Mike Carp

The giant did some soul searching in the country recently.

Ewww, gross!  It’s that giraffe head thing again.

I wasn’t really happy with my last attempt, so I tried again tonight.  This one was actually slightly larger than the scanner, so about a 1/2 inch of the right side is chopped off.  At any rate, I think it turned out somewhat better than the first one.

New Polaroids:

Time flies.  It was about 3 years ago when I was talking with my friend, Atom, about making fake fliers for fake bands playing at fake venues.  I have always been sort of interested in the spectrum of crappiness and awesomeness that the medium has to offer.  Right now, there are some pretty well-designed fliers sharing telephone pole space with some of the more unsightly design atrocities.  And right now, good and bad, they are all rotting away in the rain.

Of course, I never got around to making any fake fliers.  It does involve “design”, which isn’t my forte.  But lately I have been writing down a list of fake band names in my sketchbook, and yesterday, I just decided to sit down and pound something out.  I will probably try this one again so I can lock down some of the layout and lettering problems I ran into this time around.

For some good gig poster art, check out Jay Ryan’s stuff at the Bird Machine.  I hadn’t heard of him until I came across a compilation of his work at a bookstore, and I’ve been a fan ever since.  He does the all of his artwork and lettering by hand, and he produces all of his prints from his good old-fashioned print shop.  As far as I’m concerned, that all adds up to a sure-fire recipe for awesome.

Ok.  The End.

The subject of my latest crack at scratchboard is the Guardian of the Valley.  As most northern Nevadans know, he is a giant.  He protects us and watches over us all.

This holiday season, this blog hopes you will consider the rewarding fulfillment that is in store for you when you take the time to adopt-a-zombie.

Meet Zombie Becky.  She enjoys spending time with her undead teddy bear, Mr. Unnnngh.  She is extremely well behaved and always finishes her supper.  You don’t even have to cook the meat!  Her lackadaisical shuffle is adorable and, for lack of a better word, infectious.

Zombie Becky is not recommended for homes with small pets.

I recently purchased some scratchboard, which I haven’t used before.  Well, I think I had to do some scratchboard in high school, but I remember I didn’t like it.  I just did what I had to do, and then I went home and played Space Harrier.

Now I am much more interested in trying something different, although I’m not quite sure what I’m doing yet.  Scratchboard involves the use of a blade (or anything sharp) to scrape out the light areas of the drawing.  Between getting my mind used to the light-to-dark concept and using a knife instead of a pen or pencil, I am finding it to be a bit of a challenge.  The above illustration is one of my practice runs.  Once I feel more comfortable with the medium, I’ll start work on one of the “Giant” pieces I mentioned in an earlier post.