(more sketches)

Sketched this between answering phones for several hours today at work. started it with nothing in mind, wound up drawing an oddly proportioned zombie and a hobo/voodoo doctor/grave robber.

Flyer: 07.28.2010

This show is tonight, and it was sold out before I even turned in the flyer.
Good luck getting into this!

Drawn a while ago...

Burrito isn't down with Taco. Taco is indifferent, if not a little annoyed.
I drew these two guys a while ago, and never got around to posting them. They will probably wind up on a flyer or a piece of gnarboots merchandise soon.

Music Monday: From Monument To Masses

Vietnam To Iraq from Adam Davis on Vimeo.

The first time I saw From Monument to Masses was Novermber 12, 2003 at the Hemlock tavern in San Francisco. They performed this song, and completely blew me away. The middle part is killer. In that tiny venue, standing close to the stage, it felt like the weight the words they were screaming was going to bring the ceiling down on our heads.
I made this video 2+ years ago for a class project, going well above and beyond what the other students in my class would turn in. That's community college for you. I had a pretty awesome time making it, and it even wound up on FMTM's blog.
The last time I will see From Monument to Masses is August 28th, 2010 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. I doubt they will play this song, but you never know. Either way, they leave behind several albums of awesome music they can be proud of.

I started my weekend early...

(warm-up/concept art for an upcoming project)

• I plan to spend a good chunk of this weekend drawing, painting and working on art until my hands cramp up. However, I did these at my desk today at work.
• Drawing Challenge #3 was a lot of fun, let's do it again really soon! 
• Stuff From My Desk is still going on. Let me know if you want some random crap!

Drawing Challenge #3 - 10/10

"Teenaged tax-avoiders running rampant in the streets in support of Net Neutrality." - Jason Schupp

Drawing Challenge #3 - 9/10

"A grasshopper resting upon a ripe red tongue" - Amy

Drawing Challenge #3 - 8/10

"A ballerina sloth!!" - Allison Voss

Drawing Challenge #3 - 7/10

"Toe Jam Wiggles in the Magic of the Night." - Nnekay

Drawing Challenge #3 - 6/10

"A pig made of bubble wrap popping his own bubbles. In a volcano. Of doom." - Ryan Christo

Ginger Beer Review #3 - Fentimans Ginger Beer

*since I don't drink, I've found that ginger beer is a nice change from having a Coke when you're out with your drinking friends. There's a bunch of different varieties, and I'm going to start reviewing them here!

I like the way the bottle looks, and the label doesn't make me feel like a jerk with a boomerang when I hold it. That's what initially made me pick it up, the old-timey look.
SO! There's some fine print on this label: "Less than 0.5% alcohol by volume". Not sure what that means, I drank it anyway, and it was alright. It's "Botanically Brewed" like the rest of their sodas, which I guess means "Medicinal Aftertaste"? It's better than their Curiosity Cola (which is pretty rank, the aftertaste is way more noticable with that one), but it'd definitely fall toward the bottom of my list. I'll probably try some of the other sodas they have available though: Dandelion & Burdock? Victorian Lemonade? Sure, why not!

Drawing Challenge #3 - 5/10

" a clown punching a mime in the balls." - Mark Nelson

Music Monday: For.The.Win.

(Click to give it a listen, streaming via Punknews.org)

Last year I played a show with For.The.Win., and it was the first time in a long time that I could remember having watched a band's entire set. I thought they wrote really strong, catchy, abrasive punk rock that veered toward hardcore without the usual tough guy trappings. Through the miracle of the internets, I became friends with these guys and joked about coming over to do guest vocals on a song. Long story short, I wound up singing* on tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and playing guitar in the band at their CD release.

Buy this record here at Asian Man Records

*by singing I mean screaming my head off until I gave myself a piercing headache.

Drawing Challenge #3 - 4/10

"The gates of 1980's sitcom hell manned by none other than John Waters in pug form." - Dante 3000

Drawing Challenge #3 - 3/10

"A hippo hipster baby smooshing its face against a glass while laughing at the viewer." -Christa (sort of)

*Remember kids, one sentence. I get easily confused. My brain translated "window" to "glass" while I was drawing this thing.

