For some reason, these take about as long as the black and white ones! Going to try and do more. They’ll probably make more sense, get more relaxed as I go along. I’ve got a pile of stories. Just haven’t drawn (or painted) them, yet. This one come out of my head as I was drawing it. Still, it was inspired by the cowboy things the jam people were doing, and which I’ve put into a previous post.
After missing a couple of nights, I finally made it to the monthly Montreal Comic Jam. Took pictures, but now I’m lazy, and put them into a slide show. You can actually click on photos as they pass by above to read info about who’s in them, etc.
Enthused about watercolour, I brought my set of paints, forked bamboo brushes and grubby bottle of water, and badgered people to do a watercolour jam. I left them alone, and they performed a stellar job:
Starting from the top, that’s me, Richard Gagnon, Francis Paquette, me again, Kurt Beaulieu, and Jeff LeBlanc.
I did a sketch of these guys, who are the English-speaking division of the jam (except for me):
These are, clockwise from left: Jeff LeBlanc, Michael Arsenault, Brad Doucet, Shane Simmons.
The scrawl in the upper corner is the title of a science fiction anthology from Tor Books Michael has a story in. Pretty cool, but I can’t find it on the web, so perhaps it hasn’t been released yet. More on this when I know.
Was pretty down today, but doing this cheered me up. Just left blank bubbles and squares, then filled them in with whatever. Mainly according to songs I was listening to on the shuffle.
The Skinny Nameless Punk is a great cartoon character I created with collaborator Rick Gagnon, and now he has his own site. http://mruttan.ca/punk
The strips were printed in Mensuhell, the Quebec monthly fanzine that shut down last year. One of the few features in that mag that ran in English, by the way.
A few of the strips were also up on Geocities. Now that that’s gone down, there’s no place to read them. So, I decided to build a WordPress site, and upload all of the strips gradually, maybe two a week. That’s so I can get some experience producing a webcomic.
It’s really fine work I think, thanks in large part to Rick’s meticulous inks. He took way more care on them than I see in most strips, making each one a work of art. Anyways, I hope you stick around, and check in on the Punk regularly.
Yesterday’s comic was my trying to do that. Get into a working routine that doesn’t take me too long (nobody’s paying for those pages yet! But they’re a lot of effort), and see what works.
That means finding what I’d like to do, and in what style. Also, as I usually do with the sketches that go on this blog, I’m just just putting whatever develops during the day out there, without too much thought beforehand of whether it’s good or not. Not censoring.
Impression of a news reporter, and delinquent boy from tv:
The character in yesterday’s comic isn’t me! He’s also not someone I know, though there are aspects of both. Don’t think he’s going to be a continuing character. Anyhow, it’s been a while since I did a comic regularly, and for some reason I’ve found them difficult to do. Trying to get out of that. And I enjoy telling stories, no matter how eccentric!
Nerd boy drawn mainly with the Pentel brush pen:
I’m also trying out techniques. Yesterday’s story was drawn with a dip pen, which was a little bit awkward, but I’m getting back into it. Other stuff is drawn with a Pentel brush pen. I also fool around with the pages on the computer a bit. Usually just to adjust the tone of the scan, but sometimes I try to fix things. I’m trying out a lot of what the computer can let me do, so that I can produce images that are funny, fast to produce, and look good.
Struggling with the dip pen (a Hunt #102 Hawk Quill):
Writing and drawing makes me feel good, and I’m lucky to be blessed with at least a modicum of ability, or inclination, towards these disciplines. The season’s been psychically rough so far, and I’m trying to smooth it out, get things running.
Woman from a “Making of” doc on a DVD, in colour ballpoint and black roller pen:
Meanwhile, I’m putting up yesterday’s production of sketches. I really do miss sitting on the balcony and drawing people. So during the Montreal winter I’m drawing people I see on DVDs I’m watching, or snapped with the camera, or who have just popped out of my head. Funny, they’re not the most dramatic scenes, but there you go.
Today seems to be a superhero comics type of day, at least on the blog. I was flailing around, writing stuff, mainly messing around on the web, and twittering. I tend to do this, then focus down on something worthwhile. But for the time being, it’s often all up in the air.
Anyhow, a twitter exchange between myself and cartoonist Michael Kupperman led me to slap together this impression of Jack Kirby as his creation Modok . Probably not the first person in the world ever to have this idea, but it’s fun, and I felt the urge.
These don’t need explaining, but I like to write a little. Above is Catwoman and a dog. Below, the creepy cowboy from Mulholland Drive.
Next, some well-known author at a badly-attended book convention. I’ve sometimes dreamed about being able to fly to the ceiling at these things. Though I didn’t need Leo da Vinci wings.
Bottom, a pensive puss.
Didn’t I just do one of these in September? And then there was Expozine last month. So, many of these artist seemed like old friends. It was fun brandishing around my little Lumix DMC-FS3 and talking to artists. Sound was a little off (and some interviews are in French), but I think things are audible if you turn up the volume.
