Marker Doodles

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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 !

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

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

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!

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

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

Another space themed doodle from this weekend...

Space-i-Corn Tim!

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!!

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!