I continue in my quest to semi-regularly, or rather, occasionally update this Blart, and with that in mind I bring you three new pieces.  So let’s get to it, shall we?

The first wall paper is the reason for this mid-week Blart, actually.  The Last Five Years is a musical production about the rise and fall of a relationship.  It’s written by a man named Jason Robert Brown, and I’ve heard for years that it’s a must see.  As it happens, some friends of mine at Marquette University will be performing the show this weekend on Marquette’s Helfaer Theater mainstage!  Which (if you couldn’t tell by the exclamation) is pretty exciting.  The show is starring Danielle Scampini and Joe Picchetti, and is directed by Amelia Figg-Franzoi – all wonderfully talented folks.  If you have the chance to see this production I’d get up there.  The shows will be performed tomorrow night (2/25) and Saturday night (2/27) at 7:30pm.  I’ll be there, you should be too.  Anyhow, I did the promo poster for them, and I think it turned out pretty nice, so here it is for your wallpapery delight.

The next two are sketches that I’ve done while waiting for videos to render.  As it happens often times it takes a long time for videos to render, and as they take up a good deal of processing power, it’s difficult to do too much on the computer while this is going on (especially if you’re working with a slow computer to begin with).  Therefore, when I’m at work, I often have some time to sketch strange things.  Like a bird-woman.  Or a fat man in a tie with devil horns.  The man has horns.  Not the tie.  Anyway, you’ll probably see some more of these going forward, but for now this is it.

Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

Today is a sad day for comedy.  It marks the end of an era for one of the most entertaining men on television.  Not that Conan O’Brien will be gone by any stretch – on the contrary, I’m sure he’ll emerge from this debacle with a stronger following than ever, but the mere thought that he may not return to the late night scene makes me question whether or not I’ll watch late night talk shows at all anymore.

However, while mainstream television comedy may be suffering, the local Chicago comedy scene has just grown a bit funnier.  The Puterbaugh Sisterz along with comic / producer Adam Guerino and DJ Greg Haus will be starting a new night of comedy and good times.  You may recall this awesome team-up from their previous collaboration, the hilarious “Glitter Party” video, which is posted below.  This new show will be called Nightcaps, a Late Night Cabaret, and they will feature all forms of live entertainment.  You’ll find the show at 11:00pm every last Friday of the month at Berlin (Belmont and Sheffield).  As I already have the great pleasure of socializing with these folks, I was also granted the further privilege of designing their first poster for this series.

The first two wallpapers this week commemorate both of these events.

The next wallpaper is from an image that I created to sell at auction to raise money for Bethlehem Farm, in West Virginia.  I missed the fundraiser event this year, but from what I hear, it was a great success.  The farm is a Catholic mission, and a great cause.  If you want to check them out, you’ll find them on the web at www.bethlehemfarm.net.

The fourth wallpaper you’ll find below is an image of a squirrel that I illustrated for a Vanderbilt University social networking site.  Really?  Yes.  I think it’s kind of cool, so I turned it into a wallpaper.  So what?  Wanna fight about it?

And guess what … THERE’S AN EXTRA WALLPAPER!  That’s right folks, after my nearly two month hiatus, I found the time to create not only four, but FIVE new images.  “Where do you find the time?” you might be wondering.  Good question.  Don’t worry, though, I didn’t really strain myself creating this one.  I made this camera icon to use in some tutorial videos I’ve been working on, and I thought it was neat, so I gave it a metal/glossy texture and there you have it.

It’s all for you.  Don’t say I never gave you anything.

Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

Well, I didn’t do anything for Thanksgiving.  I was having too good a time stuffing myself.  Such is life.  At least I stuffed myself, right? Right.

Anyhow, I did get around to doing some work this weekend, and I’m going to be showing that to you right … NOW!  Well not right now, I guess.  I have to describe it first.

So the first of all, both of these items are for good friends of mine from Marquette.  The first thing you’ll see is the logo for my friends’ theatre company, The Rolling Company.  I designed this and thought, “Gee, I really like that,” so I put it on a stone backdrop and put it up here.  The guys who are starting RoCo, as they like to call it, are pretty incredible, and the shows they produce are probably going to blow you away.  Probably.  You can find them on facebook at (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=ts&gid=66711147971), but I think they’re going to be starting a fan page soon, so you might want to hold off on that.

