Archive for the ‘Donkeyshines Acknowledgments’ Category

Underwoman and the Believers

Sunday, December 16th, 2012

I have awesome musician friends in a band called Underwoman and the believers. Currently, they are climbing up the rankings in a contest that could land them recording studio time with a Grammy Award-winning producer. Basically, this stage of the competition involves straight-up social media hits on pretty much all the major outlets, and even some older ones you may not realize exist. Anyway, check out this beautiful song. Then, go to as many of the following links and like or follow or whatever the specifics call for. Thanks, y’all! We artists have to stick together.

LIKE:

1. Underwoman and the Believers on Facebook

FOLLOW:

3. https://twitter.com/underwomanbelie

4. https://soundcloud.com/underwomanbelievers

5. https://vimeo.com/underwomanbelievers

FRIEND:

6. http://www.myspace.com/notesfromunder

You guys are awesome, thanks in advance for voting n’ stuff!

Jeremy’s Cartoon

Sunday, November 25th, 2012

In 2003, my good childhood friend Jeremy passed away at the age of 25 due to complications with a brain tumor. He was one of the nicest, most selfless people we knew. Recently, his brother Jim contacted me and asked if I would help him with a project. He had found an old drawing Jeremy had done, and was wondering if I could arrange to have t-shirts made from the design.

He wanted to donate all profits to the New York State Chapter of the Advocacy Resource Center, where Jeremy used to work. The Arc has been helping individuals with disabilities since 1950. I told Jim that I would be delighted help remember Jeremy, as well as raise money for such a good cause. I decided to set up merchandise in my Donkeyshines Jr. store, where I could sell the design on many different products, including apparel for men, women and children, as well as accessories, such as canvas bags and iphone cases. If you have a moment, check out the site:

Donkeyshines Jr.

Friday, February 25th, 2011

As a way to be able to bring you more designs and more product options, I have decided to open up a Donkeyshines sister store, which I am calling Donkeyshines Jr. This store is powered by Spreadshirt, which is a print-on-demand site. One of the pros of POD’s is that you can make almost an unlimited number of products with virtually no initial cost to the designer. There are some compromises that have to be made with this type of set-up. For one, I definitely make less money per shirt. This is fine with me, as it is worth it to be able to offer many varieties of products without having to worry about which colors and styles will be most popular. I can literally make something for everyone when it comes down to it. Another disadvantage, though, is that POD’s can’t offer screen printing. However, the reason I chose Spreadshirt over the other POD sites is that they offer a really nice alternative, called flex printing.  This will be good for new one or two color designs. They also order digital direct printing, which is a noticeable improvement to transfers. With digital direct, I can offer designs with unlimited numbers of colors.  I don’t want to go too much into details with the printing techniques, but I am overall pretty excited about this new store. I love the arrangement I have with Printmojo, and Donkeyshines will still be my main site, but I am happy to be able to expand. Here is a new design I just added to Donkeyshines Jr. yesterday.

New T-Shirt: Squirrels Flying

Monday, December 13th, 2010

So the new T-shirt is here, and not a moment too soon:

Of course, I made this design over a year ago, but it took some time to get it out there. I hope you like it, and also buy it. You can get Squirrels Flying at the low intro price of $13.99. Also, take advantage of the holiday sale and get 35% off your order when you spend $35 or more with coupon code: jingle35.

World of T-Shirts

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

It is about one year since I launched Donkeyshines, and I thought I might reflect on the experience so far. While I have only really been selling tees for a year or so, I have been making them for many, collecting them for even longer, and drawing and illustrating for even longer than that. T-shirts for me are not billboards, but art. Well, then can be billboards, too, but billboards can also be art. By “billboards” I mean signs which tell something about the wearer in a literal way. Or something. My point is, for me, T-shirts have never been something you throw on before painting the living room so that you don’t get paint on your “good” clothes. For me, my t-shirts ARE my good clothes. They are a very clear and conscious form of self expression. What is neat is that you don’t have to make your own shirts in order to express yourself with one. Whatever idea you want to be expressed on a shirt, chances are it is already out there. Now, as a T-shirt designer, shouldn’t this be alarming for me? Shouldn’t I be worried about all the competition? It is said that the T-shirt market is very saturated. That may be true, but I like to think that there are enough torsos to go around. I can’t think of a single person I know who doesn’t own a t-shirt, and I know very few people who don’t own dozens and dozens of them.

The idea that everything has been done before is not new to artists. Coming up with original ideas is always daunting, and it gets harder and harder as culture evolves. When was the last time a movie was released that wasn’t a sequel to another movie, a remake of a movie, or an adaptation of a novel/tv show/video game/toy? Not that I feel any sympathy for lazy hollywood producers, because they aren’t even trying. Still, the point is, it’s not easy to come up with things that nobody else has previously thought of. Part of my process once I get inspiration is to google my initial idea before starting to develope it. If I see that hundreds of people already thought of it, then I let it go. If I see just one thing that is sorta like it, then I try to come up with a new take on the idea. If I don’t feel that my new take is different enough from the original, then I move on. Its always a little disappointing when this happens. However as an artist, I can look at this as a positive thing. Sure, maybe I won’t be the one getting the glory for this idea, but it’s still a good idea and I can be happy that it’s out there for the world to consume.

