Clear skies ahead...

It's been a busy month so far. Halfway through and I'm moved into my new place. I've been transferring my studio across town, working on Dapper Cap stuff most of the time. Stressful to say the least. On top of the first move I've done in over three year, I'm stricken with that terrible cold that's going around town. Cut&Paste is coming up very soon, March 7th exactly. I've been designing the collateral for the Portland competition. Postcards should be hitting the streets very soon. I'm also finishing up this flyer design for the Dapper Cap's series of DJ nights. Good times for sure.

Wood & Chrome...

Apologies for the lack of updates over the past week. It's been a busy one, with the holiday falling right in the middle of things. On top of work, Sarah and I have been moving into our new place up in North Portland. It's been quite a task getting our belongings moved across town. I'm having trouble sorting through all of my stuff.

We now have significantly more space to stretch out in. It's quite a relief to get out of studio apartments into a spacious two-bedroom flat. We've been combing Craigslist and the local thrift stores for furniture finds. There's a lot of space to fill, but we've settled on a design concept to guide us. Our motif is wood & chrome. Anything that doesn't vibe with this gets the boot. Just today I went to the William Temple House thrift store on NW Glisan and found three of these beautiful mid-century dining chairs for a total of $24. There are some amazing pieces out there for the price of a song.

A continuous source of inspiration is Apartment Therapy. It's a site that documents real folks' living spaces. There are some sublime ideas to be absorbed here. The site features apartment tours of peoples' homes. It's totally voyeuristic and inspirational at the same time. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm nerding out on having so much living space as a blank canvas.

Some drawings from Christmas...

I brought my box of prismacolor markers with me out to my parents' house where I had to stay over the holiday. The markers provide a very bold color treatment, and they have a tendency to bleed through the page. The solvents are so strong that they layer very well without muddying together. This is an experimental set, my favorite is the second one down. I laid down the plaid pattern first with my markers and then disregarded it, drawing observationally right on top. I really enjoy getting away from the controlled environment of the computer.

way too long...

The snow is driving us all a bit crazy...

It's been icy and snowing off and on for over a week now. Snowfall in most areas is well over a foot. I've been stuck inside for days now. One would think this would be a perfect opportunity to get some work done, but it's not coming so easily. The cabin fever is starting to set in. Hopefully things thaw out a bit before New Years Eve.

While stuck inside, I've been experimenting with patterns, both repeating and non-repeating. For a repeating pattern it's as easy as making a concise sketch, scanning it and tiling it in photoshop. For non-repeating I try to develop a set of rules in my head to guide my drawing. With the above example I just drew polygons, playing around with scale and layering. I've been working with patterns for a few years now. Over the past month I've been doing a lot of work for a wrapping paper company (more on that later...) Patterns have factored in heavily. For Christmas Sarah got me Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns. By Mike Perry. It's a must-have for the library of any pattern aficionado. Perry has currated a vast collection of beautiful patterns by a diverse array of contemporary illustrator's and designers. It's really gotten me back into the pattern creation drive. Check it out, as well as the rest of Mike Perry's work. I'm a huge fan.

Snowed in...

It's soggy outside, so I'll stay in...

A week ago, Sarah and I looked at a two-bedroom apartment in North Portland. We decided it fit our criteria, ample space being the number one and aesthetic value being the second. We filled out the application form and paid the fee. The next day we heard from the leasing agent and the place fell into our hands. Saturday rolls around and I'm trying to get some client work off my plate, while slowly boxing up my earthly posessions. No moving takes place on saturday. Sunday hits and we're under the snow, people are sliding all over the place. If you have lived in a place that experiences substantial snow on a regular basis, I'm sure your municipality knows how to cope. Here in Portland we can handle the rain, but when the snow hits we all turn into idiots. People are slip-sliding all over the place like a bad round of bumper cars. Every time it snows here it seems there's a sledding related death, last year there were two. That being said, we haven't gotten a chance to move anything into our new place. I'm choosing to stay inside and get some work done and do some drawing.