The first show that RoCo will be involved with is a sketch comedy show called Show Number (Six).  This isn’t a show that they’ve fully created, but they’re helping to produce it.  The group that’s mainly behind it is the wild Oh Theodora sketch group.  From what I hear this show is going to be quite the knee slapper, filled with loads of hipster humor and general good times.  It starts next Saturday night (Dec 5th) at 11:30pm, and will run the next two Saturdays (Dec 12th and 19th) at the same time at Stage Left Theater (3408 N. Sheffield) in Wrigleyville.

That’s all I’ve got, but I really like these designs.  Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

Well it’s just about Thanksgiving, folks, so what more appropriate way to remember the country’s most forgotten holiday than to put up Halloween, and  post-Thanksgiving holiday themed wallpapers.  As it happens, I actually love Thanksgiving, and hopefully sometime in these next few days I’ll create a cheesy Thanksgiving wallpaper for ya’ll, but what we’ve got today is a simple case of poor Blarting.

Closer to Halloween, a friend of mine and I carved a couple jack-o-lanterns, which is always a good time.  Anything that requires a person to sink their hands into a bucket full of goo is a-ok in my book.  Well … maybe not anything.  But most things.  Especially things that are shown on Nickelodeon gameshows.  Anyhow, the point is that I took a photo of my jack-0-lantern when it was finished, and I turned it into a neat-0 wallpaper.  Then that wallpaper sat there.  And Halloween came.  And then it went.  And now it’s several weeks after the fact, and I’ve decided to put it up because who doesn’t like jack-o-lanterns, really?  So there’s that.

Next up is an R. Lloyd & Company logo treatment that I put together just this past week.  For those of you who don’t know, I am the only person in my immediate family that doesn’t work in the R. Lloyd & Company office (which is my father’s accounting firm), at least for part of the year.  That said, I do happen to design a lot of their marketing materials, under the direction of my sister.  So, with the holiday season approaching, my sister asked me to design a holiday themed logo for the company to put on any gifts that they might give out throughout the season.  The wallpaper you’ll see here is that holiday logo.

The last two wallpapers are really just for fun.  The third wallpaper is really just another example of what happens when I play around with rendering photographs as vector art, and then texturing the shit out of it.  I think it might have been a bit too much this time, but oh well, I like it.

Finally, the fourth wallpaper is actually just the underpainting from the “Eyes” image above.  I liked this underpainting so much that I decided to make it a wallpaper on its own.  Maybe a little too arty or weird.  I don’t know.  But that’s what you’re getting.  Deal with it.

Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

Chino Maurice is a talented musician.  His music video, “Oh My Lord!” has just been released on MTV, and is currently being voted on here.  He’s also a swell guy, who enlisted my help in promoting his work.  I designed a poster for him, which I had a lot of fun with.  From that poster, I’ve derived this wallpaper in hopes that you’ll see it, head to MTV’s website, and vote for him.  I don’t think there’s too much more time, so the sooner you vote, the better.  At the very least check him out on facebook at www.facebook.com/chinomaurice and give him a listen.

In addition to Chino’s wallpaper, I’ve drawn an image of some zombies.  I never really liked zombies all that much until I started reading “The Walking Dead,” by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Charlie Adlard.  It’s probably one of the top three comic series I’ve ever read in my life, and if you’re into that scene I highly recommend you give it a gander.  Anyhow, I drew these zombies because I’m getting in the Halloween spirit, and seeing as how this is the first year I’m really into this whole zombie thing, I wanted to celebrate.  Anyhow, I hope you like it because it’s all you’re getting.

Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

I don’t mean to sound arrogant or anything, but I generally tend to think of my friends, as well as myself as fairly intelligent and educated individuals. I guess that’s why we play trivia. So we can attempt to rub that opinion in other people’s faces. Unfortunately, for us, the man known as the Trivia Jerk, who serves us our weekly dose of trivial questions, occasionally serves it with an ass whoopin’, just to knock us down some pegs.

Contrary to the name, Matt, the Trivia Jerk himself, is actually a very nice guy. He’s just really good at making really hard trivia questions. Don’t believe me? I don’t know why you wouldn’t, I’m a pretty truthful person. Never the less, check him out at www.triviajerk.com and see for yourself. Or, better yet, come down to Finley Dunnes on Monday nights and (as they say in Mortal Kombat) test your might.

