Fire Dog

Because I've got nothing better to do, here's a man chewing gum, and out giving his fire dog a walk.

Hard picking up after those fire dogs. Need oven mitts.

Rue Esplanade again

Sitting in the park, drinking beer, painting, and playing dance music pretty loud on my headphones. Just letting the brush move wherever.

Gosh, life is pretty good.

Friday in the Park With Jack (and some very old dogs)

Sitting in the park the other day. Sketched this guy above.



Above is "Benji," the dog belonging to an old guy scrounging cans. He told me Benji is 19 years old. The dog's a little shakey on her feet, but seems fine. According to her owner, Benji's had two strokes. The second time the vet told the owner to give up, there was nothing to be done. But Benji's still chugging away.


Dilton (from a couple of years back)


I know another dog named Dilton, a toy poodle who's got three legs, and is blind, as well as being very ancient. He goes for walks in a little stroller. This guy says the stroller's not a good idea, because the dog gets to rely on it. Kind of like retirement's not always a great idea for old folks. Better to work to the end, and die in the traces, if they'll let you. At least I'm a writer, and not a coal miner.

What's That About? - The Casino

Awwright! This Friday's broadcast will be the third episode of What's That About? and was the toughest for me to write. That's mainly because they kept switching things around on me, because casinos are the hardest places to get permission to shoot in (well, outside of Fort Knox, Area 51, or the Womens' Locker Room.) Notice in these kinds of shows a lot of the gambling shots are either stock footage, or done from mid-range, trying not to show the player's faces.

Of course, whether an episode looks good or not, and is entertaining, is mainly due to the director. It was great working with Laura on this one, however briefly. (But the team that actually works on the show is huge! Hence, I think, all that second-guessing. But this actually waters down the product in my opinion, rather than making it "better." That's the story in a lot of movie and TV production, I think. And why the really good ones are often the vision of one or two people, who can organizse everything, or assemble a great team with the same focus).

Next week will be "The Aquarium," which, while I'm told this will be the most visually beautiful of the episodes (that's thanks to Michel, the genius director), it will have written by somebody else. I only wrote four of these shows: the first three, and the last one. Hoping reruns happen, so I can actually see one of these on the air!

Unfortunately, time and other pressures stopped me from being as involved on my last episode, number ten, The Construction Site, which will air later in September. They liked the script a lot, but I'm afraid there were a lot of changes in shooting, due to what they could and could not get. Still, I've finally got the hang of writing these things, I think!

What's That About? visits the Casino, this Friday, 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific, on Discovery Canada.



The Blog site is not being my friend today, a drag, especially because I'm trying to post and revise a lot of complicated stuff. Of course, there's a little demon somewhere waiting for me to do this so that he could screw up all the connections. These things are organized on a worldwide basis purely to annoy me, personally. Oh yes, and the BBC is reading my thoughts, from London.

The above, though, comprises some additions I made to a page I already posted. Nothing earth-shattering, but people seem to like the watercolour pictures of kitties.

Sunday Sketch Page

What's That About? - The Steak House

I'm doing a lousy job of promoting these to my friends, and I haven't even seen them myself.

But tonight at 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific, on Discovery Channel Canada, the second episode of What's That About? that I wrote, the Steak House!

Discover where steak comes from (the meat warehouse, silly!) See the magical animated cow made of wood that produces cuts of meat out of drawers in its body! (I had had in the script a transparent glass cow that came apart like a chinese puzzle, but this is cool, too). See lots of other cool stuff.

I got a free fire extinguisher from this one. Who says writing for TV doesn't have its perks?

Sorry, no cute sketch available. I looked for a cow, but hadn't drawn one recently.

Old Port

Sunny day at the Old Port. Above, the tourist tram is mutating into "Catbus" from My Neighbour Totoro.

Will Someone please walk an Alsatian by my doorstep?

If I was actually industrious, I'd go out to the dog run. But heck, why exert myself? So, if the dogs are going to get more realistic, the owners have to parade them by, in varieties other than the usual fluffy Shi-tsus and other small breeds.

Of course, I could do a whole series of elderly black lab-type creatures who look like they were cross-bred with a propane tank (no, that's not a Jim Woodring image -- just thinking of lumbering, old, fat dogs).

Or, I could draw nothing but cats, which are in front of me all the time, but that would be dull.