Drawing Challenge #3 - 2/10

"A zombie eating Del Taco." - Peter Sullivan

Drawing Challenge #3 - 1/10

"a lucha libre cat wrestling an exquisitely dressed pot-bellied pig." -Chris Walters

Drawing Challenge #3 + Stuff from my desk!

I have been feeling something similar to writer's block.

I keep thinking about wanting to draw, but I wind up not drawing due to a lack of inspiration. This is not from a lack of having projects to work on (it's about to get really busy over here if I don't finish a few things up shortly!) rather my current surroundings (this cubicle) have filled the creative part of my brain with swaths of beige nothing.

So in an attempt to knock myself out of this rut I present:

:::::DRAWING CHALLENGE #3!!!::.;..

Ok, so here's the run-down:

-Post something for me to draw in the comments below. For this to work, it requires some group participation: in the comments below, write one line that can be illustrated. (example: Buddha getting his lights punched the frick out.) I will take the first ten that are posted, sketch them up, and post them. The one that I like the best, I'll turn into a painting, and the person who posted that idea gets the painting for free!

In the past, I've left this totally open to anything, but I feel the need to reign y'all in slightly...

• 
  
  Keep it safe for work. I'm drawing these at my desk.
• 
  
  None of the usual stuff I draw (dinosaurs, robots, etc.).
• 
  
  No more ideas involving AJ. His beard takes too long to draw.

Also, part two of this exercise:

STUFF!! FROM!!! MY!!!! DESK!!!!!

(not what my desk actually looked like. this is an exaggeration.)

I have a bunch of crap that I have accumulated at my desk at work. Yesterday I started kind of freaking out about it. I don't need all of this crap! I want to send it to you! Either post your address in the comments below, or send it to me in an email (xadamdx@gmail.com), and I will post a package containing something (or multiple somethings) from my desk to you! This offer stands until my desk is empty!

Music Monday: Hard Girls

(click the cover to go to the download page)

San Jose, CA is an urban sprawl that looks like it was mostly built in the 70's and 80's, left to bake in the sun, and forgotten by the freeways that surround it. The streets are lined with pawn shops, adult book stores, gun shops, strip malls and fast food restaurants. There's not a lot of beauty in San Jose, but the songs Hard Girls write paint the city in a rose-colored light.
Hard Girls is made up of Mike (Shinobu), Max, and Morgan (Ptedadon). These dudes make up 3/4 of another band called Classics of Love, fronted by Jesse Michaels (who used to sing in a little band called Operation Ivy). The seven songs here go by fast, leaving you wishing for a  full-lenth. It sounds very much like late-ninties indie rock, Superchunk and Pavement come to mind.

Flyer: 07.17.2010

I like this flyer for two reasons:

1. I don't know what these animals are suppose to be, but I imagined them in my head and then drew them. They came out just how I wanted them to.
2. I got the idea for the background from another illustration I saw online. I figured out how they did it and made my own. Yay me!

Commision: Art for one of my favorite artists

(click picture to make all big n' stuff)

Lindsay Docherty is an awesome photographer. She took the pictures at my wedding and did an amazing job. She also wound up being a great friend, but due to San Francisco being ridiculously expensive she moved back east.

Recently she moved into a new place, and needed some art for her walls. Lindsay asked me to do a painting of a creature with blonde hair and a camera. I hadn't touched my brushes and paints since the 100 Robots project, and I was on a dinosaur kick, so this is what came out. Unfortunately, I didn't scan it, so hopefully Lindsay will send me a shot of it closer up and I'll update this post with it.

If you're getting married, I'd like to give one piece of advice: Hire an awesome photographer. The day goes by really fast, and these pictures will help you remember all the special moments that you might otherwise miss. It'll be money well spent, I promise. Also, if you live in California, hire Lindsay so that she has an excuse to come back out here and hang out with us.

UPDATE: Here's an image of the painting.

(Lindsay was awesome enough to scan this for me)