As my friends and I have been going to this trivia night fairly regularly for the past several months, we’ve gotten to know Matt a bit, and we’ve come to appreciate his effort. Hence, this is my effort to say thank you for challenging us on a week to week basis. And what better way to do that than to illustrate a brain with legs that’s about to slip on a banana peel placed by an armless hand. The image was inspired by the title bar on triviajerk.com.

That’s all I’ve got. Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

Well anyone who knows me knows that I’m a kidder.  Did you know that?  Sometimes I joke about being a generally joyless person.  But it’s just a joke.  Ha!  Anyhow, since I began my new “promoting friends stuff” kick, Mr. Chris Holan said that I should promote him one day.  I asked if he meant that I should promote his writing, and he said perhaps someday, but he actually just wanted me to promote him as a good guy (he’s got some issues).  Well this joking continued for a little while, and now I’ve officially taken the joke too far.  I hope you’re happy, Chris Holan.  Check him out on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=20303612&ref=ts).

Up next is a design that I did for a friend’s potential restaurant.  He plans to open it in New York some time in the near future.  However, near is a relative word, and who knows how near “near” really is.  Right?  Am I making sense anymore?  Anyhow, the restaurant is called Lynx, I designed the logo, and I really quite like it, so I put it on a textured background, and brought it to you.

Finally, and this is probably my favorite, if I had to choose (I don’t, but I’m going to choose anyway), the drawing for this particular wallpaper came from a doodle that I did a class my senior year of college.  It’s loosely based on Pan from Pan’s Labyrinth, and I think it looks pretty neat.  You can decide for yourself what you think, though.  I’ll allow that.

That’s all I’ve got.  Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

This is way late notice, but I’m going to post it anyway, on the off chance that someone reading this might actually be able to go to this screening.  My friend Chris Pluchar, whose movie I designed the poster for, is screening that film tonight at Columbia College.  It’s starting at 6:00pm at Columbia’s 1104 S. Wabash building on the 8th floor.

The film is called “Hungry for Attention,” and it is a dark comedy involving a woman, who happens to be a frustrated out of work chef, and who feels her boyfriend slipping away.  I haven’t seen it yet, but from what I hear it’s quite good.  If you miss it tonight, it will be showing at various film fests around the Chicagoland area.  I’ll keep you all apprised of the dates.  Until then check out this sweet wallpaper of the final version of the poster.

Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd

I know, I know, it’s very early on a Wednesday morning, not Friday.  I’ve been changing my wallpaper release times more than Fox did with Arrested Development.  Zing.  Anyhow, I just wanted to stay up a bit later tonight, and no one else is awake.  I’m sure I’ll be getting a bunch of hate mail for not following my schedule and throwing off my legions of adoring fans, but I’m still going to risk it.

There are two wallpapers here for you this week.  First up, and most importantly, is a wallpaper of a poster that I designed for the Puterbaugh Sisters.  Yes, they’re really sisters, and yes their real name is Puterbaugh (I don’t think many people would ask that, but for some reason when I first met them I thought the whole thing was an act), and yes they’re hilarious.  They, along with the fantastic Beth Stelling, host the most original comedy showcase / variety show in the city.  It was the first showcase that I attended here, and is the show that I most consistently attend.  They’re constantly trying new acts, and creating different ways to floor their audiences.  Not to mention they somehow manage to bring in kick ass music groups every week without fail.  Oh, and when the show ends, the whole room becomes a crazy dance party, where the comics and the audience drink the night away.  They call it Entertaining Julia, and it’s every Sunday night at 9:00 at the Town Hall Pub.

Obviously, I’m rather taken with these women, and would jump at any possible chance to work with them.  So when they called and asked to help them out with a poster for their new, monthly Wednesday showcase at Mary’s Attic (which happens to be down the street from a studio that I interviewed at just today, and happens to serve delicious lunch), I gleefully accepted.  I’m not even sure that this is a new showcase, but I was unaware of it til now, so it’s new to me anyway.  This show, Razzle Dazzle Revolution, will be on Wednesday, October 7th, from 7:30 – 9:00pm.  I hope you like what I’ve cooked up for them because I had a lot of fun making it.

On top of that, I also added color to the burlap doll sketch that I posted last week, and turned it into a wallpaper.  Wacky.

Enjoy.

- Mike Lloyd