Star Wars I

I love Liam Neeson's nose, the way it continues in a straight line from his forehead. This used to be called a "Grecian nose," as opposed to the hawklike "Roman Nose," and was considered a feature of great beauty. From some angles he looks like a kind of heroic, kindly llama or mole.

Poor Jar-Jar! He doesn't understand the hatred he's gotten from all the fans. I wonder what he's doing for work these days? Unfortunately, one can draw in things like this for hours, fixing parts up. I'm working on keeping the contrasts strong, so that it doesn't fade into a grey soup. I could have lightened up Jake Lloyd in the background, but am stopping now.

(I wonder if people care about this technique talk? It probably bores a big section of whatever audience I might be getting. For others it might be the most interesting part).

Anyhow, I'm doing this instead of working. It's a drag working on weekends when it's so sunny. But most of the people I'm working for are on holiday, so I feel less pressure. The problem is, I need pressure to do better work. Still trying not to lose my mind over it all. Sometimes I'm just not terribly cheery, even though things are going so well, career-wise. Have to learn to deal with this. So, I'm taking it a little easy, but hope the work will go well if I don't freak out. We'll see if I get fired from everything in September!

Below is a manic puppy dog:

Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Trying to reconcile the beautiful summer days with the amount of work I have to do, and the fact that I'm doing it at home. What it means is, I'm not getting it done without a lot of procrastination, and then deadlines, and crying. I wish I could do good work without stress. At least the people I'm working for are mostly on vacation, so it takes some of the pressure off.



The blue people are aliens who hate being mistaken for smurfs. (what's going on with her hat?) I was also trying to remember the name of the ceremonial dagger that Sikh men have to carry around (the "kirpan"). One told me that if it was unsheathed, he would have to draw blood with it before putting it away, just like in "Dune." So, be careful if you ask to look at one. (or, he might have been fooling with me. I'm fairly impressionable)



Top left is the alluring "Animala" from "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" in her catsuit and fuzzy slippers. The guy at her right is sort of Stephen King. Sorry these aren't bigger. Blogger, or at least this template doesn't like pictures which are more than 5.5 inches wide. I tried shrinking the one on top a bit, but when you do that, the lines get a bit over-sharp and crumbly. My watercolours always seem to suffer with scanning. They're either too delicate (read: weak) to show up, or all the mistakes appear with extra intensity.

Sergio Leone

I seem to be on a kick of drawing film directors from movies I'm watching on DVD. Maybe because it's easier to get a resemblance, rather than doing the famous faces of the stars. Did a not-bad Nicolas Cage, though. This is for "Once Upon a Time in America." That's supposed to be Elizabeth McGovern's character in the back.



Scene inspired by the movie.



Nicolas Cage, and his amazing nuclear wonder dog.

I don't want to be in a pickle....

Just want to draw a motor-sickle. (live, outside my place)

Miyazaki

Nasty blogger flushed my post, but I will try to re-create it. Been busy, no elaborate drawings. This is in honour of Hayao Miyazaki, whose "Spirited Away" I've enjoyed today. It's sort of an imaginary portrait, because I didn't have his face in front of me while I drew it, just the memory of his face. While it looks a little like him, it's missing his moustache and beard, and therefore looks younger. So, maybe it's a young Miyazaki. I hope this post saves, because I'm not in the mood to reconstruct it again.

Parked Car Outside is Now an Exciting Hot Rod

And all the people walking by under my balcony are science fiction androids. Right.

Sitting on balcony

Sitting on balcony sketches. There are a lot of muscle men walking around here. Not so happy with that. I think there's a new gym nearby. Mostly skinny girls. But everyone's wearing fewer clothes, because the weather's so hot. I'm going to be terribly busy for most of the week, but hope I have time to do more of this.

Cute Animals

Anything to push that other, ugly drawing down. I seem to waver between cute and creepy. Maybe that's my personality. I don't put up much of my professional sort of work. That's possibly crazy, too, but this blog is about process, warts and all. The other drawing was a response to something, what had come up that day, and that's usually the way I like it. If it really bothers me, I'll take it down, but haven't done that, yet.

The above is a watercolour I did for a "thank you" card for contributors for this group I belong to, The Electronic Rights Defense Committee. The link will tell you more, but we are freelancers suing a Montreal newspaper for selling our articles on electronic databases without compensating us. It's been a long class-action lawsuit, and periodically we need money for legal fees, and such. People were generous this time, hooray!

It's a rainy day. I've got some work to do. Hope I can get that done, without too many blues getting in the way.

Mind you, even the cute animals are usually slightly pissed-off-looking.

London Attacks

Drawing while watching the television this morning. Saw this strange paper mask being used, obviously some kind of first aid thing. Have never seen anything like it, and makes the guy look like some sort of cyberman from Dr. Who.

I'm a little transfixed by this kind of disaster, especially how it plays out on TV, and it shows up often in sketches. Not as nutty about it as some people, however.

Greeted in the morning, by the way, by my London poet friend sending a mass e-mail to tell people he was all right.

Couple (not really)

A couple of faces that aren't really recognizable, so I won't tell you what movies they're supposed to be from. Okay, the girl is from "Better Luck Tomorrow." I tried screwing around with a toothbrush splatter on the background. Masked the characters in front with paper. It didn't work out too great, but it's just an experiment.

Don't know if people want to read this illustration technique stuff, or hear about my emotional state, or get diary-type experiences. Or want to read a review of "Better Luck Tomorrow." It was a pretty good movie, but the makers had obviously seen Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction. Still, it played with these cliches a bit, and those from films such as "Boyz in the Hood," giving them all a different spin. So thumbs up from me.

Not the Queen

Just an old lady at the clinic. But my health is fine again. Hooray!