Howdy, April!
3.31.2009
Internet, I give you Mr. Hairy Harry. As mentioned yesterday, this was a collaborative effort between myself and Will Bryant, aka Mr. Fancy Pants. As you can see from the collab process, there wasn't a whole lot that was changed from Will's original type treatment of "Linty Fresh" because it was just THAT AWESOME. Hope y'all dig!
Get it HERE!
posted by Mr. Linty @ 10:38 PM,
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Poll: What tee should reprint this summer?
3.30.2009
I have a pretty solid idea of which ones I should do, but thought I'd take a poll just for fun...
posted by Mr. Linty @ 4:27 AM,
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Incommunicado
Sorry for yet another long silence...
I've been fighting a cold for over 2 WEEKS now, and this past weekend was the worst of it yet. I've heard it's pretty common for foreigners to get pretty worked over by local germs for the first leg of their stay, but that doesn't make it any less of a huge pain to deal with. To top it off, the last week has been pretty cold and damp, and against my better judgment I went for a jog on one of the clearer (but still cold) days, resulting in several days of being completely laid up in bed. BLARGH. Colds suck.
Anyways, the new tee is coming up in just a couple days, so I thought I'd talk a bit about it here and reveal a few details before its release.
First off (and I totally can't remember if I mentioned this already here), the artist that I collaborated on the design with is Will Bryant, aka Mr. Fancy Pants. I was actually introduced to Will's work by another artist that I originally had contacted for the collab. Unfortunately this artist wasn't able to work with me on the project, but after checking out Mr. Bryant's work, I was pretty enthralled, particularly by his psychedelic color palettes, clever geometric patterns and intricate linework. I sent him an email in February and he was in. Within less than 2 days of me sending him the original character and concept work, he'd come back with his part, and it was cool. But he didn't stop there, and within a week had sent me a second file with some hand-drawn "Linty Fresh" typography. I liked it even better than the first, and decided to completely scrap my first idea and instead work with the type treatment to create something new. I came up with a concept for it, wrote up a poem, and altered and added to it to produce the final piece, "Hairy Harry".
As for the original piece that I sent Will, I went back to square one with it yesterday (since I was feeling a little better) and finished it off, as you can see here. I actually really like the result, though I don't feel it meshes with Linty Fresh. I decided instead to submit it to Design By Humans this morning. I wouldn't mind a little extra cash, and if nothing happens there I'll report back here and see if I can't find a buyer.
posted by Mr. Linty @ 2:25 AM,
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It's been awhile!
3.16.2009
Yikes, been ages since my last update! We had a bunch of delays in getting the internet wired here at the apartment due to local techies being totally unfamiliar with Apple computers (and even telling us, at one point, that it was impossible to get online with them). But anyways, we finally got it working today, so I don't have to sneak on the neighbors network anymore (it only worked 10% of the time anyways).
So. What's new. A lot, actually. I've been touring around the city almost every day discovering cool new spots of interest. Yesterday I found a great, cheap DVD shop, a shopping mall with awesome gyros, a Korean BBQ place (considered pricey, but was only about $5), and a skate park. There were a couple of American teenagers skating there, which was really odd to see.
When I first came here, I figured that I'd be able to blend in to some extent since I have a semi-asian look, black hair, am short, etc. As it turns out, apparently I'm very obviously a foreigner because I get stared down all the time. At first it was disconcerting, but I've gotten used to it, and people are super friendly after a simple greeting. Usually very helpful, too. At a clothing store at the mall I wanted to try on a jacket and was immediately attended to by 5 girls - one took my bag, another took my jacket, and the rest picked out a bunch of sizes and styles for me to try on. It was pretty nuts, and a little overwhelming. I didn't buy the jacket.
And yesterday was similar. We went to go look at some new furniture to replace the ugly stuff that's in here now, and stumbled on a cool modern/Euro place downtown. We went in, and in an upstairs balcony window they had all these stylish, comfy chairs. Since it was such a great view we joked about how it would make a great coffee drinking spot, and a minute later an employee came back with cappuccinos for us and we all sat and hung out for a bit. So awesome!
