Awkward's aPOPcathery

Halloween is next week (!) and though I might be a little behind on my own costume, I have been working hard revamping my booth setup for Awk's next show. Black Market SF has titled this event "Night of the Living," so that is clearly a sign to go weird and halloween-y (right?). Awkward Affections may be a little thematically disjointed (bright pop cynicism thrown in with old vintage styles and packaged in hot pink and gold). I have never been great about sticking with a branded theme (call it art kid defiance) but I am making this booth costume tie everything together. I am calling it "aPOPcathery," hoping to blend the vintage weirdness of a witchy/apothecary with (pop) bright colors and bubbly letters. Part of this process is making props that are odd but also fun: there will be hot pink pumpkins, cloche jars containing illustrated oddities and some vials filled with the anatomical remains from my studies (unicorn hairs, phoenix tears, etc).

Here is a quick peek at how I am turning my portfolio books into creepy old leather bound props! I enjoyed this process if you want to learn more.

I used cardboard and measured out the front, back and spine from the book I was covering. You might want to give yourself a extra little room to be sure. This is a ghetto bookbinding shortcut here.

use a strip of paper to bind the pieces together (allowing room for the book to close)

Then crumple brown paper to get a crinkled, leather look

Cover your cardboard entirely with glue and press the crinkled paper down. On the inside you can fold the corners like a present. 

Paint the paper with acrylics: I used purples, reds, burnt sienna and umber

Once the paint is dry, seal with Mod Podge (or another finish)

I added flaps on the inside to slip my Itoya portfolio in and not ruin the actual book

And voila! (ooo)

Factual Friday

Fact 1: 

This month shall be named Batober for my extensive (yet, unintentional) Batman themed birthday week.

1. In my house, "Bat-Napkin" must be sung in key of the Transformers theme 2. you can see Batphone in the reflection of Batring*

 Re-watching Batman the Animated Series, I realize:
i.   That. Show. Was. Heavy.
ii.   I can only watch it in the afternoon (like old times)
iii.   I am almost positive that half of my proclivity for psychoanalysis is because of Batman.

Fact 2:

I get a little disproportionately giddy about pens (writing pens. Drawing pens is a whole other bag of nonsense).

Fact 3:

I am not a writer. I say this because much of my job is responding to/constructing client e-mails (and, uh, blogging, though you wouldn't know it). The problem is, writing (and anything not art-related) requires switching from "Art Brain" to "Everything Else Brain," which is like taking a steam engine from cold to full power just to get to the next town over. Once the switch is made, I process what I want to say, write an introduction, then pace in frustration after every other word (plus, some internet stuff). Actually, if you write to me, expect my side of the process work like this:

This post was meant for Wednesday, but due to my writing affliction, we have it way past working hours on Friday. "Factual Friday" works much better as a title anyway (and lists are so much easier than that full sentence crap).



*saying it before Mikey

About Freaking Time

Needless to say, this map was inevitable and a long time coming. You might assume, sweet readers, that I only make maps because I want them. Well... then, you'd be right. I wanted to make a Middle Earth map for a long time, but the problem was, there were many "Lonely Mountains" and "Realm of Middle Earth" maps in  commercial circulation, and they are done quite wonderfully, in my perspective. So why reiterate something that ain't broke, right? Finally, it hit me at a Lord of the Rings party (whatever, what do your friends do?) you aren't having Mordor Morsels or Gondor Gimlets. No, you want to Shire it up, because that's where the Middle Earth party is at, folks! Staring at the looming, geometric border of Mordor all day could be a bummer, so why not balance that out with the Hobbits and discover just how many places are named after those crazy Tooks.

Fantastic Friday

This week was busy like Jawas after a Droid factory collapse. Yet, looking back on the new listings, I'm finding little to dazzle you with, fair readers. It is amazing how maintaining the business end of...business takes a whallop of time. So here is everything else I have been up to:

First, here is a belated (but necessary) THANK YOU to all of the fabulous people who came out to Urban Air Market this past Sunday. It is difficult to not spend all my money at these events, but fortunately I am stuck behind my booth most of the time.

