Cats Approve New Zine

The cats check the new zine, Cock N' Bull Nights, arrived fresh from the printer for this weekend's Expozine Zine Fair in Montreal. They gave it their approval, but want the box when I'm done with it.



This is a self-published zine of sketches I've mainly posted on this blog, done in collaboration with Rick Gagnon, who was also instrumental in putting together the publication.



I think I know what to do, now, so if this is popular, maybe I'll put out a "Utopia Moment" zine of just my own drawings. The main trick is to get all the pages in the right order.

Passel of cats

Getting all pen and inky, and practicing my chops. Below are a bunch of cat pictures. The tabbies are taking over the kitten's box, and she has to sleep on the couch, next to her painting.

Sorry!

Too busy! No drawings today, only cats!




You come back tomorrow!

The Dude, and Head Shaking Cats

Just putting up another coloured pen sketch from the back of paper I've printed on. This is sort of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski.

And I was taking pictures of cats. They often look away, and I have to take another shot. Afterwards, they seem to move when I flick between the pictures on the camera, so it's irresistible (to me, anyway) to make an animated gif. The background and most of the cats stay still, because I cut out just the heads.

In this picture they're shaking heads, rather than nodding.

Spanish

Supposed to be Rebecca Pidgeon and Steve Martin from David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner.

Below, I took a couple of shots of the cats, and wasted some time getting him to nod in an animated gif. Needs some kind of soundtrack to work.

Miss Me?

When one posts in a blog once a day, going away for even a couple of days seems like a long time.

Still, I've been so involved in my web site, it sort of burnt me out on computers. Occupied enough with that, I wasn't even drawing, except for the web site. For example, the useful graphic above, which fits this blog at the moment, as well. Go to this spiffy page to see what I've been doing. There are still odds and ends hanging which I'm fixing as I learn more about CSS. Darned hard, for someone like me, it seems.

Still, I have some interesting things from the weekend to blog about, but if I post about them at all, they will seem sort of time-shifted into the past (is that clear? It's kind of late at night!). Meanwhile, new stuff might be happening.

In the meantime, I've lit the pilot on the heater, and the cats have discovered that. So these are heater cats -2008 models- making a backwards letter "S".



Unfortunately, the newest cat hasn't figured out how to fit on the heater. Don't worry, she's keeping warmer than this, most of the time.

Culture, Jamming and More Cats

Pictures in this post doesn't really reflect what I was doing yesterday. Went out to a Writer's Guild of Canada get-together, where I drank 'free' beer (paid in part by my dues, I suppose) and met and complained along with a lot of other writers. Took a blurry picture, mainly of people's backs and butts, which I'm not posting here.

One subject was politics, and of course we writers won't be able to meet or make any movies or TV if the Conservatives have their way trying to muzzle and put all the artists out of work. Read Margaret Atwood's enlightened essay in the Globe and Mail about the issue, if you want to learn more.

Anyhow, after that, I went to the Monthly Montreal Comic Jam, took more blurry, lousy pictures, and worked on silly comic pages like the one below. (I apologize for the Not Safe For Work-ness. Other people will probably be more upset about it than we get.)


Aside from that, I was trying to take pictures of cats, but they always move. At least this one was interesting, though I tried to enhance foreground cat's eyes, making her look a trifle more demonic than usual:


I love Mr. B. and his tiger yawn:

Essential Painting Equipment

Oh, all right. One more. This is my basic painting kit.

Tomato Update

Those three heirloom tomato plants I bought back in May are finally producing stuff. If the plants look a little ragged, it's because I had to bring them in while the landlady had the balcony painted. Still, they're back out, and seem to have survived being un-entertwined from the balcony railing and then stuck in a dark kitchen for a couple of days.

The little gold ones (seem red in this pic) are tasty. The pumpkin-looking one is called a rose tomato.



These still-green odd-shaped things are Amish Paste tomatoes. Tomatoes from the back balcony are a little thicker-skinned than the market variety. But still, they are tasty, and there's the pride of growing them one's self.


New kitten patrolling the balcony (one of her favourite places) keeps the squirrels away. Yay!


But there's a different cat in today's drawing:

Ink Drawings, and Cat Gallery

Just a couple of drawings. The kid below is from a TV commercial, but he now looks like a member of the Gorillaz.



And here are cat pictures. They bring the cute much more effortlessly than a bunch of dodgy drawings.

This is the complete brood, starting with a legless Mr. Boggedy:


The estimable Ms. Boggedy:


And Nora new cat. Sitting still for once:

Splashing More Paint Around

Still watercolouring, on the spot, when the weather allows me. But I'm not allowing reality to dictate too closely what's in the pictures. Well, the first one is fairly representative of an apartment on rue de Lorimier.

