It might be lame that I only put 3 items in my product list...but I'm a firm believer in baby-steps. Check out:

That's right. A nocturnal fanged herbivore. I just finished this comic strip detailing further fascinating facts about this unique species....it'll appear in a book proposal I hope to get in the mail this week.

I'm a big fan of the online tutorials these days; I think it's a lovely gesture that flies in the face of education-as-commodity.  Also, I like to rant and rail about the limitations of fonts in the design world, so you will probably see several step-by-steps this year about tricks involving taking these matters into your own hands.  A simple process...do 50 repetitions of the word you want, as results vary, and it's likely at least 1 will turn out amazing. A good approach to almost anything, really.

(ignore the 'vampire' example...that happened to be in the scan, too lazy to crop) The 'good Dust' wording, used on an album design for my friend Aron Dunlap's band, (top notch folk!), was created w/ this method:

1. skim some gel medium (experiment w/ glue stick or elmer's if u are low-budget) on smooth watercolor paper or matboard, with a wide and somewhat crappy brush. use streaks, circles, etc.

2. When surface is nearly dry but still tacky, lay some architect's chalk paper (comes in colors! red, blue, yellow, white...black does not work well for this process as it's actually graphite)....face down on surface.

3. holding lightly (your fingerprints will often transfer...can be a nice effect tho) use a pencil, your fingernail, or any hard point to draw the desired words.

4. lift up paper - see the results! too smudgy, you didn't let it dry enough...too clean, the surface was too dry.  

5. Repeat!   Try the white chalk paper on dark surfaces for a negative effect. (chalk paper available on dickblick.com or most art supply/craft stores...comes in a long scroll...you can keep re-using the scraps until all the chalk has transferred, so it lasts a long time. )

* here's another example...the silver lettering was done with hand-stamped letters & gel pen...at the very bottom 'Lucia Joyce Cabaret' is the faux-etching style...in red originally, & changed to black in photoshop:

Happy end-of-2009, year of the Ox. The Ox stands for hard, slow work, and that was my experience, anyway. Resolves for the new year:  more music-making, hiking, sleeping, soup-making, and soaking in hot springs, which I've decided is my winter sport.  More to ponder:  2010 is the year of the white metal tiger - associated with toughness, generosity, and wealth earned by hard work.  The hard work aspect also appears in relation to loved ones - expressing love more through actions than words. I like the sound of that - seems to me that it's the myriad of little acts and deeds that make a strong bond of trust between myself & those whom I love...especially in the case of new love  :) 

a collection of some of the most original acts of human imagination there is....awhile back it became tradition for me to design their annual benefit postcard. I consider it quite an honor, considering the massive accumulation of talent that makes up the Pig Iron Theatre Company. (the theme is a riff off the 'Hands Across America')