The Dynamic Duo

There are many Dynamic Duos in life…

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Jack and Diane

Green Eggs and Ham

Growing up, I had a pretty specific collection of inspirations.  There’s a good chance you had many of the same.  I decided to honor my favorite duo growing up, but I couldn’t decide between the caped crusader and his faithful ward, or the first openly gay couple that I watched on TV.

So I decided to merge the pair of pairs and make a stupid shirt out of the unholy union.

I love this shirt.  I usually only kind of “like” my work at most, but this shirt I love.  Everything made me happy about it.  Straight up digital drawing on the Wacom again, obviously inspired by the classic cover to Batman #9, but played out by the amazing pair of Bert and Ernie.

Some interesting things to note (well, I found them interesting at least): in the original cover, Robin’s cape was closer to orange than yellow, but Ernie’s “skin” tone made me tweak that up a tad.  I also had quote the internal debate whether or not Bert’s nose should be in the mask or exposed.  There used to be a version on my hard drive with the naked nose.  It was too scandalous.

Who Is That In My Coffee?

A friend of mine (yes, I have friends… and this one happens to be quite creative to boot, check out her Etsy page) told me in earnest recently, “Sometimes, when I look in my coffee, I see someone else staring back at me.  And I’m scared.”

Whoa.

That’s pretty deep.

Do we ever really know who is staring back at us?

So I made a stupid shirt out what she said.  To cherish the moment.

Same tablet, same software.  Kept a limited palette this time to evoke the coffee-ness of it all.  The font is called “ebrima”.  I don’t exactly know why I told you that.  I got this shirt printed out and gave it to my friend for her birthday (See!  I didn’t make it up that I had friends!)  The organic shirt was a great color for it.  And the comfiness of the cotton belies the stalkerness of the coffee cup.

Something That Would Never Ever Possibly Destroy Us

I felt it was time to get political.  So I decided to find a candidate I could support.

Newt Gingrich is clearly the man for me… because he is doughy and I like things made of dough.  And you must admit, the resemblance between him and Volguus Zildrohar is uncanny.

So to support my man, I made this stupid political tee shirt, which promises something that only Newt could promise.

Another drawing done on the Wacom.  I had fun morphing Newt’s face into Stay-Puft’s features.  It wasn’t that much of a stretch.  I can’t say it looks exactly like him, but that cute little sailor hat helps sell it.  I would pay real money to see Newt wear that hat.  And from what I hear, he needs it.

Kittens From Mars

So, here’s a strange story.  One morning I woke up, and my wife was next to me.  That is not the strange part of the story.  She is quite often found next to me in bed when I wake up.

“I had a strange dream,” she began to tell me.  “You were secretly fostering kittens.”

Again, this sounds like the strange part.  It isn’t.  We frequently foster kittens during kitten season.

She continued: “And you were hiding them on Mars.”

That’s it.  That’s the strange part in case you missed it.  Humans don’t have any kind of permanent housing structures on Mars, especially ones that would be appropriate for raising kittens.  All nonsense.

So, I made a stupid shirt out of it.

This is a drawing I made of a kitten we fostered some time ago. Except for the antennae. I added those. I used a Wacom tablet and a popular photo editing software.  I tried to draw only the extremes and outline so the color of the shirt could fill in most of the kitten.  To be artsy and junk.  I gave the shirt to my wife and she laughed and called me a “dork”.