Goodbye Blogspot

I decided to move my blog and turn it into something different. So change your bookmarks or whatever. You can find my new blog at...

http://nvasion.tumbler.com

O HAI 2010

First of all I want to ask for some votes cause I got this new DBH submission...

http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/66891?page=1

...okay, you voted for me? Thanks, now you can read the rest of the blog.

This year is coming to an end and it featured some really cool projects for me. I did some work for bands like Suicide Silence, In Fear and Faith and The White Tie Affair which was awesome. Getting hired by some guy from Sony BMG was a big thing, never saw that one coming. But the best client 09 has to be Cherry Sauce Clothing. I really enjoyed working on ideas with them. They had some great ones and were open to my ideas as well. They even sent me a shirt, which is always nice. I also enjoyed working with Party Smartie. The design I did for them changed so much during the process but I think in the end it turned out awesome. They have yet to release their new line I guess but I know it's gonna be a kick-ass second line.

I don't think I have to tell you a fifth time abot album art and shoe designs but those projects were really sweet, too. And I started my "New Day, New Canvas" project which turned out to be a really good idea in general. I could talk about this project forever I guess. One day I'll make my own documentary about it... 4 hours of me talking while drawing on ikea lamps.

Looking back on this year, I know one thing for sure. I will always keep this last summer in mind as one of the best chapters of my life. THE best so far. So thanks to everyone who was a part of that summer. I hope you know who you are and how big of a "thank you" this is. In one case it's the biggest thank you of all time. I could write so much more but let's keep this short and sweet. And to my brothers: next year I will be the master of miniature golf. It's on!! I so hope that Henrys Welcoming party will be as awesome as his farewell party. One word: Osborne! Bandmates, I'm ready to shred with you on the 16th!

One of the things that really sucked this year: good bands seem to avoid my area now. There were only a couple of good concerts this year. Some highlights were The Devil Wears Prada, Arsonists Get All The Girls and of course Vainstream Rockfest which is also a big part of my awesome summer. Those Waterthrowers, those awesome bands, R.I.P. Have Heart, R.I.P. Feline (our cat that died that weekend)

I already made a list with my favorite albums and posted it on emptees, here it is again:

1. Converge - Axe To Fall

2. Cage - Depart From Me

3. Stray From The Path - Make Your Own History

4. This Is Hell - Warbirds

5. Arsonists Get All The Girls - Portals

6. Alexisonfire - Old Crows/Young Cardinals

7. Ace Enders And A Million Different People - When I Hit The Ground

8. Architects - Hollow Crown

9. Gallows - Grey Britain

10. Enter Shikari - Common Dreads

Homesick and the new Set Your Goals realy blew my mind at the time they came out but then I kinda stopped listening to them. I also enjoyed the new tunes by Vanna, Suicide Silence, Burden Of A Day and TDWP. Felt3 came out too late to make this list. Slug + Murs + Aesop Rock = Epic Win, it's really that simple.

I could finish this with some resolutions. But honestly, I don't get it. I just think it's best to change things right away if possible. Why wait for a new year? Doesn't make sense to me. I just hope next year sees me as a better artist living in a different place. We'll see what else the new year brings.

Cheers and "Guten Rutsch!" ^_^

"Another punk rock summer came and went"

Yeah, so I decided to write down some stuff. I think my last blog is almost a month old. I blogged about the new "Make something cool every day"-stuff I started. And I'm still doing daily projects. Sometimes it's hard to start these drawings but it would be way harder for me to let this die. I'm very happy about the amount of views and positive feedback. I made longcat coasters and they reached 200 views on flickr which is unbelievable. I'm constantly working on new concepts and there are so many things that I want to try. Drawing certainly doesn't feel like work anymore.

I also started a new painting. No photoshop this time, acrylics are the new way to go. Drawing with colored pens insted of coloring black lines is so much fun. Besides that I want to get back into shirt design. I started a new drawing and I think about starting another one already... just to keep me busy and distracted.

And I came up with a new comic-story concept. It's not my first one. I usually come up with stories and characters and stop working on the comic. But maybe this time I'll put some more work into it. It could just be a short story to check if people are interested. I don't want to give away too much of it yet. You'll see...

