submiT Vancouver

I'm very excited to be participating in this year's submiT Vancouver event. SubmiT showcases local artists on limited edition t-shirts at a one-night-only event held at the Roundhouse Community Center, and 100% of the proceeds go to imagine1day. It's happening this week! November 1st at 7pm.

imagine1day is a global charitable organization commited to ensuring that every child in Ethiopia receives a quality eductation.

There's a short interview with yours truly on their blog, a picture of me working at my dining room table and a large photo of my face. Watch out.

I made a drawing specifically for this event (it'll be available as a t-shirt and a signed print). However, I've been asked to keep it a secret, so I can't show it to you :) There are 10 artists contributing in total. All of the artwork will be revealed at the event. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend myself, but if you're in Vancouver, check it out.

Here's the details:

submiT Vancouver
November 1st, 2012 @ 7:00pm
Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver, BC
Here's the list of participating artists
Tickets: $15 in advance (buy online), or $20 at the door (if it's not sold out)

You Are So Loved - from Chronicle Books

You Are So Loved is a new book from Chronicle Books with four of my drawings in it. It is a follow-up to the very successful Everything Is Going To Be OK, which also included my artwork (and which I've blogged about).

I'm on the first page!

It's a book full of illustrated positivity. There are loads of amazing artists, including many friends and heroes: Jen Collins, Lisa Congdon, Gemma Correll, Will Bryant, Jessica Hische, Dallas Clayton, Julia Rothman and many more creative heavyweights contribute to this collection.

Buy the book here: Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Book Depository

custom drawings of objects reading books

UPDATE: I'm not doing these anymore. It was super fun for a while, but it wasn't sustainable. I hope to develop another custom order format, so stay tuned!

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You pick the object and the book, and I'll draw it. That's right. I'll draw whatever object reading whatever book you want, and I'll paint it too, all on a nice 8x10 inch piece of acid-free watercolour paper.

Order one here.

After I made the original series of objects reading books, I started thinking about creating custom versions. Books are such a personal thing, and if you get to choose what the object and the book is, well, you end up with a bit of an interesting portrait. It could be a nice gift.

This is the first time I've offered to do personal commissions. I've stayed away from doing them in the past, mostly because I simply haven't had the time or I'm worried they don't work out as well as I'd like (I worry a lot). But making them in a format like this works for me.

More details about ordering custom drawings

See more drawings of objects reading books.

 

All this stuff, I made for you

In the spirit of Holiday gift guides and such, this is pretty much everything available for sale with my drawings on them. I made it all for you.

Original Drawings

Selection varies, as the drawings tend to sell rather quickly. Check the shop often, sign up for the shop newsletter and/or follow me on twitter to get the latest updates. (I've been busy with some commissions and upcoming exhibitions, so there hasn't been much in the online shop. I hope to remedy that very soon)


Signed Prints

8x10 inch signed prints, just $20 each. This is one of the first things I ever sold on the internet. If you haven't visited the shop in a while, you should, right now. I've got some new ones available, including I'm a bit shy, if you were a chair and if you can read this it's probably windy. Yes, I really do sign them all myself, and I pack and ship them too (sometimes with the help of my 9 year old son).

Books

Not many of these left, so get one or two while you can. Most online booksellers are out of stock, but The Book Depository has it, and they ship for free internationally. Find out more about the book, or just buy in here.


T-shirts

Printed and fulfilled by the almighty Spreadshirt. There are some new designs, including stop the bad music and what to focus on, as seen below. See all the t-shirts available.

Temporary Tattoos

By now you've probably already heard about these fun little non-committal tats from Tatt.ly. Because they're so darn fun! See all the designs available.


iPhone and iPod skins and cases

I get asked for iPhone skins on a regular basis, so I finally set up shop on Society6. They do iPod and iPhone skins and cases, as well as prints. I'll get to their prints in a moment...

Framed prints, large prints

I've been wanting to offer larger prints, and framed ones as well, and now they're here. For example, you can now get a 28 x 34 inch print of Beard Octopus. That's a pretty big beard/octopus. You can also get nice looking framed prints too, like the ones below. Shop for (unsigned) prints, framed and unframed. (they do stretched canvases too! I know, it's all quite overwhelming.)

