Sexy Snowboarding Wallpaper
Posted by Troy | Filed under Collaborations, Shop
So I’m shamefully including the word “sexy” in the title of this post to increase search engine hits… is that a crime?
Today is collab friday again – and this is another reader suggestion! This time from my good buddy and fellow northwest-michigander Robbie Morford.
Tags: original illustration, print, reader suggestion, snowboarding, wallpaper
Creative Block
Posted by Troy | Filed under Self Project
Here on the northwest shores of Lake Michigan, we experience a natural phenomenon known as “lake effect.” We’re perfectly positioned in climate and landscape to enjoy hundreds of inches of snow every year. Most years the snow starts falling around Thanksgiving and continues each day until after Christmas. The newness of winter and the pure white blanket that covers everything is always an inspiring change. I don’t think I could ever live in a place that has no winter.
But as we turn the corner into February, each of the slowly falling flakes brings with it a tiny dose of depression.
When weeks and months pass without any sunshine, our bodies and minds enter a kind of hibernation that makes motivation hard to come by.
Tags: depression, original illustration, self
The Snail
Posted by Troy | Filed under Collaborations
For Collaboration Friday today I got a handful of totally random vector shapes from Minneapolis designer (and Old & New contributor) Anne Ulku.
I saw a snail and some tee-pees and a bird face so there you go.
Want to do a fun collaboration next Friday? Follow me on Twitter so we can make something rad.
Tags: Anne Ulku, snail, spontaneous collaboration
Bunny Eating Contest
Posted by Troy | Filed under Collaborations, Other
Illustration by Troy DeShano
It’s Collab Friday!!
This week’s illustration is a reader suggestion… and for some reason this week everyone was suggesting super-weird and specific things (like I’m that weird??)
Everything from three-headed-kitten-mermaids to stilted tortoises…
When two different people happened to mention pie I knew we were on to something though…
@sacredlotus suggested bunnies eating pie and Matt suggested Cake vs. Pie…
So I decided to draw Cake vs. Pie in a bunny-eating contest.
Still kind of weird for me, but that’s the fun of collaborating, right?
What should I draw next time?
Bunny Eating Contest Wallpaper
Get this delicious illustration on your desktop dudes:
2560×1440, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1280×1024, 1020×1080
Tags: original illustration, wallpaper
I’m Here
Posted by Troy | Filed under Self Project
I’m lucky enough to have never suffered from chronic depression.
But it does sneak up on me from time to time.
Every once in a while I’d just as soon stay in bed and am lucky that my office is a mere 3 feet away or I’d never make it.
Today is one of those days.
Tags: depression, Faith, original illustration, self
Wonder Woman Reads
Posted by Troy | Filed under Collaborations
Earlier this week I threw a “who wants to collaborate today” on Twitter and the first to respond was Lori Andrews (aka @designertweets) so I told her to send me a photo and I’d do something fun with it.
Having watched Lori’s work for a while I totally expected one of her Albertan landscape polaroids, but she totally threw me for a loop with this shot of Wonder Woman on her day off..
I immediately thought of those 1980s READ posters that you’d see at the library.
More Collaboration
This is the first of a brand new project category for Strong Odors – every Friday will feature a collaborative project. It will either be an Odorifous interview, a spontaneous collaboration like this, or a reader suggested illustration.
So for next Friday I need your help!
Leave a comment below or on my Facebook page what I should draw and I’ll pick my favorite to publish next Friday (January 20).
Who knows, your idea may even end up as a limited edition print!
Want to Collaborate?
Are you an illustrator, photographer, artist, designer, etc? Let’s do something fun together! Email me with an idea or a random image.
Tags: Lori Andrews, photo illustration, spontaneous collaboration
Chai Tea
Posted by Troy | Filed under Strong Odors
On the rare occasion that I pour a cup of tea without spilling a drop I feel like some sort of martial arts master.
I’m sure it’s possible that after a million years of pouring tea our society could have designed a pot less prone to dribbling, but to pour a perfect cup from some sort of fool-proof “modern” design just wouldn’t offer the same satisfaction.
In those one-in-a-million moments when I lift and tip with the perfect angle and trajectory that not a single molecule of red rose drools down the spout I sit up straighter and feel that much more confident… like I can take on this afternoon with the unmatched balance of voracity and patience of a Jedi master.
Tags: martial arts, original illustration, strong odors, tai chi, tea
New Print: EAT
Posted by Troy | Filed under Across the U.P., Travel, Work
Illustration by Troy DeShano
When I left Michigan for the first time I was naively surprised at how many people new nothing of what we call “the U.P.”
Come to find out explaining an “upper peninsula” is more complicated that you might think..
North of Lake Michigan and Wisconsin a magical stretch of forests reaches along Lake Superior’s southern border from Michigan to Minnesota. If you’ve ever wondered what “air” smells like I highly recommend a visit. I made quite a few trips along the U.P.’s southern route in college and more recently have enjoyed camping along the Lake Superior shoreline.
Besides the sheer lack of people, the other thing I love about the U.P. is that when you do happen across civilization, it’s like you’ve stepped into another country.
The pace slows down exponentially; hit “seek” on your radio and it just spins like a vortex; little towns pass by every couple hours that I like to imagine have their very own Laura Palmers and Big Eds and Log Ladies…
and I’ve said before that even though everyone speaks English, they name their businesses as if no one does.
Tags: across the up, original illustration, U.P.
Paper & Ink
Posted by Troy | Filed under Strong Odors
Illustration by Troy DeShano
Will books become obsolete in the future? be the “new scrolls?”
I don’t think so, and it’s not the tactile nature that’s going to save them.. It’s the smell.
Something about paper & ink.. The newness of a freshly cracked memoir or the orthodox of a century-old novel is totally irreplaceable and so subconsciously craved by each of us who’ve ever spent any amount of time on the beach with a paperback, under the covers with the Hardy Boys or (for a few of us) in a hospital with Harry Potter that if it were ever eliminated from the human experience our world would most surely fall into ruin.
So when you pass on your favorite old Newberry winner to your kid, make sure she knows to take a big whiff and soak in the wonder of the binding.
Lest we forget and usher in a premature apocalypse.
Tags: Books, original illustration, strong odors
Changel
Posted by Troy | Filed under Across the U.P., Humor
Illustration by Troy DeShano
I bring you good tidings of great cheese.
Tags: cheese, Humor, original illustration
