Cats, Curls, and Homeless Competition

after the gin distillery, i had an overwhelming number of coincidental connections-- all of which were looking for an illustrator, and none of which were paid.

i figured since i'm not making any money either way, i may as well draw for whoever i can (so long as we get along) and if we make any money together we'll split it. and if not, i've got more for the portfolio.

but, it's weird. sometimes i feel like a cheap parlor trick. i've already said i am in no position to be illustrating for loving doodle considering my loving past. and there was one day when everyone seemed to want me to draw cats. LOLcats, or childrens book cats, or carmen the cat herself. i hate cats.

sometimes i find myself drawing something i have absolutely no interest in. and i'm not sure how valuable that is. i try to limit it.

but, most recently, i met up with irene mcgee (bay area stand up comedian, former real world star, former lyme disease patient) to design valentine's cards that are a little more... my style. they're sort of bitter or drunk. she's written out a good selection of slogans and all i've got to do is draw them out.


this is what's been keeping me busy-- amongst other things.

i really enjoy working with irene because every time we wind up at a cafe, she accidentally makes me look really bad ass. when we worked together on snap dragon, she loudly proclaimed, "steven you are amazing" upon entering the cafe and i'm pretty sure everyone around thought she was talking about sex. then, a separate time, we ran into each other by coincidence and i was dressed up for work. she made me stop so she could take a picture of me and giggle about how "cute" work clothes made me look. it was awkward, but it was still amazing because the way she did it made it look like we were complete strangers and she just couldn't resist.

when i heard we were going to meet in a cafe to discuss our valentine's cards i was psyched.

but i was attempting to draw a cartoon of her and arguing that in the cartoon-world curly hair needs to be simplified. she insisted curly hair be represented because it never is and because "curly haired people have better personalities."

i kept trying to draw a compromise, when a homeless man walked over and said, "i drew this picture of you. you can tip me if you like."

are you kidding me? this is worse than the time that other homeless man came up to me an a girl during a breakup and started singing "my girl" to us.

and she gave him $4 for that charcoal-esque black and white rendering. it doesn't look like her. it's well done. but it doesn't look like her. it looks like a well done drawing of a person-- just not her.

actually, the one in front of it-- on paper bag-- looks a lot more like her.

either way, i'll be posting a few of the valentine's cards as they're printed. and we're battling to get them into different stores as well-- so perhaps you'll see some... if you're the type to hang out in card stores.