Custom laser engraved Moleskine sketchbooks!
I was just added to the Artist Series at
EngraveYourBook.com
The books are on display till mid April along with a great collection of my work at the Fresh Pot on Hawethorne. Or you can order the customized books right from Engrave your Book.

A recent computer problem has been one of a few small hurdles that the MoHDI staff has had to deal with recently. After much strategic thought and planning it has come down to the core tactics of survival in order to allow seeds to grow.

With rent and bills over due, it’s time to figure out how not to lose the place I’m living in and how to manage to keep a roof over the head and food in the tummy long enough for one or more of these pursuits to pay off and for the proper financial guidance that seems so desperately needed from time to time.

Currently my first order of business is to pay rent and bills that will allow me to keep a place to live.
Since rent was due like a couple days ago and crucial utilities can not be shut off, it’s time to take some steps to maintain my non-homeless lifestyle that I have become so comfortable with.

Here is where you can help.

I’m selling my car.
If you know of anyone looking please let me know.

The Car
1986 240 Volvo Sedan, it’s a manual transmission with 161k miles on it.
There are a few dents in it but it’s a good car. It needs new tags and brake pads. The stick is a little loose but once you are used to it it’s fine. I’m asking $1110 but this is negotiable as I need to have sold it like a while ago.
Selling the car will pretty much help MoHDI and staff operate for another month and hopefully be enough time to finish some projects that will actually pay.

If you are not in the market for a car, I’ve got tons of original art for sale.
If you click on the photo you will be taken to my Flickr page and can see some of the pieces I’ve been working on. All of the cabinet cards are priced resonably at $50 each and if you are interested in any other art, I have stacks of both framed and unframed pieces at a variety of prices.

Other Projects move forward
In July of 2007 I started a sketchbook that when finished would be sold to the person who had the best offer for the finished book. Well last week I finished the first in the series for Buy My Sketchbook
While the press releases have yet to be released you can see all pages of the book at buymysketchbook.com
The current best offer is from my Mom and she is offering me $200 plus a nice dinner. I hope with a little bit of exposure on the project I’ll be able to fetch a bit more for the first book in the series. There was after all a ton of time that went into this book.

I’ve already started book two in the series. I hope to get the process down to about a month a book.
Below is a sneek peek at Sketchbook #2 for BuyMySketchbook.com.

Lots more ideas are coming, It’s just hard to get things posted while in survival mode.

I guess it might be time to look for an actual job one of these days. In case you are wondering, my submission to WK for the seeking project they had was either not what they where looking for or perhaps when they asked for my resume, I should have actually sent them it. Either way, I didnt’ get accepted into that program although I still think it would be a fun place to work. Considering my financial situation I’d be willing to work there even if my office had a poor view of the city and I only had one assistant.

I’ve had a boatload of ideas and inventions to post in the past few weeks, I hope to be getting more up on the site once the current situation with money is resolved.

Feel free to comment or contact me if you would be interested in a car, art or a sketchbook.
(my contact info is on the sidebar of this site)

Hundred Dollar Ideas are just Ideas that make a little money.

One of my many drawings from the evening

For a while I had thought about taking some life drawing classes, even at the last CFF meeting the conversation came up about getting motivated to do some life drawings. It was always one of those things that I would eventually get around to.
Last night Jason (who happens to be an amazing artist/illustrator) had told me about the event and suggested I check it out. The idea of a burlesque style life drawing session sounds amazing although at the time, I wasn’t really feeling like doing anything, I guess that’s the sign when you actually need to go do something. After checking out the Portland Portland MySpace Page for Dr. Sketchy’s I was sold.

In Portland Dr. Sketchy’s is every Wednesday at Dante’s from 7-9 and cost $6.
There are over 40 Dr. Sketchy’s events around the World that operate similar to the one in Portland, so try to find one near you.

There was only a small crowd there and last night there where 2 female models. I guess most of the time they have a male and a female. Probably 15 artists showed up all with different skill levels. Glancing at some of the peoples work, I was amazed at how they could make something so good so quickly. It was my first time and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous. For some reason one of the models kept making direct eye contact with me ( I suppose everyone felt that way) I had to fight the laughter a little bit as a half naked model was almost trying to make my laugh by locking eyes. I was slightly intimidated too cause I didn’t really want her to see my drawing of her as I struggled along. Next time I go (most likely next week) I kind of know what to expect so, I don’t think I’ll be as nervous and shy about my art.

As far as my art skills go, I have a lot to learn and Dr. Sketchy’s was just what I needed.

Another of my drawings, most of my drawings looked like they had been done by a 12 year old boy after 5 cups of coffee.

I made Symmetry is Beauty a while ago it’s another CoNad I build but hadn’t looked at for some time. After putting some illustrations in the tool I spent a good chunk of time just playing around with this.

Once you start playing with the controls you will see what I mean. Load in your own images and feel free to embed this on your site if you please. Click the image for some random movements.

Symmetry is Beauty bigger

Symmetry is Beauty smaller

More CoNads are in the works.

A while ago Häagen-Dazs had this contest where you come up with new icecream flavors. I had totally intended to enter although I didn’t find the time to actually complete the entry form. Now the contest is down to the final three.

Since I didn’t get a chance to enter, I decided to share my list of Awesome ice cream flavors. Here is my written list.

Portland is extremely hot today, I could sure go for some pilates ice cream on a day like this.

Although projects are slowly moving forward. Eventually they will get done. Things are moving forward though. It’s pretty exciting.

Progress on the prototype. I still struggle with some design flaws. I decided the next prototype will have 2 loops of paper in them so you can draw on the back and front, the backside will be a smaller loop and the front side will be made of translucent super vellum, so you can draw backgrounds to your work if you would like.

Bike spokes and drill bit spacers.

I found a giant tub of these for $4

My new book should be out soon.

And bigger ideas move forward too.