Below is Parc St. Viateur in Outremont, Montreal.



For today's Nora the Kit'n picture (TM) I am contrasting her with Mr. Boggedy at his most smug, below.

Window Cat

With appropriate actual cat hair in the upper margin.

Back to the Cock N' Bull, and New Kitten!

The above drawing is another collaboration between R. Gagnon and myself. I fancy it's a little sombre, because one of our friends at the bar, who brought in New Yorker and Spectator magazines we would steal peeks from, is still in the hospital. Hope he gets well.



On a happier note, the new kitty I picked up after moving day in July is fitting in well, except for occasional bouts of lunacy. I took a picture of her with my new camera. Didn't like having to buy one, but the old one got wrecked, apparently after recording that storm in June. Still, this one has all the latest bells and whistles, though it's still me on the shutter.

She looks very proud here, the forward-looking kitty of the future, with the Old Guard in the background. Click on the pic to see more adorableness.

The Back Side of the Paper

I've noticed in one of my filled books, the paper is thick enough you can paint on the other side. So, I'm going backwards through one of the books again. It makes for a very lively book, and for some reason, the fact that it's not pristine paper gives me a little more confidence. Seem to have done a lot, yesterday afternoon.

Surrealistic animal scenes, and Hidden Goodness?

Drawing pointed, portentious scenes involving animals. Above, THE CAT ruined this relationship, but maybe it was already over.

While below, she continued reading her tiny book, ignoring THE GORILLA in the room.


Meanwhile, cartoonist friends think that my character in a sketch the other day was channeling Jack Kirby's "Granny Goodness." Coincidence, or what?

Marilyn and some kids

just some stuff.

Just some drawings. I'm back from Toronto dropping into the Hot Docs Documentary festival. More about that, later.

Sun Cats, and Blogs

People on Facebook liked my pictures of the Boggedy Cats greeting the sun with their morning orisions. So, I'm putting them up here, and on Flickr. Click on this shot to see the whole set, as they rock the kyute.

Meanwhile, the CBC news website has an article about a study done about bloggers, and people who read blogs. Obvious, much? Or just to us?

Turtle Man Returns

Old men, cats, and strange characters in bars. What could it mean? Only that Gagnon Friday is back, after a week hiatus (because Gagnon was puttering around buying CDs in Brooklyn, while I stayed here and worried about the future, as usual). These are more collaborations, with my pencil drawings and his inkings over them, which we perform during a more or less regular meet at a bar on Friday afternoon.

Cave Girl and Fat Case

I'm going to add colour to this later.

I thought the boy cat was the beauty of the house, but taking a lot of snaps of the girl. It's a blog, so you're getting cat pics:

No, those are not kitty boogers!

Too Fluffy, Too Tall

These kinds of cats kill me. One, from a popular blog, is fluffy and grumpy. The other, based on my guy, looks ridiculously proud of himself, and ready for a parade.

Ugly Cats, and Spies

Gosh, I haven't been posting at my usual feverish volume the last two days. No bar meeting and drawing the other night, but I am going to this event today: [link]. So, will have something about that, later, unless decide not to go, or totally do awful drawings. In the meantime, here's an unflattering picture of one of the cats:

Not so pretty and poised now, eh, Miz B.?
(A possible "LOLCAT" caption could be: "Your offering disgusts Godfather Kitteh." Or: "LURP LURP LURP LURP")

Also, tonight on the Discovery Channel in Canada, is the premiere of the second of three episodes of the TV show "What's That About?" I wrote. This one is "Spies and Security Ops." I recommend seeing it, especially if you love guns, fast driving, and things that go "boom!" (I seem to love One and Three. Two, not so much!)

Tonight, (Saturday) at 7 pm eastern, Discovery Canada.

American T.V.

...As opposed to our pitiful showing of home-grown product (oh, that's too harsh. They pay my bills. Say, smaller-scale). Here is charming Irish rogue and terrible actor, Colin Farrell.


These next are supposed to be Garrison Keillor and Stephen Colbert. Still have a ways to go in catching a likeness, but I'm a little more confident now, giving names instead of calling them "faces seen on T.V."


Below, Mistress Boggedy sits for her portrait. Most of my furniture coverings are Boggedy coloured, as to not show the shedded hair. But I do vacuum a lot.

Eyes

The little highlights make the boggedy cats' eyes come alive. I thought we hadn't had enough cats here in a while.