I think I’ve managed to upload a playlist of 10, count ‘em 10 short videos. First up, two of the organizers talking about the Montreal Comic Con:
I also took still shots. I’m just making these into a slide show, because I’m lazy. However, if you click on one of the photos, you might get website information where you can see that person’s work. (not for the cosplayers, sorry!)
So, that was fun. Again, I didn’t do any sketches, but bought a few comics. Nothing special. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I kind of like amassing a gallery of Montreal-based comic artists. Maybe next year I’ll have editing software. Yay!
Off to the Monthly Montreal Comic Jam the other night. But first there was a big event happening across the street. I took some video with my little camera:
Got one of the volunteers in the information booth to explain what was going on. Nice siren in the background, which fits with the name of the festival.
Unfortunately, I held the camera sideways, thinking, I guess, that this was like a still photo you could “rotate” right side up. No such luck, so you’re going to have to turn your monitor on its side, or have a very flexible neck:
Off then to the jam, which was upstairs at a bar called L’Utopik. Nice crowd at the table.
That’s Éric Theriault, centre, Richard Gagnon, right, and I’ll get the name of the guy on the left, I promise.
Sirkowski, far left, Nicolas Plamondon, centre, and that guy again.
Marr, and Jeff Leblanc.
Éric had found, under the bed, or something, a pile of finished cartoons no one had seen for years. I’m hoping that these get published in a book soon, with the rest of the cartoons we do at the jam. Maybe someone can scan them, and put them up for all to enjoy.
I drew a bunch of little things. Wish I’d made a record of them, somehow. Well, still fun to hobnob with one’s fellow cartoonists.
This pic seems to encapsulate for me the oddness and fun of Expozine. I get totally overstimulated by the art and whackiness of it all.
Anyhow, this year, exhausted by taking pictures of all the people and their stuff in previous years, I tried something different. My little camera took good videos, so I tried a few of them. It’s just as exhausting! Plus, I don’t have editing software yet to put things together in a slick video. But here are some of the artists, not necessarily the famous ones, explaining their work, in French and English.
Please click on the videos themselves to get more info, names and links to websites.
Kurt Beaulieu — warning for NSFW content, and also my swearing a little at the end, dropping my camera case.
Guy Boutin:
Kim Hoang (right) and colleague kim@evilsmile.net http://evilsmile.net/
Dead Head Comicks:
Mtl Underground Icon Rick Trembles:
http://www.theworkhorsery.ca (“then things get really weird…”)
Eric Theriault in French and English:
Martin Balcer, in French:
My terrible French, with Jeanne St-Onge and friend:
Puppet in a Suitcase:
Made it to Expozine Saturday. Pretty overwhelming. Didn’t do my usual thing of snapping and talking to a lot of the people there, but the place was packed with artists and writers. Did a little video you can see below of turning in a circle with my camera:
Took some shots of comic artists I hadn’t snapped before:
Julie Doucet
Marc Bell
Kate Beaton, who also appears fleetingly in the video above:
Think I’ll come back tomorrow, this time with my sketchbook, to draw some of the people. [Monday note: So sorry, was so busy videotaping people, I got too tired to do this!]
Needed a day to recover, but I’m finally doing a post with images from our street session on Tuesday for the Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT) to honour Car Free Day. Slide show of pictures is below. Click on one for information, or visit the flickr site to see the names of people, credits, etc. Remember, the artwork is copyright by the people who produced it!
This is our gang of four:
Bruno Rouyere, Siris, Eric Theriault, and me, Jack Ruttan
It rained most of the morning, dampening our paper, but not our spirits:
Here’s Bruno’s finished page (click for my English translation):
Siris’ page (ditto on the translation):
Eric’s page (he didn’t get so far in his story, but had the right idea: this was more of a demonstration than a race to produce finished art. He actually attracted some interest and business cards from lovers of vintage cars):
And finally mine. I did two pages, and ended up racing to the finish, as the street was being packed up around me. Think 2/3 of the second page was done in about 20 minutes, with my Chinese brush and ink. I also kind of jumped between English and French words, at times.
Page 1
Page 2
Then, if all that drawing wasn’t enough, Siris and I, plus artist Kurt Beaulieu (who showed up at the end), retired to the pub for a beer. Siris drew me the portrait below of one of the bar’s rough denizens.
All in all, it was a tough (we were all drawing standing up), but rewarding day.
Here’s a nifty article on the event, by Denis Giguere (sorry for leaving out everyone’s accents) from a French-language comics website: [link]
Yesterday, I visited the Montreal Comicon, at Place Bonaventure. Very stimulating. A lot of my comic-creating friends in both the franco and anglo communities were there, plus plenty of talented people I had never heard of. I took pictures, and the flickr photo set has names of most of the people, and links to their websites.
Also, there were people in costumes. I’m used to people I take pictures of sometimes being reluctant to be caught, and their faces put on the internet. So I always ask permission. But here people were excited to have pictures taken, and posing (I sometimes prefer the candids!) Sorry, I was a little too tired to do sketches.
Still, lots of exciting things to see. And a video walkthrough of the exhibition floor I took as I first arrived. Hope you enjoy it!
