City of God

This movie's a lot more realistic than Love and Rockets. At least it seems that way. Another in a series of gangster films I've been watching. Only, gangsters in New York, Montreal, and now Brazil. This is the ill-fated Shaggy, and his girlfriend.

Mexico

Reading too much "Love and Rockets" these days. I have no idea about the Spanish on the signs, or what they're looking at. Maybe Godzilla, who's on TV right now.

The sombrero was definitely a bad idea. Perhaps he's a refugee from a Mariachi Band.

Garden Lady

Was trying to write a project today. Was sick of sitting around in my little apartment, so I went out. Got a sandwich at the barbeque place on Mont Royal (It's much more than that: like a deli, boucherie, and gourmet place all in one, with flags of the nations flying outside) and walked west. Unfortunately, the park on rue Mont Royal, near De Lorimier where I live, was closed, being dug up for some sort of improvement. They're probably paving it over, and putting in a fountain. Previously, it was just a few hills, and picnic tables, and benches facing the street. Plenty of wasps, and seagulls and pigeons (call them "urban birds"). But since I was walking west, I wasn't heading towards the usual park I liked to sit in, which had trees, and a fountain, near a public swimming pool.

Wandered into the real Plateau du Montreal area. This is quite beautiful, except there's not a park to be found. I was famished, so finished my sandwich while walking. There was still a drink to deal with. I confess I enjoy a can of beer with my sandwich, even though it's officially frowned upon. I look artsy enough that police don't bother me. If I looked more scruffy, there would be problems.

No park, so I sat on a strip of land by a community garden. Felt a little hard done by, because it was a long walk to find anything. Drew this lady gardener before it started raining. I'm sure she's a lot more pleasant than she looks here, but I was in a bad mood. Still, I'm into ugliness lately, hence the ugly dog next to her, which in fact wasn't there.

That's the story. Not too exciting.

Sam, the Ugliest Dog

Gosh, my memory impression of him doesn't do the real thing justice. He's a splendid dog. Chinese Crested, of course.

Some day I'll draw Heifetz, the world's ugliest cat, who lived next door to me in Calgary. It's amazing how such fierce-looking creatures can be really gentle and affectionate.

Sketch Page

I was enjoying the sketches of other artists in their blogs. You can find most of them on the left at "Drawn." But here's a page from my sketch book. The guy in the chair I drew with one of those Pilot roller pens, and then smeared the ink with water.

Striker

The guy is Marc, the unfortunate "striker" with the motorcycle gang the "Dead Souls" from the movie Hochelaga. The girl is someone I saw walking down the street with a bunch of office types. The bar is fairly nondescript.

I've accepted that I'll never be photorealistic in rendering, unless I want to copy photographs, which would be boring. So, this is the style for the time being, when I want to work in monochrome wash. Watercolour is a little more difficult getting the colours right for a more detailed picture. Sometimes, artists do one of these to get the tones, and then paint over it in colour. Don't think I'm going to bother. I'm working on another area, which is writing. Don't put so much of that here, unlike other bloggers. These notes are just whatever's off the top of my head when I'm typing here, with little regard for style. Can't say that's a good thing, but at least the posts are shorter.

Psycho Cat

The girl who lived next door, and looked like Betty Boop had a psycho cat. She's moved out now, but when she left the door open, her cat would come in here and terrorize my two placid cats. It didn't actually do anything, just stood there and screamed. But this was enough to upset my cats for hours. It also didn't like the girl's boyfriend. They've moved away today, but I'll remember that crazy cat.

Trouble outside the Yat Ma Fair-Trade Cafe

This is not the most beautiful illustration I've done, but I liked the process. Started in a bad mood drawing one of my unhappy faces. Then added the other faces (I don't know how they're holding the dog), and the background, and now it suggests a story. Haven't totally figured out that story, and don't know if I'll get around to writing it (I've been terribly blocked with stories for a while), but it's fun to invent and embellish like this.

Pictures suggest stories, sometimes, and stories often make pictures more interesting, making it more than two figures standing there.

I also had fun playing a bit with photoshop on the background. Haven't totally learned about this, and of course it's cheating, because the drawing was done originally all with pencils. But they're all tools, and it's good to practise them.

Below is a Toyota Echo belonging to one of my neighbours. I doubt if I could even fit into the thing.

Spatterdashes

What a neat word. It has nothing to do with the picture, but there it is. Look it up! Watercolour pencil again, but no water. I thought I wouldn't include the guys below, but they look cool cut off that way.

Point of View

My usual street corner. Rue de Rouen. This is actually drawn from a reflection in the back window of a car. Using "watercolour pencils," which are sometimes neat. When you draw with them on a surface that's already wet, they make very dark marks.

He's Mad!

Mad, I tell you! Bwah ha ha!

And he's wearing a faux-hawk!

Guys in hats

Trying to capture the ultimate summer angry guy in hat here. Didn't quite do it. The real one is much scuzzier, and much more blue. Had a gorgeous girlfriend trailing behind him (not the one here), almost in tears. But what else can you do when you're an angry shirtless bearded guy in a hat?