Update

I've been busy in my career pursuit, and for that, I'm sorry that I've been tardy on updates. I'll go into detail shortly.

TTYL!

Printer, Junkyard, and a Recession Job

Many apologies for not updating for 11 (?) days- so much for updating every day, huh? Well, I've been sick, and some good news has popped up.


I'm designing a symbol for these guys, as well as a poster/album cover. It's official, and it's what I'm currently working on. I've been playing around with a design, and integrating the feedback from the band, their manager, etc. This is the second poster for their weekly show, every Wednesday at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, on Prince and Broadway in Lowertown Saint Paul, shows starting at 7:00. Great stuff!


I, or rather, Nikki and I found a printer. In a total 180, it's an all-in-one ink-jet, that can fax, copy, scan, and duplex. It's pretty ****ing awesome!


I've been working (slowly) on a comic for Evan Palmer's Future History of Planet Earth. There's plenty of landmines I'm trying to avoid, but I think that the idea and respect I'm already putting into it will trump some complaints it might knee-jerk.


Here's a sketch- that's my name in Arabic on the left.

I've come to the conclusion of swallowing my pride and getting a recession job. No shame, just ride the recession out. I've tried Target (the store- though I'm always trying to find a way into Target corporate), Staples, Dunn Bros., Macy's... etc.

But in the mean time, I still hit the career sites I go to every day, and in the time between the last post, I've picked up some freelance. I'll be illustrating a children's book. I'll post details when I can, but it's pretty swell bit of edu-tainment!

TTYL!

Hunting for a Printer

I've been on the hunt for an affordable laser-jet printer for the better part of 6 months. Hadn't taken it as serious as I have in the last two, and now I'm scratching at the door for one.

I had been looking for three main things:

1. Duplexing (simultaneously printing on two sides at once)
2. Color ('cause you never know...)
3. Big enough to print 11" x 17" (tabloid format)

This list made things difficult- here's why:

1. $50 to $100 for this feature
2. add another $50 to $100 more than a black and white
3. Add about $200 to $500 for the equivalent of printing two 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper at once

After some gentle prodding, I sat down and compiled a list of what I would actually use the sizes for.
Here's 8.5" x 11", in no particular order:

• Resume/CV, Cover Letters, Artist Statements
• CD labels
• Printing physical reference pictures/photos
• Google maps
• Greeting Cards (to sell and for family use)
• Promotional Materials (stickers, postcards, flyers, mailers)
• Printing mini-comics and take-aways
• Scripts and Letters
• Nikki (my fiancee) usage
• Work in progress/meeting materials

Then I did one for the 11" x 17", again in no particular order:

• Professional comic book pages
• Large scale projects
• Event posters
• Um... large mini comics?

As you can see, there isn't a good enough reason for me to spend on a big one at the moment. The needs of the Letter-size outweigh the desire of the Tabloid-size. I just need the smaller one, an affordable one. Here's what I found:


Isn't it a beauty? It has a 8ppm which is a bummer, but that's fine compared to a wonderful price tag of $199.99 at Staples or Best Buy. It's small enough not to be intrusive, and the quality is good.

I was prepared to get one until I noticed a rub. Not compatible with Macintosh Computers.
What the heck? Seriously?

So far, I'm not trusting HP to provide me what I want, so I'm looking towards companies like Xerox, and Dell

(Phaser 6180)


(Dell 3110cn; might be tricky- not sure if they still make them.)

I'm also looking at companies like Brother or Lenmark. We shall see... Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

TTYL

Sketches at the Black Dog

I've done some posters for a jazz/hip-hop group, Junkyard Empire (I'll post those posters tomorrow), who play at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, located at the Lowertown Commune on Broadway and Prince in Saint Paul, Minnesota, every Wednesday. So I being the industrious fellow I am, I've been sketching while listening. Here's a few from this week and from two weeks ago.









I apologize for the images being cut off on the right side. You're not missing anything, and I didn't want to set the images sizes at 400 pixels wide. I'll gab a little more about Junkyard Empire soon.

TTYL!

Inaugural Post

Hello- I'm internet's Comic Artist Steve (aka Steve Robbins), a graphic designer, illustrator, and comic artist from Saint Paul, Minnesota. This blog is set up to be a regular (aiming for daily) blog to post sketches, professional updates, commentary of my job hunt, and perhaps some thing or two that's educational.
My website is: http://www.comicartiststeve.com/

I'm proud of my degree in comic art- it was hard work, and through out my time at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), I've strived for a great set of abilities, such as draftsmanship, typography, graphic design/composition, colour theory, illustration, CAD, information management, creative writing, narrative, conceptual ideation, figure drawing, story boarding, and some light serigraphy.


When I bought my paper trimmer (CARL brand), I also bought a ton of specialty blades (or rather, a ton of two types of specialty blades); scoring and perforating. I've started figuring out how I could use it with things like the above. Here is something that I can and have left on public bulletin boards, where people can tear off a business card, and maybe be directed to my website. It might work, it might not.
What I'm hoping with this is to attracted people with the bold, startling alien with the bold, graphically-pleasing curvy-balloons to come up to it and take a look; their curiosity driving them to understand what the threatening (yet cute!) alien is speaking. They read the text, and notice that there are business cards you can tear off the bottom (not rip!). Perhaps it amused them enough to want to see what else this guy has- it's seductively giving enough information, and yet not enough!
Then, when all the business cards are gone, the alien remains.
Relatively cheap, and viral enough to be posted anywhere. So far, I've put some up in coffee places and libraries in Roseville, so next I aim for Saint Paul and Minneapolis.


This is a spine jacket for my IRL portfolio (my phone number and address have been fuzzed out for privacy reasons, and a second version has the street and number taken off entirely). In addition to the contact information information and logo(s), the background is taken from a series of drawings I've done with others over the last 4 years. Here's an example:


The idea is simple: I draw a line, and then you add to it, then I add to it, the you add to it... etc. I've got a lot of these done with many people. I forget who I collaborated with for this one.


When I started making a downloadable PDF of samples, I used THIS as a background (though bigger, and not just that!). It was neutral enough to not be distracting, but interesting enough to complement the focus art.


Inverting the colour for the title cards (so to speak), helps pop the white lettering out at you.

The spine follows the aesthetic of the PDFs, and is part of my over-all personal branding.

And there we go- The first of many posts on this blog.

TTYL!