending on your blogger template your post is probably now being cut off because it extends beyond the Post border. I found a quick easy tutorial at BlogBulk that shows how to edit your template to widen your blog. I've set mine now for a total size of 750px. This expands the post area to 600px and squeezes the side bar down to 120px.

Let me know what you think of the changes. I'm editing some of my more recent post so they fit this new standard better.

How to speak midwestern...

2010-05-12T23:04:00.000-07:00

I just got back from visiting family in Illinois, and I have to say the amount of beef and cheese I ate was pretty absurd... I think I'm lucky to live where I do, there's so many healthy options for groceries and restaurants and a culture that promotes both eating right and respecting where your food comes from. My whole visit, I kept thinking about Food Inc., but there didn't seem to be much of a choice if you didn't want mass produced food.

i Heart Art PDX - Promo Silkscreen Flyers

2010-05-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

I Heart Art PDX is a unique collaboration between Etsy.com, PNCA, and the Museum of Contemporary Craft that's goal "...is to support and advocate for Portland’s vibrant community of makers by fostering dialogue, inspiring activity, and offering access to resources that are otherwise difficult to find."

I was approached by Isaac Watson on doing some promotional flyers for them to hand out during this weekends "Super Colossal Spring Sale" that Crafty Wonderland is hosting at the convention center. Given that I missed the registration deadline for the craft fair, I thought this would be a great way to get some exposure there for my press, The Pull, while helping out the I Heart Art PDX organization there.

Everything about this project was done pretty last minute and in the middle of another print job. I was supplied the logo artwork and ended up creating the lil' monster illustration and adjusting the flyer layout to fit all the elements in. Once the design was done I was able to get 300 flyers printed in about 9 hours. That's not the fastest I've done, but but given I was working on my own, and throwing in a flash dry between color hits, I think I did pretty well time wise.

If you want to get one, be sure to swing by Crafty Wonder Land this weekend and visit the I Heart Art PDX table. On the back of the flyer are dates for various workshops being hosted throughout the spring and summer.

When I finished up my print job and started cleanup, I cracked open a Full Sail "A Light-Bodied Nonetheless Hella Good Limited Edition Lager" and was greeted with a very satisfying message.

Slo-Mo Beardo

2010-04-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Mr. Boom-Boctopus

2010-04-12T22:25:00.001-07:00

Say me fantastic!

What's breakfast without...

2010-03-31T22:33:00.000-07:00

diskgrunt vs. the mountain

2010-03-09T21:19:00.001-08:00

This past weekend I tried my hand at Skiing up at Timberline. This was my first time on skis and I'm left with several scrapes, bruises, bumps, aches and pains. But I did succeed in falling less enough to want to head up again. So watch out Mt. Hood... I'm not done yet!

Pimple Puss and T Shirt Sale

2010-02-17T23:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, I've got two comics in the works and some exciting news about my press coming soon... I hope to have more updates in the next few days. Please enjoy the pimple puss doodle above till then.

Oh... I also want to let you know that my Penguin and Polar Bear T Shirts are now on sale for $18 solo or the pair for $30 in my Etsy Shop. Get'em while supplies last!

Appropriate Attire

2010-01-31T12:32:00.001-08:00

There is a lot that can, and should, be said about Lucille Battin, more so then I can put into a small comic. The one thing I would like to add though, is that the kindness and openness that Lucille received the world and those who came into her life is one of the many traits I see carried on in her children and grandchildren. I always feel privileged to have been welcomed into such a loving family when I moved out to Portland on nothing more then the promise of a couch. The Watsons and Battins have welcome me into their homes and lives with the kindness I can only assume they inherited from this loving woman.

In the wash...

2010-01-18T23:40:00.000-08:00

Last week was kind of tough. I had to be at work super early on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to help setup and start some webex meetings. On top of that I was leaving work late most nights that week. By the time Friday mornings 5:30am wakeup rolled around I was seriously shower impaired and kept forgetting, as I dosed in and out consciousness what I had washed already. I'm seriously surprised I didn't drown a little...

OnStar branches out...

2010-01-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

Beep & Boop Valentine's Special

2010-01-11T23:06:00.001-08:00

There are moments in every robots life were the p-ram is blasted out, the preferences dumped and unfamiliar commands are issued as if some crazy love struck admin is sudo’ing thier heart out in a bash shell.This is one of those moments. Beep and Boop bot are meeting for the first time, and the binary floating around them is a flurry of terminal commands ushering in this new love…

Just in time for valentines day, the Beep and Boop Bot shirts are available now in my Etsy shop, singles for $20 or buy them both for $35. Each shirt is hand silkscreened with waterbased inks. And yes, the binary does translate to things like

Boopbot:~ Boopbot$ mkdir ~Library/Application Support/Heart

Your welcome to decode and descramble it all…

Robot Stationary Roundup

2010-01-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

Looks like my "Beep & Boop" pocket notebooks were included in this great round up of Etsy Robot Themed stationary goods by We've Got Paper.

There's some great cards and items included in their list, check it out!