Stand up straight and stop being so awkward with your hands!

Also, I am pleased to say Awkward Affections prints can now be found at Local Take in SF Castro! This may be a small hurdle (of many), but surreal and exciting nonetheless. 

In other news, the fabulous Sepia Puppy is having a Blogiversary giveaway! You can check out the cool prizes and maybe even score an Awk cuddlefish. Check it!: http://thesepiapuppy.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-first-blogiversary-giveaway.html

Wizard Wednesday

A quickie: The standing desk

Once upon a time, I took a tour of Dreamworks and discovered the beauty of the motorized workstation. I witnessed an army of fit, limber artists happily standing at their desks for work*. Ever since that fateful day, I writhed in sedentary agony: knees creaking,  rump ever flattening, just dreaming of a standing desk for which to do my work.

If you are like me, sweet readers, you tend to be overly self-reliant with a weighty practicality that does not let you spend over $1000 on superfluous furniture (or perhaps, anything). So, stubbornly, I made my own for under $100.

And so can you!
It is so simple, you'll laugh at my tutorial, but this will save you the supply research. (And you can be amused that I used a power tool).

What you need

1. Two short, 40" bookcases. I got mine from Target
2. A 2 feet x 4 feet x 3/4inch plywood from any builders supply
3. A drill (who-owns-one-anyway?) and screws

Face the book cases parallel, in the direction you want the shelves. I have mine facing inward because I do not have much space surrounding the desk to get to the storage area. (You might not like having to crawl under the desk every time you need something, but personally, it makes me feel like I'm going to Narnia). The bookshelves should be about 25 inches apart. Place your plywood on top and drill that sucker in.

(optional)

- 29" bar stool should your idealism begins to fail after a few hours (as mine did)
- Wood stain (probably shouldn't be optional if you, unlike me, have actual class)

Not only is it a desk, but also a space saving home for my endless amount of books, comics, and reference material (+ hidey-hole)

My smarter half (Mr. Awk) was worried about the stability of this structure, but desk is pretty solid. Just don't like, put your refrigerator on top of it, ok?

And that is it. If this lazy art kid could manage it, I am sure you can too.

*dramatization

Monday Musings

Awkward Affections is a little over a year old now. There is no official anniversary, so I give a mental high five about three times a year:  Etsy opening date (January 2012), registration as a business with the BOE (August 2012- more of a "pay your taxes slap" than a high five. Incidentally that is still under kaz by kaz) and my first time as a vendor (October 2012). The business stuff may not be solid yet (I like to think of it in pudding stasis), hell I am still finding my old logos all over the office, but last week I finally came full circle on an old design. Lameasaur2012 was, well lame, but not in the way it was supposed to be. So much has changed in a year, and the lamea-rehash is my own personal commemoration.

ANCIENT HISTORY

What not to do

This isn't finished.

But I have no plans on finishing it. Honestly, I had no plans for this drawing in the first place, and whatever intentions I did have, they were along the lines of 'muted grays with a touch of red' (cue airy hand wave). You can see how well that turned out. So, maybe I should just forgo planning, but drawing without thumbnails (or a general vision?) is an art school no-no. Ever since graduating, I have been trying to re-learn my own way of going about this art stuff. It is kind of  how a black belt has to go back and test through all the old belts in order to complete training (except...nothing like that...like, at all).

The purpose of this was:

1. a break from self-assigned work, and 

2. an excuse to listen to a rather extensive list of audiobooks. 

So now it is for you to suffer, dear readers. This was intended to be sketch vomit of one of my characters, yet, now I am seeing lot of Neil influence that reminds me more of his stories than my own (and yes, we are clearly on a first name basis.) 

In other news, I have some more cards! 

Woo!

Now I am off to re-shoot some of the old merch.

<3