New Job: Trader Joe's / Sign Painting

A few months ago my wife went to pick up some groceries at Trader Joe's. She noticed they had a sign up looking to hire a sign painter, since they do all of their art and signage in-store. After a little procrastination, I went and applied for the position. After a long wait, they called me up and told me to come in the next day. While this gig definitely isn't going to pay the bills (I haven't had a job that paid this little the whole time I've lived in the bay area. yikes...), it's the first job I've had where I don't slack off AT ALL the entire time I am there. This is probably because usually when I'm slacking off, I'm drawing, which is what I'm actually being paid to do here.

I've been posting these up on Facebook as I draw them, but thought it might be nice to put them up here for everyone to see. You can click on them to see them bigger, or you can go into the Alameda Trader Joe's and see them in person.

Clockwise from top-left: My sign, the packaging, the sign I decided to replace while price-checking a section for inventory.

I had a lot of fun painting this but it wound up causing some drama since there was already a sign painted. Communication is key.

Sad arthritic doggie.

Evan Dorkin tribute.

That'll do, chippy. That'll do.

Gettin' paid to draw skullz.

This one is kinda lazy, but I think it came out pretty good.

Everything gets a face!

I wanted to make this a little cucumber-guy getting chopped up, but I knew someone would complain about that.

I think Pumpkin Pie is gross.

Drew this at 6am on a Sunday.

This one wound up getting shrunk down so small you can't really see it on the sign. I also added some punk rock patches (the Asian Man Records one is the only one that shows) to his shorts in the final version.

The original "Tuna For Cats" sign had a photograph cut out of someone's cat instead of an illustration.

This was my first sign my first night working solo.