Its not often that you get the chance to do something that you love, and help out a friend at the same time. Luckily, art lends itself well to both criteria.

I attended my buddy Brett’s wedding recently, and was tasked with drawing caricatures of everyone. He’s an awesome dude, and got hitched to a really cool girl named Minda (hey guys!), so there’s no way I would have said no.

Its a funny thing about caricatures. I’ve been doing them for ten years now, and they always hit me the same way: Just a few hours before I draw, I dread the hell out of it. Not because I get nervous or anything (trust me, 10 years of people in your grill while you draw cures you of that), but for some kind of crazy fear of fun new shit. Then I go and start drawing, and immediately I’m in the zone and having an awesome time. I get to hear all the awesome rhetoric of the people around me, and afterward I’m genuinely happy. And tired. Its kind of like going on a date, if that makes sense.

Anyway, the wedding rocked. The pic above of me drawing was done by a fellow AiP grad named Amanda Wilson, who generously let me use her photo for this post. Go check her work out. Now.

And that’s my spew of words for today. Congrats Brett and Minda!

_Rob

So, I made a pit stop at Sheetz on my way back from the beach this week, and picked up the Penguins Stanley Cup Champion issue of Sports Illustrated. A very good read all in all, albeit mostly what I would expect to get from SI. Finally, I turned to the back cover, and found this gem of an ad for State Farm:

I’m pretty sure Marian Hossa won’t be buying State Farm insurance any time soon.

Facebook has come out with a neat little “username” option for your profile page today. Basically, it lets you set your profile page to have a nice clean friendly URL, instead of those ugly PHP param laced monstrosities. Good call Facebook, good call.

By the way, here’s mine:

http://www.facebook.com/stinogle

Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome

I’m pretty sure ESPN need to rethink their titletown selection, and right quick.

There are some kick ass signs in Pittsburgh…

… signs that define our city, both socially as well as economically. Many of them tell stories of our past, and some even point to events yet to pass. Many also can serve the starving artist, as iconic images of reference. Luckily, you don’t have to go out and chronicle them all yourself. They’ve all been painstakingly laid out for you already by a group called The Pittsburgh Signs Project.

The Pittsburgh Signs Project has also just put out a book, Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania. The book is filled with some amazing full color photos taken from area artists, and is definitely a coffee table gem if there ever was one. The book is listed at $29.99, but you can find it on amazon here for just over 20 bucks.

On top of that, they have a facebook group, and here are a few links to some sweet flickr feeds on signage of the Burgh:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47211597@N00/sets/72157614779435468/
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=pittsburgh%20signs&w=47211597%40N00

All in all, I was very taken aback and impressed with such an undertaking. I now have new respect for the signage of the Burgh.

_Rob