Dragon, etc.

This isn't new, but I had to peel it off to get to the rest of my watercolour pad.

Guy Stuff

Most of the fine female illustrators I link to draw pictures of people and children, and animals. I love this stuff too, but also like drawing babes, cars, soldiers, spaceships and airplanes. These aren't supposed to be brilliant portfolio pieces, but whatever I'm scribbling at the time.



Her pose is stolen from a "Li'l Abner" comic. It's kind of funny what you learn while drawing, but she's not just sitting like a human being, she's thrusting her chest out:

Calgary Sketches

Visited my dad for the first time in too long a while in Calgary. Sometimes my sketchbook was my only entertainment. So, drew a lot of sketches, with my watercolour box out, and me looking strange and bohemian because of it.

Coloured Pencils and Sutff

Using coloured pencils. Drawing dinosaurs is harder these days, because of all the changes research has made as to what they looked like. Apparently sauropods had stiff, non-curvy necks, holding them below the shoulder line, kind of like Eeyore. Should try to find someone else's rendition that makes this look convincing. Otherwise, my head is filled with the traditional images from picture books.

Ooh, man! The more I look at that, the worse the "stiff neck" thing looks!

Below, thinking of the term "boy shoulders," which some fashion snark type used to criticise a model. One more thing for women to worry about, in terms of self-image.

Goat Boy and Bike

I hate drawing bikes more than anything. That tree looks a little strange, too.

More Wanderings

More renovations on the weekend, so I'm kicked out of my apartment, and had to wander around. Got a sunburn, but also did a lot of drawings. First here are my architectural studies, which actually contain the right number of windows and all. At least they try to. They're still pretty impressionistic, which I like, anyhow.

Above is the Canadian Centre for Architecture, which I sketched from across the street. Cars have become the inevitable "staffage" if you're drawing a building. The thing that looks like a yellow beach ball with legs, is actually a woman with an umbrella who was aiming it my way to avoid the wind. They predicted lots of rain for today, but we avoided that. Got wind instead, and the sun, hence my sunburn.




Hope you can tell, if you care, this is the Redpath Museum on the McGill University Campus, one of the stops on my wanderings today. I'm trying to be less straight lines and rules of perspective, and capture more of the feeling of a building, make it a character, like the people I draw.



This is something I draw yesterday, and coloured today. Some dogs, and also Herbert Hunke from this book I was reading about the history of the Beats (for a future project: maybe more about that later!)



Bad teeth guy was present, at this coffee shop I was sitting outside of. The cat is imaginary. The Dachshund was real, being walked past this cute coffee shop I was sitting outside of, earlier this Sunday morning.



More dogs, as I was sitting in Mont Royal park, late in the afternoon, my last stop. No, I wasn't drunk, I was trying to be more impressionistic, capturing this hyper-active, very cute little chihuahua, and a larger, more staid samoyed.

Renovations

A couple of very old pictures I painted in 1990, and taped to the kitchen wall. Never had the heart to take them down. But they're renovating the kitchen, so I had to take them down. So, why not scan 'em.

The one above is an interesting experiment in paper and paint aging. I used the 'auto-adjust' switch in Photoshop, still it looks pretty old. The kitchen more or less looks exactly the same right now.

The one below is of my dear departed cat Magellan, looking at a balcony that doesn't exist anymore, either.

I remember, the bird was a spot of brown paint that wouldn't come off. I tried to erase it, and simply rubbed through the paper. So I drew wings and a beak on the spot, and it happened to become a bird Magellan the cat was watching.

More New Book

Painting things while watching reality, and DVD movies.

New Book

Another new sketch book. This one's hardcover, and has a fussy little cloth bookmark. I guess that's for when you lose your place sketching. Actually, it's got Venetian endpapers, and I think you're only supposed to use it to paint travel sketches of Italy, and do botanical studies from the Galapagos Islands. Any silly cartoons, or pictures of weirdoes in the street, the paper automatically goes blank.

Posting

I get pleasure out of posting here. It's a mystery to my non-blogging friends, and I hear and read all these things about attention-grabbing, and ego-boosting. Undoubtedly, I'll give up blogging when it's not trendy or something, but it's fun right now. This is an odd drawing I did a day or so ago. Maybe I'll explain it, and link to the things that inspired it, but for now it's just a cat in a dress, and other things.

Wanderings

Renovations were happening in this apartment. If I'm there, I just get worried. So, the cats were sealed up, and I had to wander for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I had also sealed up all of my books. All I had was my computer, and my sketchbook, so a lot of pictures were done (not so much writing, however). I'm putting them all up, with notes, even.

Above was my situation for most of Saturday, in a cafe called "Siamois" on rue Ontario East. This is the view out of the rather narrow window. I'll have to remember to make my drawings more square, or tilt them when I'm scanning or matting them.




Some guy across the street, and a fictional personage (the one in glasses)



Two cute girls.



A single cute girl. Guess these notes aren't as enlightening as I thought they would be.



A fictional argument. I remember the woman, but maybe made up the guy. Every guy in this part of town is wearing a baseball cap. Actually, that's strange. I did a "wrap-around" thing with the glasses.




Sunday morning. Walked the other way, towards the library, which was closed, so went to the Village to get some coffee. It had been roped off for a street sale which hadn't begun yet, but this is one of the security guards, and a typical older guy. Only men were on the street at this time. I was kind of depressed, but at least it had stopped raining.



Sitting on a terrace later, still feeling sickly. Drawing pictures of older people. I suppose the pen outline with colour is the way to do it, at least on this crummy paper. (not an official "watercolour" book, but a notebook with toothier paper than normal. Still, it does sometimes annoying "soaking up" action to paint.)



Two faces, and a guy who was asking people for cigarettes.



A totally made up guy, except he sort of resembles the Asian waiter whose car got ticketed while I was sitting. Cowboy-hatted, in honour of the Calgary Stampede, not happening in Montreal (but in the village, they were advertising a Stampede Breakfast, with prizes for best Cowboy Costume.)

Vaguely Literary

Above, I have sketches of a dark night of the soul for Harry Potter, and crazy Ezra Pound, outside of his "gorilla cage" in Rapallo, Italy.

More Jazz and Cowboys, walkers-past, etc.

Been doing a lot of waiting, so doing a lot of drawings. Above are two quick things of the crowd from the Montreal Jazz Festival. That's still running. Maybe I'll get out, if there's time, and draw some more musicians.

Below is a guy who looks like children's character "Caillou" all grown up. Gangsta Caillou? You probably make a lot of money if you create a beloved children's character, such as Caillou, or Franklin the Turtle, or Bob the Builder. I still don't feel I have that level of cute or whimsy to make a good children's illustrator. The editors seem to agree with me. We'll see what happens.

Then, another cowboy. Appropriate, because the Calgary Stampede is starting soon.

Finally, a last walker. I'm using more paint and bigger brushes.

Cowboys and Gypsy Ladies

Getting really conservative, or something. The cowboy picture, too much time was spent on. The gypsy picture got rained on a bit, at least the dark parts, which only helped it. Not that you can tell from the scan.

Two Guys

Two guys yelling. Again, more of this chaotic stuff.

Crabby Family

Drew a very indifferent woman's head on a blank page, and then sort of filled in around it. Those look like vintage Canadian Cartoonist Doug Wright's bald kids there. The guy sort of popped into my head when I heard the news that George Bush had pardoned his crook friend Scooter Libby. Not that he looks like the real guy. No reason why everyone's upset, just disquiet from the back of my mind, just like Edvard Munch. That's my boom box in the back, though the picture I have on the wall is not a hunting print.

Montreal Jazz Festival

If this looks a little laboured, I was nervous drawing it, because there was a big crowd around me, and people were watching me draw. I felt the drawing going south as a blob of dark got onto the right-hand guy's face, but people were telling me how beautiful it was and all that. Not my usual sprightly work, I think. Might try again, if I have some spare time this week.