MiniCards

MiniCards from Moo.com - they're like little calling cards. They're smaller than a business card, so they stand out in their own little way. Get a set customized with your own contact information from the US or UK sites.

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Well that's it. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to produce in the comments below, or send me an email. I'm always open to suggestions.

I used to be against the idea of offering merch with my drawings on it. I just didn't want it to become my focus, and end up makng drawings specifically for t-shirts and such. But I soon realized that for many, it's a preferred, and possibly intimate way of bringing art into one's life.

featured in latest issue of In Treehouses

I had the honour of being featured in the latest issue of Thom Chambers' e-magazine In Treehouses. The whole issue centers around One Thousand True Fans, Kevin Kelly's brilliant and often-mentioned article about building a passionate fanbase for your work.

Thom did a great job of extracting all kinds of wisdom from me on the topic. I've never promoted myself as a creativity expert or a how-to-sell-your-art guru, because I am generally more interested in creating things rather than talking about creating. Although it seems like I could probably make more money if I did.

Go read the article and the rest of the beautifully designed In Treehouses: One Thousand True Fans.

UPDATE: you can also read the article on In Treehouses' blog.

drawings for Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts

Gah! Super excited to share this. Last year I was approached by the fine folks at Tommy Hilfiger about creating some post-it note drawings for t-shirts. They're part of a much larger collection called 'Tommy', which is a younger, more playful line of clothing and accessories than what you'd expect from TH, so the idea was to take the preppy lifestyle and play around with it. What was amazing for me about this project was that I got to use my post-it note format, complete with highlighter pens for the colours, and use the exact same approach I use in my personal work. Super fun.

I don't know exactly where these are available, but if you have a Tommy shop in your area, stop in and have a look.

One more thing, my what to focus on drawing was also made into a t-shirt as part of the Tommy collection. @katherinecarney spotted it in Toronto:

boombox with cubic zirconia speakers - temporary tattoo

Cool! Boombox with cubic zirconia speakers is now available as a temporary tattoo over on Tatt.ly. You can also get the pipe-smoking rabbit and What to focus on as tattoos as well.

Oh, and Nylon Magazine featured it on their website today! Good God.

Here's the original drawing, just for kicks:

And here it is in the wild, thanks to @beckyrother who tweeted about it:

Go get a set of 2 boomboxes for 5$, without any visits to the tattoo shop (See all my temp tattoos).

featured on 10 Answers

I am SUPER honoured to be featured on Rebecca Silver's 10 Answers today, a site that "serves up daily interviews with creative minds from around the globe". She's put the same ten questions to a wide range of creative folk, including heavy weights like Maria Popova, Paula Scher, Ed Fella, Debbie Millman, Oliver Jeffers and (Oprah's design guru!) Nate Berkus. You can read my 10 answers here (mere mortal that I am).

My advice/answer to question #8:

BE YOURSELF. Your uniqueness is a thousand times more fascinating and valuable than your ability to conform.

Read the rest of my 10 answers.

featured on revolution.is

I am thrilled and honoured to be featured on Revolution.is! Revolution.is delivers weekly personal stories of entrepreneurs and risk-takers who dream big and change the world, through its website and a wonderful email newsletter. I subscribed early on and was delighted to be contacted by Amber Rae, the unstoppable creator of Revolution.is, asking me to share my story. By the way, you should subscribe too. It's good.

Here are a few nuggets from the story:

Conventional marketing wisdom says find your niche and stick to it, but that idea makes me feel claustrophobic. I don’t want to be known for a specific medium, but rather for a way of looking at the world.

When I first started putting my drawings online in 2006, I didn’t want to be just another guy dumping sketches and random drawings onto the Internet. I wanted to make something that people would connect with, and something that suited the online medium.

Every magazine commission, gallery show, and even my book, Serious Drawings, started with someone discovering my work online and contacting me. I’m still amazed at how it all happens and evolves and grows.

Go read the rest of the article on Revoultion.is.

Whenever I get asked to do something like this, it forces me to think about what I do and articulate it somewhat coherently, which isn't a bad thing. I'm always amazed that anyone would care about my process, about how I do what I do, because I assume it's just my own quirky approach to things, and why the hell would it be relevant to anyone else? But I suppose we can all learn from each other's process and approaches and wisdom, and I could do a better job of sharing these things right here on this site.