Tonight I think I'm gonna head out to a night market that I keep hearing about. I want to get myself some jogging shoes and pants and go exploring around the nearby neighborhoods. I hear it's a short bus ride to get there, and for 15 cents a ride, you can't really go wrong...
posted by Mr. Linty @ 4:00 AM,
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4 days in and doing great!
3.06.2009
Man, I love it here.
If you've been following my Twitter or Flickr, you're probably already sick of hearing me rave about this place, so just go ahead and skip this entry, BECAUSE I AINT DONE TALKIN BOUT HOW AWESOME IT IS.
I think the thing that gets me the most is the prices of everything. It's actually cheaper to eat out than it is to make food, which is great if, like me, you'd rather be out exploring the town than worrying about a grocery list. There's a place 3 minutes away (on foot) that has a line of these tiny little shops that make just about anything you can imagine - a lot of grilled stuff, but everything else as well. They had these spicy pork skewers that were incredible, and were just 2 RMB each, or roughly $0.40 US. And I had a whole plate of dumplings for just 15 RMB, or $2.20 US.
Prices aside, the scenery here is pretty awesome. It's been cloudy the last few days so I didn't get a real opportunity to see what's just beyond the neighborhood, but today was perfectly clear and I snapped this shot when I woke up. Decided a little later to check out the beach for the first time, too. Brought along my sketchbook and sat for a few minutes drawing some rocks on the shore. Chinese are, by nature, really curious, so several people stopped to look or say hi. We conversed a little, which is great for me and my bad Chinese.
One thing I've been stressing over, of course, is how things with Linty Fresh are going back home. LF's first "employee" (technically a sub-contractor, but the other term is way cool!) didn't actually move in to my place till just a couple days ago, so she was slammed with all the orders for the new stuff. I have full confidence in her abilities, though, and sure enough she's been handling it all very well, and those of you who've put in orders know that from the emails she's sent out. Thanks Michelle!
Final little thing - the tee for April is all done! Finished it up completely today and got the cards all squared away. It's a great little collab between myself and Will Bryant. I've been a fan of his psychedelic stylings since I was recommended to him by another artist, and couldn't resist pitching the idea for a collaborative piece a few weeks back. It was a kind of a backwards process this time around, but I'll explain that all later. For now, I've got studying to do! I got myself a tutor for Chinese - $5/hr, 3hrs a week!
STOOOOKED.
posted by Mr. Linty @ 9:43 AM,
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I'm here!
3.03.2009
What up peeps! I'm in China! Just finished my first day here, in fact. I've only traveled around a little bit (still jet laggin') so far, but it's pretty awesome. This morning I had breakfast at this super loe-key family owned restaurant (I don't think they were too used to seeing foreigners), and had the most delicious breakfast I've eaten in awhile. It was kind of like an egg breakfast burrito, but the wrapper was lightly floured and thin. Then I was served these dishes of steamed and salted broccoli and spicy scrambled eggs to fill the wrappers with. SO STINKIN GOOD.
Definitely gonna be back for that tomorrow.
The prices are just ridiculous, too. I went to a large department store down the road (Costco meets Walmart) and couldn't believe the prices. I was looking at this one sound system, for example, and it was $250, which I was thinking seemed pretty US-ish, but then it hit me that I was looking at the Chinese price. In American currency, it was about $38. Amazing!
Anyhow, still a bit tired from the jetlag, but so far not so bad since I went to sleep on their time last night and woke up with the sun this morning. I'm told the sunrise was beautiful (I can see the ocean from my room), but I wasn't up quite that early. Maybe tomorrow!
posted by Mr. Linty @ 8:35 AM,
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March tee!
3.01.2009
Howdy! It's midnight of March 1st, which means I'm on a plane in just a few hours for China, but more importantly for you, that there's a new tee in the shop!
It's called The Petrol Kid, and it's based off a character I drew a while back. If you want to get the full story, as usual, it's in poem form and comes on a collector's card with the tee.
This one is my first collab release of a series I'm doing this year. The other artist was South Africa based Theory One. I think it came out grrrreat. To see more on the collab process, check this out.
Also, I'm having a Spring Cleaning sale. Check the store for specifics on what's been discounted...
I'm beat. Going to bed now. See ya in 8,000 miles!
posted by Mr. Linty @ 12:06 AM,
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