Outside of that, it's just a drawing of a woman with strange eyes of her own, leaning over a table. And an old lady with Maria Sharapova growing out of her head.

Sketches

Not a lot of explanation needed here. I have this black watercolour pencil I like, which is being worn down to a stub, and I'm not sure if I can find another one of the same brand. Bought a set of watercolour pencils, because I liked that one, but went for a different brand, and they're waxy and lumpier, whereas this one was more charcoaly, but didn't smudge the way charcoal did.

Below is slightly crisper, because it's the black ball-point pen. Don't laugh: it's one of Jimmy Beaulieu's favourite tools. But he doesn't do the shading thing I try.

Christmas Morning

Nothing much to do on Christmas morning. At least the family back west isn't in the same turmoil it was last year, so things are tranquil. I had little to do, so decided to blog.

I live with two cats, so people think I'm obsessed by cats. One friend gave me cat Christmas lights the other year. Since I don't have a tree, I strung them along the ivy covering my kitchen bookshelf, as above.

Here's a closeup of one of the lights:


And speaking of cats, what were the real ones doing, you ask?

Ms. Boggedy was in her accustomed place, at the window. My cheap (but not bottom of the line) camera does interesting accidental effects when I aim it towards light. Funny how she resembles the light-up cat:



While Mr. B. was taking the air on the front balcony, which he does for about three minutes, before wanting to come back in:



It's a warm and sunny morning, for a Montreal winter.

More Black and White Brain Farts

More stuff without meaning or forethought, right out of my fevered mind! I'm calling this working on lines, and lights and darks. So sorry to have missed Dr. Sketchy the other day. Instead of drawing burlesque hootchies (or art students who pretend to be same), I was addressing Christmas cards, like some Ned Flanders clone.

Above is a slick guy with his expensive car, obviously thinking of some business deal. Or, more likely, the five-o'clock martini. Actually, he looks more than a little lost.

Below, more black and whiteness. I guess she's checking on a sore or loose tooth. I'm not crazy about the dark brush pen lines, but am trying to work with them, and integrate them with the drawing. I like, however, the slightly warped quality, how things are off a little, which to me is more interesting than a conventionally beautiful or realistic drawing. I know these are errors, but I'm still working on keeping things in general proportion, making them accurate and detailed, but not too dull. I also don't like being too much of a "clone" of other, more successful artists, like R. Crumb.

Of course, he'd be out at the Cabaret, drawing the hootchies. There is a more conventional strip club close by (this is Ontario Street East, fabled biker territory, though my block is much safer and bourgeois), and I've sketched in places like that, but only because I was dragged there by more boisterous (usually visiting from another town) friends.

Don't know what would happen if I showed up alone with my cute little book and pencils. Probably would have to pay for a lap dance or two before they'd let me leave.



There's a lot more tabby-ness I can add to the portrait of Mr. B. below. But I'm loath to make it too dark or busy. As a kid I watched artists draw, and there was sometimes the step where a perfect, though light drawing suddenly went south, and I wanted to say "awwww, he's ruined it." I sometimes think this myself. So I'm leaving this cat portrait, munchkin legs and all, but will probably attack it some time in the future, when I'm feeling confident.



All of this is from the larger black hardbound book. I've got two of them: the large, 8-1/2" x 11" and the small one, which is roughly 7 inches square. They look slick, but it's hard to figure out front from back, or which end is up.

Christmas Cats

This is my Christmas card for 2007, for friends, family, and biz associates. If you don't like cats, you may not like it, but it made the lady at the print shop smile. I was lazy, taking an old picture and putting a ribbon around it. Still, it was late in the season, and I wanted to be sure to conjure "teh cute." Learned about Quarkxpress, too.

Could have cropped the image a little closer. What the heck. Never take your work apart like this in public. Be like my illustrator friend: Even if the computer is crashing and on fire, and the file is lost, he smiles and pretends all is going to plan. Of course there are limits to how well this works.

Gospel Hour, Marvel Superheroes invade Montreal, and Hot Cats

Visited the launch for X-Men ... Made in Quebec an exhibition of art for the Ultimate X-men comic book series by Yanick Paquette, Serge laPointe, and Stéphane Peru at Galerie Attakus. They're an outfit that builds statues and figurines of Star Wars and comics characters. Their website is http://www.attakus.com. Please click on the above photo to visit the Flikr photo set for the whole experience.

Meanwhile, I'm still doing my sketches.



The curator for a Rembrandt art show, interviewed on TV.

And a preacher with a message for us all.



Finally, imagine this video happening all winter long, and you've got an idea what it's like in my apartment.

