With the currently progressing update to the Dra Studio and some recent client projects, I have been trying to find a decent WordPress theme or framework that I could start from and build each future project on. After trying out quite a few nice and fully-featured ones, including Thematic, Hybrid, Starkers, The Buffet Framework, and Emptiness, I found myself more encumbered than enabled ... having to match up with their structure and layouts, working within their rigid (or at least overly-complex) CSS style frameworks, etc.

I ended up utilizing the clean and simple 1024px theme as a staring point and building out my own parent theme. I'll probably continue to tweak it as I move forward with projects (e.g. just this weekend I added some baseline CSS typography styles, using insight from the Blueprint framework), but it has already aided me immensely in my WordPress deployments. So has MAMP ... which, if you haven't already switched to locally developing WP installs, you should.

You may have seen a couple of them already, but the last few of weeks, I have been spending my free minutes making my own tee shirts. I'm basically using the typical stencil method, but until recently I didn't know about using Spray Mount to get the stencils sticking to the shirt and I use acrylic paint rolled on with a sponge brush and not spray. I have also been printing on clear transparency sheets and cutting those, but am thinking of switching to paper since, apparently, transparency is a rare and precious commodity right now ($30 a pack??). Here are some process pictures of my Dharma shirt. If you are interested, you can get all of the vectors I've used on the tees site. Enjoy!

If you have enjoyed any of the goodness and fun it has provided during this past year, feel free to donate the $10 needed to keep the project alive.

In the way of a conciliatory gift, I offer you my new project, Paper the City. Enjoy and see you soon.

I just spend the last couple of hours finishing up my CodeIgniter PHP work to get the new Illustrative launched. Have a visit and let me know what you think.

Check it out here: Get Illustrative.com

Just a snap of some planning I was doing for changes to Dra Studio, Sketch Blog … and another secret project. :D