Gang de Malades

Gang of hastily-painted painted people along the bottom of another drawing I've already put up.

More Wednesday

I actually didn't like the white in this one, so I tried to fix it. Ruined the picture (it's on this really thin paper which isn't very forgiving for watercolours, and the end result was blotchy and too red), but I had the scan of the earlier version, so that's it. Still busy, but maybe I'm writing faster, taking less care. Who knows?

Maybe more pictures later. They seem to come in waves.




She's pushing Little Buddha!

Wednesday Drawings

Drew a lot today. Have been working hard this week, and this is the first serious break I've given myself when I didn't feel everything was going Pete Tong. So, I sat down and splashed the brush around a bit. The first two drawings are from last week's street sale on Saint Laurence Blvd., but I coloured them. The rest, and the others tomorrow (I only posted half) are done today. Manic Boy!

Abandoned Feline Infink

Happily, picked up by a neighbour, who also scrounged another kitten she said had been thrown out a window. Glad that doesn't happen in front of me. I've got my hands full with cats.

Below, just a figure copied out of a "how to draw" manual. Godzilla wasn't in the original, though.

In the Park

Actually, today is Saint Jean Baptiste's feast day, and Quebec's national holiday. ("National?" I've been infected!). Had to vacate the apartment temporarily today, but didn't do as many sketches as yesterday (there were a couple, which will go in tomorrow). Still, here are some park sketches. Feel a little guilty, observing everybody. For instance, there were these two boys, with mop tops, practising wrestling moves. I imagined Ashenbach from "Death in Venice," dying from plague as he observed them. Oh well, all these people were striking. And that's a standard cat.

Saint Jacques Day

Outside, but not for fun reasons. Still, drawing stuff. This is the view outside of the terrace at Café Olympico on Saint Viateur and Whatever.

Gamera!

Bought a set of second-string Japanese Monster movies at the flea market the other day. Not cinematic art, but I love those toy landscapes and rubber monsters. Think I'd like to visit 1960's Japan, and wander the side streets. No monsters, though, thanks.

Washington

Some guys from a good movie I was watching, Washington Heights, about a cartoonist.

Truck

Dayam, these trucks are complicated ta draw.

Momentum Space

That's the title of a song or album I was listening to the other night (darn this I-Pod shuffle!) It would make a nice title for the blog if I didn't already have one. Big babies are fun. And watercolour cowboys and guys.

Worried Women

I certainly enjoy drawing in black gouache. Lets me build up the tones, more quickly than with pen hatching. I was trying to draw cute women, but have them look worried. Don't know why. It's just outside of the usual thing of cute women in drawings. I'll never be a pin-up artist.

Pup Dog, etc.

René Lapalme

René was a cool guy I didn't really know, except from his blog, Une Vie en Musique, and at one time, frequent comments on the sketches on this blog. Now, after his death from cancer, his blog stands as testimony to his courage and enduring sense of humour. So, check it out -- even if French isn't your language.

More Sketches

More black and white stuff. I've been writing tons in e-mail, but that's not going into the blog. The blog is for sketches. Who knows what will happen in the future. Like, will blogs last at all?

More Stuff

More stuff, on a Wednesday afternoon. I think all my real work is up to date, so I have time for this. Hope you enjoy it! (the guy above looks tortured and upset, but he was fun to draw)

Tuesday Dog Walker

Thug Love

No colour today. At least no added colour. There's a lot of ambient light in the morning, and it gets into the scanner. However, rather than trying to photoshop it out, I'm just leaving it in, as an effect.

Blvd Saint Laurent

I thought this was the Saint Laurence Boulevard street sale. Apparently, it's just an event for the Formula One race this weekend. The real street sale's next week! Anyways, I hung out on the fake grass at Laika, drank expensive beer, and drew some cars and people.

Stuff in Montreal

It's a nice weekend, and a lot of stuff is happening in Montreal. Events: street sales on Saint Laurence Blvd. and Mont Royal Ave., the Grand Prix, and even fashion shows on rue McGill College. I took pictures of a lot of this. Even though I'm not a thorough blogging journalist guy, maybe I'll put them up in a flickr set. In the meantime, I sat outside a bar that afternoon, drank beer, and dashed off a bunch a sketches. And I do mean dashed!

Sometimes I feel a little intimidated about turning out a good drawing. So, in those cases, I just do whatever without worrying too much about colours or proportion. Sometimes that shows. Other times, it lets one relax, and the drawings are much less stiff. So there.





The street sign in Klingon is supposed to read "Guibault" street, I think. That was a cat someone had taken to the bar, and was resting under my chair.





Nice thumbprint always improves a careful wash. "I meant to do that!"

Apotheosis of Walkers

I learned a lot doing this. The trouble with me and watercolours, is that I get up to a certain level, but if I don't keep working at it, I slide back. The problem with not being a full time artist type. I also assume that if I want to an art school, I'd be dashing off things like this all the time. Also, I wish I had more patience in general to do these. But at the moment, the drawing is just to relax, while the writing makes money. Sometimes they flip around.

Anyhow, this is part of my finicky side, which wars against my sloppy, free side. To do this properly, I'd have to make studies of figures and arrange them against the ground, and maybe draw the background separately (and not dash it roughly in, as I did). Also make colour studies, figure out a harmonious palette, unify the colours, and do all the things real illustrators do. Of course, all of that would be boring to do, and make the process much less fun. Well, it's not too bad for something a little more elaborate. It's 10x13 inch watercolour.

Mr. Scratchy-Pen

This actually looks better here than on the page.

Dog Walkers

Back to reality (though in the backwards-in-time nature of blogs, you're probably reading this first). These are afternoon dogwalkers, of whom there are a lot. Cats rule! Also need a lot less walking, though you don't get the social interaction that the dog people do.

Kewpie Attack

One night, this man was pulled into his closet, and taken to the Magical Land of the Kewpies, where he was never heard from again.

Montreal Comic Jam

Went to the Montreal Comic Jam last night. It went down at L'Utopik by the Berri Metro. In the pic above are (starting in left corner): Sirkowski, Jane Tremblay (hidden), Kurt Beaulieu, Eric Theriault, Richard Gagnon (standing), and Francis Hervieux. Had another picture of the beautiful Jane, but she'll thank me if I don't post that (she's in the middle of drinking something).

Taking off from a comment on the blog about my drawings looking like R. Crumb's, I tried to make the below Crumbian. I've been writing about beer for the TV show all week:




Meanwhile, Sirkowski very kindly drew me a sketch of one of his well-endowed characters. If that whets your appetite, please visit his site for more.