Return of the Rat (oh no no no no no no no)

Hey guys!

I know I haven't updated in a while, but don't think I haven't been doing SOMEthing. Right now I'm concentrating on one piece at a time, but like I said before took on waaay too much (for someone with a full time job). Anyway, I dont usually post photos or works in progress, but I wanted to make an update, and this cover is basically done. Something about it is bothering me though, and I thought I'd take a few days and get some distance to figure out how I can adjust it. Also all the lettering will be solid puke green when I'm done.
Drawing these rats (and feeding pizza crust to one in Rittenhouse Park last week) forced me to think a little more about their anatomy as you can see in this closeup. The hand on the left was my loose understanding of what a rat hand looks like, and the hand on the right is the one I drew after reference. I'm going to have to go in with white to fix the first one.
Also, I have always accepted the cartoonist shorthand for "rat tail" as seen in the simpler label rats of my previous post. It occurred to me for the first time that I wasn't actually clear what those horizontal segmented lines were mimicking and a closer look at a rat tail revealed teeny tiny scaled skin, not in any way broken into segments (which almost seem like a simplification of scales that look more like armadillo plates). What I settled on for my rats was actually a hybrid of the imaginary segments and the tiny scales, and the tails ended up being my favorite part of the whole drawing. While I do think working from your imagination is very important sometimes a little glimpse at the reality of nature reveals something way cooler that you can then build on.
Also of note I donated a piece to this which is opening tonight:
It's the framed original of the Bones of Sea Birds Cassette cover I did for Peasant Magik. You will notice there is no moon in the original. That was actually added on the computer at the musician's request.

Speaking of Peasant Magik, my friend Denis recently started a great blog where he photographs and interviews friends about their music and art and process. His first interview was actually with Sal about Peasant Magik records. While I often tell Sal that he is the grossest person I know, I rarely tell him that he is also one of the most inspiring (I don't want him to get a big head). He puts so much care and effort into every one of his releases and I have spent many a night folding and cutting covers with him and left knowing he had days and days of the same ahead. Check out Denis' interview and photos here: http://dissolvingintogray.blogspot.com/ (it will also be cross posted at http://nevernothing.com -another friends' photography site) and keep an eye on his blog for more interviews with a lot of the people who I show and hang out with here in Philly!