This is something what I’m going to look like when I’m ready to cash in my life insurance. I understand that when one turns 80, the amount you can take out goes down, for some reason I can’t fathom. That’s probably a different cat than present, unless Mr. Boggedy has some strange abilities I’m not familiar with.
I’ve used that title before. This is just a page of drawings. Some of them, mainly that dancing girl, relate to work things. Yay for roller pens!
Bought these pencils at a new art store I saw, that had opened up on Laurier Street near Papineau. There used to be a framing shop which had a smattering of art supplies. Now, I guess they thought they’d move out and expand the art supplies. This is welcome, because there’s a dearth of independent art supply stores in Montreal. Still, I wish there was a place which sold things which weren’t like all the other places. Probably would pay too much for them.
Anyhow, I thought the pencils were on sale. They weren’t, but I bought them anyways, because I wanted to patronize the store. They were $2.00 each, but very nice pencils. They seem to slide across the paper a little more easily than the cheap variety. I was careful not to smudge too much, and even sprayed fixative over the paper afterwards. But pencil drawings don’t last long sandwiched in the book (we’ll see).
Not going to draw too many all-pencil scenes, but here’s one. Like usual, it’s just a collection of characters that happened to end up on the same page, vaguely unified by a sketchy background. And, as usual, I’m now seeing plenty of things I missed, and could finish up. Work on complex things is hardly every finished. There’s always something left to do.
Just because I found it this morning via the #kidlitart discussion group on twitter, here’s some advice from an art teacher on how to improve one’s work.
I’ve discovered tumblr, which at the moment is where I’m putting a lot of ranting and rambling I’d like to get out of my system. This is good, because it makes me feel more productive in general. No reason I can’t do that here, however. But we’ll see how it goes. I like keeping things separate, for some reason. We’ll see how it works.
Meanwhile, here is a painting I was complaining about over there. Masterpiece, or piece o’ crap? –
Gosh, watercolours are so tough! All those many things to control. And things can go wrong so easily. You need skill, and also, I’m finding out, strong confidence to carry it off. Good abilities to practice.
I’m obviously not the super-smooth kind of artist like Jim Woodring or Vargas, but it’s fun to work on new skills. The two pictures below let me try my chops at drawing machines, and the last one, spreading areas of dark as smoothly as possible.
Don’t think I’ve completely mastered the scanner. Have to look at all the options. In the meantime, here’re a bunch of things I’ve been drawing on scrap paper, while drawing stuff for another job I can’t show you at the moment.
Mainly front balcony things.
I could go on about things, but I think I’m just going to put these up, and leave it at that. Of course, I’ll probably end up making little comments here and there. Above is a gang of sketchbook people, and a happy “War of the Worlds” tripod. I love the old 1910′s version of these things. There’s a water-tower near here with the word “Oui” painted on it, from the 1995 referendum, which would make a good War of the Worlds Tripod.
This is a real guy. An angry old man who complains about everything. You don’t want to comment to him or challenge him, because then he will get belligerent at you. I feel kind of sorry for him, but he’s a good character. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really have an angry dog.
Cats and spot drawings.
She’s actually not that bad a drawing, but she’s big, and the paper “cockled” as they say in watercolour how-to books. I could stretch it, which would take out those light and dark patches. Honest.
‘Cause of my getting a new scanner, I’ve scanned all these pages, which, up until now, were hidden in my sketchbook. Now they’re here, for all of you to enjoy!
A couple of the characters here are taken from Barbara Bradley’s book Drawing People: How to portray the clothed figure. Will have to talk about that, and some other books, some day.
The new scanner is faster, and captures more detail in my wonky watercolour pics. I still haven’t worked out all the kinks, because there are more options to deal with.
Painted a ton of little pictures I’m pretty happy with. Above, is Mr. Boggedy on the balcony.
Serious Guy. That’s also the view from my Balcony, but he’s just imaginary.
More funny little pictures. The edges are masked with painter’s tape. The green type with slightly less tack, which can be “left on for 60 days,” or so the maker claims.
More characters. Upper and lower class. Again, I’m using yellow underpainting for that feeling of “warm light.”
A sketchbook page. More masked-off little paintings, and me with my new goatee, and the cats.
And a woman’s face, again with that “light.” Plus a frieze of walkers on the sidewalk across the street.
Lastly, a dog walker. I tried to catch the sense of him being pulled along. These beasts can do that, and some owners are literally scooting by!
I just like the colour. Lotsa work to do, and I’ve been slacking off. The usual worries, but I hope things will be all right.
Lotsa little watercolours lately. These are fun to do, and look more sophisticated than my usual production. It’s true that the more you do, the better you get at it. If I stop, it often takes a few lousy pictures before I get up to speed again.
A big part of it seems to be unconscious, like drumming. If I thought about it, I’d slip up (well, more than normally)
That’s Nora, looking kitteny, up top, and then Mr. B. below, a little more chunky than he really is.
Drawing a lot lately, because I’ve got some illustrating gigs. These don’t exactly address the gigs, but they keep my hand in, and make drawing fun for me. Hence plenty of sketches. And I’ve got to put them up don’t I?
Allegra, my late lamented small black cat, in graphic watercolour form. This is about as smooth as I can get as far as tones, despite the thin sketchbook paper!
Trying to do cute stuff in watercolour, as you can tell.