The weirdest thing that happened in the meantime is the changing of my sleeping schedule. I usually go to bed at 7AM and get up at 1 or 2 PM. It kinda happened by accident butI got used to it and it has it's benefits. In fact I don't see any downsides to it. Having to change it again will be hard though. But as long as I don't have a dayjob I'll keep on living this vampire-like lifestyle.

The best thing that happened in the meantime: I did pig squeals on stage for a band that I'm friends with. It was on their halloween show and the night before we just talked about the jokes we could pull off. One guy had a wig and an ugly hat, one guy pulled out a dildo and yeah, I did pig squeals during one of their breakdowns. It was my first time on stage and it felt awesome. Kinda new and weird but still pretty awesome. And I got some applause and thumbs up. Pretty cool. Kinda makes me want to put more effort into my stupid e-grind band. We promised our 5 fans to release our first album by January 09... I could just record some filler songs by myself or with friends... I don't know...

So... yeah, some new stuff coming up. My new project is still my main focus. Music might become more important. I'm constantly working to keep myself from reminiscing too much. A lot of crappy things happened this autumn. I'm far away from being as happy as I was back in summer when I was basicly having the time of my life. Despite that there are moments of joy that make me think I'm walking the right paths. I might be on the right way out of this

New Project

I started a new project on my flickr. Basically it's about picking up andom objects and drawing on them everyday. I'm trying to do something original everyday. You'll get the whole story on my flickr. I keep talking so much about flickr lately because I love flickr. There's so much to see and to do. My carbonmade portfolio is already full, I can't upload anything new unless I delete old stuff. I think I'll keep it to sum up some highlights and tell everyone to check out my flickr for more content. And I've been thinking about getting a twitter account allthough I think it's stupid. I'm close to giving in.

Anyways, check out my new project on flickr!

It's going great so far. My first post was about a lamp I drew on. My profile views almost doubled up that day and I got a lot of views and comments. Some friends want me to draw on their stuff now and be a part of this project. I'm looking forward to seeing this project grow.

Sorry for the rant

I just finished some stuff, still working on this nautical mess. My mood is getting a little bit better while my sleep schedule still sucks. Living life like a zombie is weird we... yeah, weird, you see. I keep my pens in a Duff beer can now, which looks pretty rad. The can is a souvenier I bought at the Universal Studios in July. Good times! Oh and I came up with a solution to some of my art-related problems I guess. I'll start a new exciting project as soon as I'm done with this design. No furher details yet, keep checking back.

The first year

I recently realized I'm doing this stuff for a full year now. I sold my first design at the end of august 08. A few weeks passed and I moved away from vector stuff onto traditional drawing and took it more serious. And according to emptees I uploaded 30 shirt designs this year. I still have some stuff that I couldn't show yet and did an album cover and shoes. So I think my output might be 40 designs a year. I could remove weeks due to vacations, exams and stuff but I can't cover up the fact that I did less than one design a week. I don't know about other designers and their output. But for me, this isn't the way it should be.

I improved over this year and did some stuff for really good bands and working on shoes has been an interesting project. I'm still glad that I was given this opportunity. I think I found my own style. But I'm getting more and more tired of the same e-mails and the people who refuse to answer me. I still want to do work for bigger bands that I enjoy listening to. I want to win contest and stuff. But I realized that I'm still far away from a point I wanted to reach. There's this half-finished piece lying to my left right now. But I don't have the motivation to finish it. Drawing used to be a form of escapism for me. This year kinda changed that.

Flickr, Buttons and Frogs

I finished the frog-design. I did it for fun so yeah, it's for sale. Contact me if you are interested.

Today my mailman saved my day. He brought me my new custom buttons, the Keyboard Cat shirt I ordered from Threadlass last month and halloween-themed table-fireworks. I love halloween even though there are no big celebrations over here. The buttons turned out really good. Purebuttons did a great job. I did a photo of them and they feautered me on their blog. Have a look:

http://www.purebuttons.com/thebuttonpost/showcase/nv-buttons-great-photo/

Last weekend I put up a Flickr account for my work. It showcases a little bit more than my normal portfolio. Go check it out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvasion/

My hat is a frog, your argument is invalid

I recently finished a new design and now I'm waiting for approval. I'm waiting for some other business-related mails as well, which sucks. In the meantime I had the urge to draw something ugly again. Yeah, random stupidity! Hopefully I can finish it today.