More Studio

I'm getting pretty close to wrapping this thing up. Getting power to the new building was lame. The breaker box is in the front of my house, so I ran conduit from there, under the length of the house, out the back into a trench, under all kinds of irrigation pipes up into the new building and into a sub panel. Way more work than you would think. I got all bruised up. Everything was attached and glued up just in time for the rain. All the outlets and switched were placed, then wired to the sub panel. Insulation added, then sheet rock. Walls have been taped and texture will go up tomorrow. I have less than 2 weeks to get it done...should be just enough time.

40 foot trench- 18" deep

sub panel wired up

insulation

sheet rock is up

New Baby = New Studio

We decided a long while back that the new baby would need his own room. The question was where to put my office. There were a few options, but the best was to build a new studio out behind the house. I checked with the county and learned that a structure 120 square feet or less qualifies as an auxiliary building or "shed".  This "shed" could be fully insulated, livable and built without permits. I can work within these rules.  We pulled up a photo of my lot and Dude told me everything looked good as long as it is 3 feet from the property line.

Just before starting

Slab by A.C. Bentley Concrete

Concrete was left alone for about a week

It was some work, but with Dad's help we got the walls up

Walls in place

Roof framed in before being covered with osb

Roof covered with felt before comp roofing put down

I didn't photograph a few steps- frame was wrapped with a moisture barrier, window nailed in, siding hung with trim and vents. Now I need to prime and paint before the next rain. If weather looks to be good for a while I will jump right to electrical.

A large cabinet will go on the outside of this wall



Once the cabinet is finished on the outside wall I will empty out the old metal shed and remove it. I am planning a sandbox for the kids in it's place. I hope to do all this before the summer is over.

Zombie Repellent Logo

My friend Stephanie was having a hard time getting her son Nico to go to sleep. His fear- zombies. A totally rational fear for a 6 year old. Her solution? A quick spray around the room with rose water before bedtime. She told Nico it was zombie repellent and he would be safe all night. Worked like a charm. She will be trying to sell it online soon. Here's to sketches and final I worked up.

first sketch- brain and exposed skull "too scary"

second sketch- worms added

final with text

Fu Manchu Poster

Film positives made

Screens exposed

Screens washed out

Black positive taped to paper- all screens will align to this

First ink pulled- flesh tone

Second color- light green

Third color- brown halftone

Fourth color- dark green

Tavi "helps me" by doing some crazy dance



Fifth color- black

 And that's how it goes. Three very cold nights of printing out in the shop, about 1 hour per color. Posters are 25"X17" printed on 100# matte cover stock. Signed and numbered prints go on sale Saturday Jan 22nd here: http://www.kentdesigns.com/poster_gallery.htm

Logo Progression

I thought it would be fun to post the series of sketches and revisions that go into a logo. Sometimes a client needs to see some changes to realise that it's right the first time. Sometimes I do too.

first sketch based on phone discussion

clothing added and pose altered

back to original pose, tail added to girl, fire added to an altered DD

corset changed to cocktail dress

final black and white version



airbrushed final version- tattoos added





airbrushed fire with back shadows added- this is the final final



Christmas Stuff 2010

Here's a few things I made for Christmas gifts. My brother is a huge Lebowski fan...much like myself, so I painted this for him. It's called "I need my fucking Johnson, Man."

My take on the Lebowski scissors

There's a painting very similar to this in the background of the art studio scene. It shapes Lebowski's nightmare later in the movie. The director makes sure you notice it, but it's not really in your face. That's why I like it.



There's a commercial on the Disney channel where a girl is wearing a cupcake shirt. My daughter flips out whenever she sees it, so I thought I would make her one. One became 2.  

And finally, the Jelly Belly shirt. I would have just bought one, but the only graphic the company does for little kids is a cartoon jelly bean man that Tavi finds scary. She loves Jelly Bellys so I knew a logo shirt would be a hit. This was an easy 3 color print. Found a vector version of the logo online and broke it apart in about 5 minutes. She can wear it to the factory when we go next month.



Slightly Stoopid Poster

This was a fun print to do for a couple of reasons. First off, the artwork is fairly loose. Second, it's of good size so registration was no problem at all. This was my first time using Cougar paper (this is printed on 100# matte Cougar cover) and it was another big help in registering each color. This stock dries very flat and that makes all the difference when it's time to get that sheet back on the press for the next color. If it's flat you can slide it right into place. If the edges are curling even a little it's a lot more time spent making sure there's good contact with the registration tabs. I use cut up slices of credit cards taped to the bottom and left side of the print surface. A lifted edge will pass right over the tab and will take a good deal of adjusting before ink can be pulled. It went well enough that I was sad to finish this run. Anyway, this is a signed and numbered edition of 60. 25"X17" inches,6 colors- yellow was thinned down a lot and printed on top of blue in a couple of spots to make a 7th color (green) Show was sold out. Prints can be ordered here: http://www.kentdesigns.com/poster_gallery.htm

And notice the deal for 2010: order any 2 prints and get a T-shirt of your choice for $1