More Angry Animal Imagery

Meow! Hisss! Woof! Woof! Squeeee!

Collaboration Saturday

Gagnon Friday got moved to Saturday (yesterday), and there is a bumper crop of drawings. As usual, my drawing, and Richard Gagnon's inking. Above is a space girl which is pretty much a copy of a drawing by Robert Ullman, who's better at this sort of thing than I.

Assorted reptiles and the hilarious "unbeatable(?) pterodactyl" in the background are all Rick's.

Below, it's Charles Bronson throwing walnuts. His foreign films sound much more interesting than the ones I know.




Complaining cats. With the cold, and the heater often turned up so they can't sleep on it they're getting restless. This is the view I get when I'm on the phone.



I love the lines here. So working on my own inking.

Today is Caturday, and Yesterday was Gagnon Friday

So in honour, I've got scribbles of cats executed at the Cock and Bull Pub (the drawing, not the cats), and below, a mellow work entitled "The Butcher," embellished by Mr. Gagnon.

Boggedy Cats

Okay, I'm blogging the cats. Not trying to be startlingly original here. Just trying to loosen up, and do new things. The video below is one of them.

Captured with my Minolta camera, which is a really nice little device, and helps a lot in my artwork. It also does movies. Nothing exciting to watch, except it's what Mr. Boggedy does most sunny mornings, when he's not sleeping or getting a belly rub.

I like his "what 'cha lookin' at, fool?" glances at me with the camera, and the way the background noise changes as the kids get let into school. I'm pretty amazed that the video has just gone up, and already it's garnered a comment. If I'm really lucky, I'll get flamed. "What's your stupid cat doing, licking his junk?"

Above is Ms. Boggedy, ever the lady. She greets the sun with her morning orisions.

Sketch-bookery

The scary skull-guy looks like he's from Time Bandits. That's me, with kind of my current hair, I sketched from my reflection in the TV.

Below, that lady looks like she has tortellinis in her hair. I should research my costumes and period interiors better. Get more ideas that way. That's Ms. B, my girl cat, who likes to lie in the sunlight.

More Collaborations

Drawing at a bar can be fun. Here Rick Gagnon has finished some of my drawings. Above, it's a satanic-looking Orson Welles with Divine at the Cock and Bull Pub in Montreal!

Boggedy cat entering a room:



Rick drawing. Despite his looking a little stern in the shot, it's good times. We were playing our I-Pod tunes for each other.

Conjoined Cats

A rare condition. These used to be called "Siamese," but they're tabbies. They don't know if they're coming or going, and mostly run around in circles.

Mr. B. greets the dawn:



A different style of interaction:

Afternoon silliness

Had a not very fun couple of days, thanks to a difficult writing assignment. It's what you have to go through if you have two people who need to approve something, with slightly different ideas of what will work. You have to satisfy both at different times, and your work goes all wooooo...

Well, at least it's not for the Discovery Channel. You get three different layers of masters to satisfy. Does that make for good writing? Nope. Not unless you can hit it with your first shot. That feels like a hole in one. Really, it's mostly about me, hating to change something that seemed all right in the first place. And I really don't know how to make it better...

Sometimes the producers have good ideas, however. It's when you can't see where they're coming from that you end up stabbing in the dark, ripping your work's delicate fabric. (oh me, oh my)



Doing all of that, and finishing it, I think, has put me in a giddy mood. I took some snaps of myself, and the sketchbook I recently bought. I'm getting new glasses soon. And I need a haircut.

Other than that, I know people who will never put their picture on the internet, and maybe they're wise. At least less exhibitionist.



This is the first drawing in the new sketchbook. On the inside leaf. I always date these books and put contact info in case I lose one. Got a nice e-mail about the one I left in Thailand, but they want me to come back in person and collect it. That's Thailand for you. Very friendly, but not always cooperative.



Drawing of Russian couple, and awkward horse. This was easier than scanning it, though the blog template doesn't like the size Flickr makes horizontally-oriented photos.

I don't post everything I draw, though sometimes it seems like it. I'm not giving you the Asian lollipop-head girl, for instance.

The photo below is funny. I just noticed how the knight is poking the kitty in the nose. I like to draw and paint sitting on the floor, like a little kid.

Sunday Sketch Page

Cat Butt

"Ralph Wiggum" voice: 'My kitty's got a big butt. And his butt is big. It doesn't smell, except like a kitty, and except sometimes."

Further Evidence

Watching crime movies at the moment. Actually, the DVD commentary on one of them. Which one it is, is a secret. Painting pictures, too:



Not a great image of Mr. B above. Here he is in his photographic glory: