Put that in your Papirmasse and schmoke it.

Production for issue 2 of Papirmasse is underway!  What's that you say?  You're a bad blogger and haven't even told us what this paper-thingamajigger is in the first place?  True.  But since a trip to San Francisco and many deadlines loom in my near-future, I'm going to have to delay any explanations until January.  In the meantime, here's a preview of the cover image of issue 2, and a link to the official website, where all is revealed.

Published

And it looks great!  Vue went one step further and turned the illustration into a nifty punk-rock Christmas present in the form of a two-page spread documenting all the bands the members of Les Tabernacles have been in (hint: approximately a million, by the looks of all those squiggly lines.)  Click here for a link to the hi-res version.

First Colour Illustration

I've done illustrations before, but they've always been for 'zines or activist groups with low budgets, so I've never had the pleasure of working in colour, nor have I had the pleasure of *ahem* payment. Hence the excitement over landing the cover of Vue Weekly and getting to illustrate one of Edmonton's most well-known rock bands, Les Tabernacles. Some might say it's small potatoes, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm pretty stoked with how everything turned out. In fact, I had such a great time illustrating this that it's making me wonder if painting is really the path I should be pursuing.

As far as illustration goes, though: do I ever feel like I have a lot to learn! It was difficult choosing a particular style to go with. In the end I chose the strategy of following my heart; for example, since the project called for 6 portraits to be drawn from fairly low-quality photos, I had this great idea to draw the guys heads coming out of one of those whack-a-mole games. I still think it would have made a killer illustration, especially with an ominous shadow towering over them, but I realized that I would die of boredom if I had to draw every last detail of a whack-a-mole machine.

I ended up going with a pretty abstract arrangement, and am really happy with what Vikki (graphic artiste extraordinaire) put together for the inside spread:
Below are some work-in-progress shots, with colour choices being made. Choices!!

My New Favourite Website

My Love For You is a Stampede of Horses.  

More inspiring than even the best issues of Juxtapoz.  Seriously, it's like eye candy and brain candy at the same time.  Where do they find these artists?    

Threadless (ie. ka-ching, or, $$$)

I have gone in search of mountains of cash and submitted a design to Threadless. If you think the above shirt is something that you could possibly someday envision yourself wearing, well then pretty please, head on over and cast your vote. They also might publish it as a print, so if you'd like to own it as a print, once again, please vote.

Amazing!

It seems I am not the only one who has spotted the similarities between Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and a hamster. The keen eye of Don Martin in on the trail too. In a recent National Post article entitled "What we can learn from Stephen Harper and the Syrian hamster", Mr. Martin writes that:

"It took Prime Minister Stephen Harper more than two hours Thursday to arm-twist Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean into terminating Parliament after just 16 days.

Speaking of just 16 days, that’s precisely the gestation period of the Syrian Hamster, a solitary creature that will not live with other hamsters past a certain age without fighting and must be kept in separate cages."

He goes on about hamsters for a while after that. Because SH is so hamstery that even right wing pundits can't let it go. In fact, I rechristen him Stephen Hamster.

Is it the beady little eyes? The similar gestation periods? The giant exercise wheel in his office? I don't know, but I do truly hope that Don Martin responds to the e-mail I sent him, and that we get off on a long exchange about all of our Prime Ministers hamstery ways.
(The best part of this e-mail is the ads that popped up on the side)Though I am a little inclined as of late to say that Mr. Harper may, in fact, be more like a weasel. Today he cancelled Canada's Parliament to avoid a vote that would have put a coalition of his opponents into place instead of himself. If you aren't Canadian, the analogy is that he pressed Pause, Reset, Play on the government. I'm not going to get into it here, but there are some decent articles out there on the issue, such as this one and this one. Strangely, neither mentions hamsters. Damn editors!
In closing, here is one of my favourites from my Stephen Harper photo collection (hey, everyone has to have a hobby), a collection that I started long before I ever even heard of the Framing Harper Portrait Contest. Some things are just written in the stars, you know?