AT LAST, my shipment has arrived! I’m very happy to announce the NORMALS™ magnetic alphabet sets. They look fantastic!
Have you ever wanted to spell out a word on your fridge with some funny looking magnetic letters using the alphabet of the English language? Well, that’s my idea. And because some of you might wanna spell words that have the same letter twice, or sometimes even 3 TIMES, there’s a discount if you buy more all at once.
Each darling little letter stands about 1 3/4″ tall and has a personality all its own! They can make even the dullest words interesting. Make spelling fun again!
I’ll ship out each order the next day.
Thank you for your continued dependence on me for your fridge magnet needs.
X1 set – $14
X2 sets – $20
x3 sets – $25
I plan to organize this better into my store, but I’m just so excited I had to post this now.
These last several years I’ve been drawing, almost exclusively, portraits. Portraits of famous people; artists, actors, authors I admire. The last two I completed were John Waters and Aubrey Plaza. For some reason after that I felt totally dried up on the subject. I’d just recently found myself single and w/no intentions of changing this status in the near or distant future. With plenty of emotional time to fill I needed something else to draw, FAST.
So back when I was a teenager, the things I drew, most often in a classroom on the blank side of a worksheet or test paper, were googly eyed things. It’s a subject that never left me uninspired. And that’s what I resorted to at the end of August, 2024.
I drew this Bouquet Of Frogs, and I really liked it! So then I did another, Abiogenisis, which actually got comments from people who saw it over my shoulder at the coffee shop. It’s like they’ve just been sitting around waiting to be drawn.
A couple pages a week. Practicing my pen & ink, keeping every line neat and exact. I enjoyed seeing what each would turn out to be even though I saw no use for them other than filling another page in the book. They evolved into decorative borders. After several of these, I realized I had to do the alphabet.
Normals™ 2024
Then I said, “These are neato! If I weren’t me I’d want these as magnets so as to spell things funny on MY fridge sometimes!” … is indeed what I said to myself. Thus born the Normals. Yesterday I sent them to print as magnets. In a couple months I’ll have them to put up for sale, and I’m excited. February sometime. So say hi. They’re Normals.
For some reason I’ve been stuck on the idea that when I’m drawing, the initial sketch is what’s supposed to end up being the inked final. This is how I’ve always drawn. Habit, I suppose. It’s lead me to having finished pieces which, in my mind, aren’t perfect. After a whole lot of time spent on that final ink, I’ll try shading with crosshatch and fuck it up. All that work, and already there’s something I don’t like about it. Subsequently this ruins my drive to try again, or even start another piece. I’ve only just realized I haven’t been giving myself permission to fuck up. So in trots the Grid Method.
I’ve been desperately wanting to draw a John Waters portrait reflecting the joyous weirdo that anyone who knows him understands what I’m talking about. I’ve done a few other inks of him already, but they’ve yet to accomplish what I truly have in my brain. And I’ve just finished reading Carsick for a second time, so I was truly inspired to do this right.
Phase 1 – The Doodle – A loose pencil sketch, to be inked, puts forward the initial idea. Phase 2 – Doodle Refining – Gridding it out I’m able to copy a larger version to work out details. Another sketch to make it look more like him. This is where I can freely experiment without risk. For instance, I regretted the crosshatching around the eyes (below) so I excluded that from the final piece.
Grid method Phase 3 – Inking the final sketch
Phase 3 – The Final – Now I grid that inking for the final sketch. Here I scanned and enlarged it so I could copy it 1 to 1. This is when I realize what I want to do differently. And without risk I was able to practice things I wasn’t sure about on the previous piece. It was the difficulty I had drawing Aubrey Plaza that lead me to this technique. And it’s how I hope to improve my drawing skills while I sit at the coffeeshop and draw all afternoon.
Just thought this might interest the people. And the artists, maybe it could help. Let yourself have the freedom to experiment. It’s not cheating… as long as you’re copying your own work, uh duh!
Not gonna lie. It’s been hard adjusting happily to this reality here in West Michigan. I miss people. I miss friends, and strangers, and populated cities, and the stuff that happens in populated cities. Where I’m at it ain’t that way. The nearest city is Muskegon. It’s only been in the last couple years they had their first pride parade. Circling the event were pickups with American & Confederate flags flapping from their flatbeds while honking their horns. People here still speak fearfully of Antifa coming to vandalize our neighborhoods. The coffee shop I was going to regularly, Drip Drop Drink, which hung & sold my art, went out of business a few months ago. Lots of places around here have trouble staying open. My main getaway is the coffee shop. It’s where I most comfortably work, read, and relax. I have a new one now I go to every morning for a few hours to be around people and have human contact. My girlfriend Laurie has been helping me keep sane best she can through all this too.
Since my dad died last year, I’ve been more stuck than ever. My mom isn’t comfortable being left alone for more than a day. So leaving, even for short day or two getaways are all but impossible. Visiting a place (like Chicago or NYC) for a week or more just can’t happen, at least for now. So I’ve been doing the best I can with what I have to work with. My main focus in terms of business and creative has been supplying Jesus magnets to stores, and finding more that’ll sell them. I do have art projects I’ve been working on, and’ve been focusing a lot on perfecting my pen and ink skills.
I’ve been reading more than drawing lately. Rereading Richard Stark’s PARKER crime novels. I love this series. I’ve read almost 20 of the books in the last couple months. Gets my mind off of feeling lonely, overthinking, politics, religion and pointless self-pity voices that require severe ignoring. I really have nothing to complain about considering what’s going on in the world. I remind myself of that all the time.
I will say that having returned to bible-belt surroundings has reignited my anti-religious sentiments. Luckily I still have boxes of flyers to leave around town. And I have one store in Muskegon that ADORES and sells my Jesus Dressup magnets. Puzzles Oddities & Ends. So that’s cool.
Once again, trying to keep posting so y’all know I haven’t dipped out completely. Can you believe I’ll be 55 in June?
