Jim Woodring

Went out to see Jim Woodring the other night. I don't go out that often, so it was an event. He was giving a presentation at the Fantasia Film Festival of some of the films [link] animators had made out of his comics, plus a monologue he did keyed to some of his drawings. This was all great. You can get something of the flavour of it by visiting his blog [link].



Bought a wonderful published-in-Japan book of his, (above) which I'm sure isn't available here. Here's a photo I took of him signing things:



Hung out like a fanboy, with some of my friends, and later we went out for beers. Here's a drawing I did at the outdoor terrace we ended up at. I did another which made him look like David Suzuki, according to a friend sitting next to me. This one makes him look like Ezra Pound. The people in the background are typical glamourous Montreal nightlife types. Woodring wondered if all the beautiful women were trucked in to Montreal for the festivals, or what.



Woodring fills a sketchbook every month, come hell or high water. He also got some of us artists to add pages to his book. I tried something in watercolours, which didn't do well in his Moleskine. That's why I stick to these spiral-bound books of various brands. The Aquabee "Globe-Trotter Sketch Diary" is my favourite at the moment, because it's watercolour-friendly, but I'm sure it's going to be discontinued soon.