Recently, I was thinking about Intelligent Design, specifically that I wanted to come up with a t-shirt making fun of it. I thought of some ideas, then checked google. Right away, I found this crocoduck shirt, then later found these sites: Teach the Controversy and Ban T-Shirts. Sure, I can still do an ID or creationism shirt if I want, but these guys have done it so well that I don’t really feel the need to at the moment. I am just glad that if someone wants to mock ID by wearing a t-shirt, they have the means to do it. Am I worried that people will by these shirts instead of the ones I make? Not really. I would get pretty bored if every shirt I saw on the street was one of mine. Of course I could stand to see a few more of mine out there, but I like other shirts, too.

I guess what this long-winded post is all about is this one refreshing thing I learned about independent t-shirt companies. We are artists for the most part. We want to see good art, and we would actually prefer to see our fellow designers succeed than to fail. We help each other where ever possible, in news groups such as the T-Shirt Forum, or through social media like Twitter and Facebook. Just today,  Ban T-Shirts tweeted about Donkeyshines, which was extremely flattering. Can you imagine McDonalds doing that for Burger King? I am not so foolish as to think that there isn’t some level of actual competition to this business. However, with niche markets and specific demographics, there is more room for cooperation and cross-promotion. Most people I’ve met don’t feel the need to act like sharks, and in an economy that is especially difficult for retailers, I find this encouraging. Over the next year, I am hoping to see Donkeyshines grow if for no other reason than that I love t-shirts and I want to keep making them. I can only hope that some day I can be as helpful to other new designers as some people have been to me. If I happen to get rich selling t-shirts, that’s fine, too.

The Jesus Turtle- New Uneetee Submission

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

I have submitted a new design at Uneetee.com which is now up for voting: The Jesus Turtle

jesusturtleuni2

This design was not inspired by the bible, but by a super-fast lizard. The basilisk, also know as the Jesus Lizard, can run across the surface of a pond on its hind legs for up to almost 5 feet. I thought it would be funny if a turtle could do the same thing, as they can neither stand on their hind legs, nor run even close to fast enough to avoid breaking the surface tension of water. If you happen to like this design, feel free to vote for it, but I recommend going to uneetee.com regardless, as they have some great t-shirt designs there.

Monkey and Bulldog Models- Day 1

Monday, February 16th, 2009

So I didn’t get as far as I had hoped this weekend, but I would say the pencil sketch is about 75% done:

jonlorettaday1

Now that I am working in acrylics, I am using a larger painting surface. That means I can’t fit the whole board on my scanner bed at one time. That means I have to scan it in sections and pains-takingly put the sections together in Photoshop. This is kind of time-consuming, therefore I will wait until I am all done with the painting to actually scan it. For these pictures of the work in progress, I am taking digital photos, which means there will be less clarity and detail than if I was using the scanner. I hope you can still see what’s goin’ on. One thing to note, if you look at the photos in yesterday’s post, you’ll notice that Loretta’s face looks a bit different than it does in the above sketch. That’s because I’ve decided to use a different photo for her face. I liked the way the t-shirt looked better in the one below, but I liked her expression better in the other photo, so I decided to combine the two.

Jon and Loretta and the New T-Shirt

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

It took a few days, but I was finally able to catch up with Jon and Loretta so that I could photograph them in the Monkey and Bulldog shirt.

lorettamonkeyjonbulldog

It was actually Valentine’s Day last year that Jon and Loretta got engaged, so it was neat to give then these shirts to commemorate that. It is especially nice for me since they are both my roommates, and since I actually was the one introduced them! They thanked me with a copy of the Indiana Jones DVD box set, so the least I could do was make them their own t-shirt. I think the photos came out pretty good, and I am excited to start the painting. As with the Pterodactyl Birdcage, I will be posting the progress each day that I actually work on it.  I’ve also decided to extend that $21.00 intro price through President’s Day weekend. If it’s an important enough holiday for new cars to go on sale, I figure it should work for t-shirts, too. I’d like to suggest that, if you are on the fence as to whether you should buy my shirt or a new car, you consider that my shirt is printed on eco-friendly bamboo/organic cotton whereas the car will be burning lots of gas and ruining the environment.

New T-Shirt- Monkey and Bulldog

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Here’s the first new Donkeyshines T-Shirt of 2009:

monkeyandbulldog200

The illustration is somewhat based on an actual live monkey rodeo show.  I wanted to evoke a bull ride as opposed to a sort of cattle drive, hence the specific choice of the bulldog. The real inspiration for this design, though, is closer to home. I made this in honor of my two friends who are getting married in September. Jon happens to get giddy as a school girl at the sight of bulldogs, while Loretta is a gushing fan of all primates. When I give them their shirts, I will then use them to model for the painting on the product page. I will post photos here in a few days. No need to wait for the pictures, though, as the Monkey and Bulldog shirt is already available. Between now and Valentine’s Day, you can buy this nice soft bamboo/cotton T for the low introductory price of $21.99!

Please Dress Me!

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

There is a relatively new t-shirt indexing site called PleaseDressMe, and these guys are really great. Donkeyshines has 6 of our shirts indexed there, and we featured our Robot Penguin shirt as their shirt of the day this past Friday. I can sit there for hours using their randomize feature to see what fun shirt will pop up next. We recommend you index all of your favorite shirts from all over the net with them so these guys can keep growing.