It's a heat wave here, when it isn't raining, and I am sort of writing, but mainly reading and thinking. Maybe wasting time, but this is how I tell myself I'm ramping up to a big (or at least long-term) project. That's since the people I work for are on vacation. But I seem to have lots of money at the moment, and have gotten over some really nasty duties which I usually try to avoid (there's still painting the apartment).

Below are two guys having a peaceful discussion about some important political topic at an institute of Higher Learning. Again, might look better if I actually used photo reference or something, but it's useful just to imagine things (even if they look slightly clunky or cartoonish). At least that's what I tell myself.

Lazy Artist.

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.

What's That About? : The Scrap Yard

Hey all you ten or twenty people out there! Tonight at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific) on Discovery Canada is the premiere of What's That About, where we visit the Scrap Yard.

It's the first gen-you-wine TV show I've written (I did the first three episodes, and the last one), and a great way to start a cool career which allows me to hang out and paint pictures of a dog's butt and stuff.

So visit with Melvin the Scrap peddler, and see his version of a strip club. Smash up lots of cars with the Mark V car crusher, and the Texas Shredder!

People walking, and a dog butt

So there are these people on different levels, and this dog's butt. That's about it.

Girl and Dog

Larger, detailed drawings are tougher to do well (gee, I wonder why?), but you learn from them. Still, if I had the patience to assemble some photo references... I could do something with that hair, for instance.

Then a guy like this [link] comes along, and makes you wonder why you bother. Of course, we're following our own paths, and no matter how good you get, there's always someone better. And I'm lucky to be able to criticise myself this way both in drawing, and writing.

But I am taking cool lessons, and have hired a hip, young, effortlessly charming stand-in who will "sub-in" for me in any kind of public situation (and what has that got to do with drawing?). Dates ... we'll have to work that out, but I hope whomever-it-is likes surprises! (Damn, didn't change the photo yet)

More sketches

Waiter at a Greek Restaurant. Orderly at a Quebec hospital, with necklace of surgical tubing for making your veins bulge before giving an IV. A bizarre two-wheel scooter I saw in a park.

Pug Dogs!

Pug! The dog that looks just like the name sounds. This is a little boy and his loyal pug dog.

Below is a more extreme puggerino. Notice how the nose moves up between the eyes, and the whole face sort of spreads out.

Sketchy Writer

Felt funny at the Yulblog Get Together last night, explaining what my blog was about. You see, I'm a writer who sketches. I rarely let loose with the writing on the blog. Of course, others I know put a lot of attention to composing their entries, thinking of it as part of their work. I usually sit down,have no idea what I'm going to say. I usually edit and check spelling, however.

So, more drawings. All on one page, this time. I bought a little tube of Indigo paint, which is a cool colour, but not reputed to be light-fast. Meaning that in a bunch of years, it will fade. I think it was indigo they were talking about. Interesting too, it was one of the least expensive colours. Watercolours can be $16.00 for a little tube of a certain red or blue. If you don't want to pay top price they sell "hues," which aren't the same kind of pigment. You're paying for the material that makes up the colour, which if traditional, can be some interesting mineral, or ground-up beetles' wings. Indigo's quite an old colour. I think it's made of something vegetable.

There's always the option of looking it up, since this is the internet. But maybe, some other time.*

* Ha ha. It's interesting. [link] Very ancient. Same colour used for blue jeans, and the paint on the warriors in "Braveheart." Pity it's usually synthetic these days. This would make a good "fun fact" for my T.V. show, if I was doing one on the right subject (writers who paint watercolour pictures?)

What's THAT About?

Here's what I've been working on all year. Very exciting to see it promoted. I wrote the first three shows: The Scrap Yard, The Steak House, and The Casino, script and narration. Also the last one, which we're still working on.

Haven't seen the final products, but it's been a long road. So, be there for "What's That About?" on Discovery Canada, Friday nights at 8 pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific, starting July 14! And tell me what you think!

Infamous Stretchy Cat

Esplanade Street cyclist, sketched while the Portuguese were winning their world cup game, and the sounds of cheering and honking on rue Rachel rose and fell in a bizarre way, like someone raising and lovering the volume (must have been some trick of sound reflection, maybe from cars at the stoplight).

As well, the disturbing and sinister "Stretchy Cat."