My sketchbook is a bit like my written journal. I sit down with it, with no idea of what I’m about to write (or draw). Kind of therapy, I suppose, or like practicing scales if you were playing the piano.
The bottom corner is a gentleman I saw walking by on the street. Above was inspired by the sad story of Annie Pootoogook, an Inuk artist who died last week.
This is me, trying out Kyle Webster’s digital watercolour brushes.
Since the drawings I did for “Rank the Prank” are part of the broadcast, and give away surprises in the show, I’m beavering away at creating similar things which show off how I’ve advanced with the digital painting thing.
This is always hard because I’m never certain about my work. Also, it’s been a bit of a challenge getting back into this, because digital is such a welter of choices. The best thing is to scale back to a couple of tools and techniques that have worked before, and practice those to get them better.
Bernie Mireault and his Jetsonian efforts inspired me to make a doodle of George Jetson, unencumbered by reference to the real thing.
This morning I was annoyed at all the construction noise outside, so drawing this felt like a good way to get rid of my frustrations.
The title “Dig Pigs” is from graffiti I saw on one of this city’s ubiquitous “ROAD CLOSED” signs. It made me laugh.
Some strange types, on a loose sheet of typing paper. Do they even call it “typing paper,” now? Copy paper, I guess. I still like drawing on it with pens.
I need to find a better title for these sorts of posts, because the headings are getting a little repetitive. Anyhow, I bought a new sketchbook, and here are some things I’ve been drawing in it, recently.
Faces, science-fictiony things like monsters and spaceships. I’ve been working on work a lot, and can’t show those drawings yet, so this is what you get for the time being.
It rained a bit, and I was impressed by this old lady with a bag on her head, peeping out of one of the handle holes.
Drat, forgot the little fruit juice bottle full of water, so this is pencil only. This is the artists’ co-op on Parthenais street. Someone trusted me enough to let me watch their bike as I sketched this. Glad they weren’t away for too long.
Kyle Webster has an excellent selection of digital brushes that work with Photoshop. Here’s an early effort. It’s a pretty good facsimile of something I could have knocked out in a couple of minutes (minus drying time) in “traditional media,” but it’s nice to have these tools.
Bonus blackwinging. Mrs. Birtwhistle and Mr. Boggedy.
My friend bought a box of the famous Blackwing Pencils (read about them at this link.) They were deluxe pencils made for animators and artists in the 20th century, and the company went out of business. Now they’re being made again, for the same market that buys Moleskine Notebooks and other pricey stationery items.
I do like good art materials, but can’t always afford high-end items. But as with this beautiful rag paper I inherited, I believe in using things up, rather than putting them on a shelf somewhere.
Still, I’ve had lots of fun with the pencil my friend gave me, as you can see here. It is very pleasant to use. But I’m not sure if it’s worth paying almost $40 for a box of twelve.
UPDATE: My friend who so generously gave me the pencil notes that it’s really only about $30 for a box of 12. That’s around $2.50 per pencil, and not out of line for arty things such as that.
For someone who draws as many faces as I do, I find it hard to hit a likeness. But I’m happy with this little face of author Neil Smith I doodled in the margin of the Esplanade Editions book catalog.
That glossy paper is very comfortable to draw on with the pentel brush pen. Hope I can do more like these. I’d like a whole collection of authors.
