Surprise! More Drawings

Vaguely based on things I've been watching. I've been a little worried about the small "catch-cat" now living in my closet (see June 27), but my friends reassure me it probably won't die there, if I just leave it alone, with food, water, and litter. Wish it would relax, though!

Anyhow, that's Professor Tolkein above. Middle, I wish the Cloverfield Monster had eaten even more rich New York kids, and bottom, sort of Maxon Crumb from the excellent movie Crumb by Terry Zwiegoff.

Party Hearty

Went to a party last night. Because my French isn't that conversational, rather than sit around looking uncomfortable, I drew pictures.

Unfortunately, my sometimes limited set of social skills doesn't include a good memory for names. If someone can write in with IDs, that would be great.

Back to the Bar

Back to a Friday meet at the bar with my friend, Richard Gagnon. He produced the above sketch of one of the inhabitants. Wanted to have me ink it, but I wasn't in the mood, or feeling confident I could do it justice. At least it ended up in the very nice drawing you see here.

I leant him a copy of To Live and Die in L.A., which features a very nattily-dressed and coiffed William Friedkin as director. This is an impression of him, below, by the pair of us. Nice bricks and textures here and above.



Last, my doodle of a little deuce coupe. You know what I mean.

Groovie?

This is an imaginary portrait of "Annie Groovie," who created a cartoon I noticed on TV this morning. Nothing to do with the real person, who actually looks more interesting, but this is the image that popped into my head when I saw the name.

Went to the Montreal comic jam last night. Was too stressed out to do much, but got a commission to do a cover for the July Mensuhell fanzine. That will be fun. Worried about the new little cat, because she's vanished into the bowels of my bedroom closet, and I haven't seen her since last night. Not eating yet, and I hope she doesn't starve. But I assume these creatures can take care of themselves. The other cats are pretty blasé about the situation, but are keeping track of the closed bedroom door.

I'll Think of a Title Later

My two cats and I have made space for another young feline tenant. Things are okay for the moment. She's hiding out, I hope getting acclimatised to her surroundings, shut away in the bedroom for a while, as the other cats get used to her.



Not much of a segue into this pic above, which is a fun portrait Patrick Henhaff drew of me last night. The style reminds me a little of Bill Watterston, who did "Calvin and Hobbes."

That has absolutely no connection to the sketch below I drew this morning. The unhappy bearded guy was hanging around for a long time --unfinished-- in the sketchbook. Today I gave him a drum set, plus a crown and robes, because I was listening on the Ipod to William Shatner 'sing' No Tears for Caesar. So he's there, bestowing a Kingly Crown. Paul Williams is also there, because he was a kingmaker, or at least an evil impresario, in Phantom of the Paradise. It seems the new kitten has made an appearance inside the kick drum.

Aren't you happy I explained all of that?

Faces, Imaginary and From Pictures

Black Wash

Not a grey day today, but I'm posting stuff I painted yesterday in black wash. Above, it's cell-phone guy being haunted by La Larona. A constant problem in these parts.

Another Page

Looking out from my balcony-- eastward.

Montreal Sketch Crawl

Went on the Montreal Sketch Crawl, this Saturday. Find out more about it here. It only lasted about two hours, but I did a couple of pictures I'm happy with.

Just More Drawings, and an Update

My comic story turned out great, and is being published in the July issue of MensuHell, probably. I blew out the deadline, but the editor at least accepts and prints electronic files now, so we saved some time there.

I'm writing more comics stories. They seem fun to do, though drawing them is sometimes a different matter. Things are going well at the moment, so I'm taking advantage of a productive mood.

If the rain stays away (the skies have been grey in Montreal for what seem like weeks now), tomorrow I might join a band of sketchers in what they call the Montreal Sketch Crawl. Haven't got a link for them at the moment [here it is!], but they're meeting Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at City Hall (all right: "Hôtel de Ville" since this is Montreal) at 11:00, and another group at 2 pm. I'll probably be with the latter.

I don't generally like doing things in groups, but might give this a try, and be more social.

Meanwhile, here are some drawings. That's me in a sneeze above, and some wiggly but stiff women below, but I still like the style and detail.

Inside a Sketch Book

The bookmark ribbon got in the way here, but that's all right, because it reminds you where these are from.

Comics Economics

I love comics, but haven't drawn many, at least outside of the comics jam, or part of a collaboration as a favour or exercise. Why? I'm not sure, but it seems like a lot of work for very little return, or appreciation (like blogging! Ha ha.)



Anyways, this is the first page of a 3-page story I promised (for free!) for my friend's fan-zine. Took me about three days of intense work. I'm very pleased with it, and will do some more; try to get them placed somewhere which will pay money.

Comics economics are nasty for creators: an illustration I can dash off in an hour or two will net me $75-$150 (that's when there's a client who wants one from me; freelancing is a lot of running around, drumming up work). A page of comics is at least six times that amount of work, and will pay something from $40-$150 (for the kind of stuff I do, which isn't mainstream), when it's not for free. And that's when your client decides to pay, which they haven't, for some of my comics friends. At a finished page a day (and little time for anything else, such as paying work), imagine how long it would take to do a "graphic novel," which is the thing these days.

I don't know much about how comics on the web work, though that's also more and more prevalent. You can say that TV is stupid, and full of sharks, but at least it pays, when you get a foot in the door. Comics are more for love, I'm afraid, but there's a lot of love out there, even from me.

So look for some more comics from yours truly. Hope it's not a waste of time!

Special Dr. Sketchy

For the Montreal Fringe Theatre festival, there was a special edition of the monthly Dr. Sketchy life drawing session, where people draw models wearing burlesque costumes. I hadn't been to the last two sessions, but since this one was taking place at night (and was free, to boot), after a day of working drawing a comic story, I decided to come out and draw for fun. I came kind of late, so was only there for a couple of poses. Here's the result.

Busy Today

This is just a pencil sketch, with a little bit of photoshop fooling. No time for much else.

More Sketches, No Particular Theme

The dwarf behind her is a refugee from an Andrew Loomis 1940s "How to Draw" book.

This guy is Lyle Stewart (not the journalist of the same name). He was business manager for EC Comics in the 1950s, and reputedly as slimy as he looks here.

Random Fun, and videos.

Just random fun, as I collaborate with R. Gagnon on a page. That's T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, plus a couple of WWI airy-planes.

Plus, a couple of videos. First, heart-stopping action as Ms. B. eats her cat food, while outside school children happen to be chanting "Go! Go! Go!".


Next, things get even livelier, as I capture the storm that blew up last week, and got so strong it overturned trucks on the highway.

Not so bad from my apartment doorway, but still, I went in when it got even worse. My watercolour stuff, which I had been using on the balcony, and thought I had placed well away from the rain, got soaked.

More Paintings

I'm very happy with these. Think they're a new level for me. They're done very quickly compared to older, smoother, but more awkward pictures. Trying not to overthink, as usual, and it's easier to see tonal relationships, colours, and relation of the figures to the background.

Walkers, Paintings, Unexpected Tragedy and Rips

Painting some very cool things. Don't want to put them up all at once. This one was the first. Unfortunately, it got ripped when I tried to pull it from the watercolour pad.

The rest are sketches from this morning. The child is explaining what makes pictures of ethnic children cute, if you follow the style of Barbara Bradley. (And, oh no! Doing a google, I've just learned that this famous illustrator, still teaching brilliantly in her 80s, was killed in a car crash. [link]. What a drag and a tragedy.)

Business Guys {Gugs?}

Just painting, starting with a brown brush drawing, no pencil. Trying to draw reasonably well, but do a loose watercolour in a larger format.

Colour Vignettes

Saint Laurence Boulevard, F1 Weekend

These are sketches made during the mini street sale put on in Saint Laurence Boulevard for the F1 Race weekend. I was hoping the antique car collectors would have their autos out so's I could draw them, but no luck.





At least by drawing in my portable sketchbook, and carrying an umbrella, I was safe from flash rain storms. Not so the artists who drew on the pavement for the annual Nuit Blanche art event/street sale on nearby rue Mont Royal. As they finished hours of work on their large scale pictures, the skies opened up, and essentially washed the paint away. Hope they had a chance to take pictures. (better than this one!)

Still More Sketchbook Characters

More sketchbook characters, with some cheesy photoshop colour below.

New Sketchbook

Bought a new "edition" of the Italian watercolour sketchbook which I like so much. Started getting filled immediately. Actually, the sketch at the bottom, at Montreal Place des Arts was the first thing in the book. But I wanted to highlight Rick Gagnon's vivid interpretations of my pencil drawings, above, and below.

The guy up top is "Tony," a beloved busboy guy at the Cock N' Bull bar. Below, another player. I dig the blocky brush treatment, and was urging Rick to be more splashy and messy, which he did very well.



Lighting conditions in the bar aren't the best, especially for something like watercolour. So Rick's like "which one's the purple?" and I had to point out the right dark dried mass of paint in the paintbox.

Of course, like me, he's a devotee of the "happy accident" and dirty mixed colour school of watercolours. I'm a little more timid, but am trying for the more saturated colours. Not that I'm unhappy with what I'm doing, by any means. Just enjoy the learning experience, and absorbing of new influence that comes with collaboration.

Characters

Just some random characters. At bottom is a participant in the Hades Pony Club

Watercolours, no black lines

I kind of feel that watercolour is purer without ink lines. Certainly more unforgiving, especially with this scanner. Practicing a lot of these little pictures tonight.

The image above was inspired (some of my more cynical comic friends would say "ripped off from") by a photo on Coop's Blog of girly art and collectors' cars. I like working on things that aren't easy for me (like 'realistic' human figures, or watercolour with muted colours) because I learn from them, and develop new chops.)

Some Johns and Another Dragon

Animation kingpin John Lasseter, a drawing of two people from the cover of a paperback novel by John O'Hara, and a slightly more traditional dragon.

More Washing

Maybe not the greatest pics technically, but I think the top one has its charm. Below is what happens when you use a brush with water on a non-water-soluble ink pen. Touched up with gouache.

Saturday Night Wash

Doing black gouache wash drawings. Wash is nice, because it's quick, looks artsy, and scans well. The problem with it, it doesn't reproduce well in the cheap photocopy publications I sometimes appear in. So, I'm working on that. These are sketches while watching a good movie, The Lookout, written and directed by Scott Frank.


Just random wash and pen figures.


Joseph Gordon Levitt, who in the film is a former college hockey star dealing with a brain injury. The actor was previously known for being the dweeby alien kid in "3rd Rock from the Sun."