Haven’t had all that much time, so I’m putting up some odds and ends I’ve drawn.
The aging guy heads were copied, more or less, from the book Drawing People, by Barbara Bradley.
Flying things, and a nerdy kid.
An old-fashioned “War of the Worlds” tripod, and a farmer’s cart. Why? I have no idea.
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’m way more comfortable drawing in a spidery scratchy way than I am making the slick lines that seem popular in animation and graphic art these days. Still, fun to try. Doing some construction is also helping me with the heads and bodies. Part of the trouble with being self-taught as an artist, is that you miss a lot of things. In this case, it was my drawing with contours, rather than from the inside out, as you’re taught in art classes.
So, even though I’m am old (-ish) guy now, there’s still lots to learn. Which actually is fun. So boring to do the same thing over and over again, or copy someone else’s work. It will give you a good “surface” for commercial work, but it seems that a lot of illustrators are trapped into that. I’m doing the best with what modicum of talent I’ve been blessed 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!
Nothing too ambitious here. Just “tiny pic-tures,” as my sister used to disparagingly call them. I don’t have that much in mind while drawing them. More a form of relaxation.
Dogwalkers of the world. I love you all!
A pair of English comic book writers:
It’s Devil Girl! And R. Crumb!
A pair of heads!
A page of pen and brush drawings:
I’ve set up a tumblr blog. http://jackruttan.tumblr.com Don’t know why I did that, but I want to make it a little less formal than this blog. Kind of like an expanded twitter. I’d better set things up so they all intersect!
I got to be on TV again. A series called Blue Mountain State is shooting here, at the local agricultural wing of our McGill University, which also houses something called John Abbott College. That’s me above, after a long hot day of work. I essayed the role of “Homeless Person,” in the morning, and then found religion and got upgraded to “parishioner” for the afternoon. However, my hair didn’t get the message.
Macdonald College is a pretty good stand-in for Blue Mountain State (wherever that is), and carries on as a regular school while shooting continues over summer.
Didn’t get any shots of the guest star, Denise Richards, that day, because amateur cameras are frowned upon on set. But I did spend our considerable downtime sketching people. Also getting coffee and sweat all over the book. Anyways, I drew faces of other extras, and Denise Richard’s extraordinarily perky nose is in there, too. Still no scanner at the moment, so the slide show below is of snaps I took, the style of which I hope adds to the atmosphere.
Since this was kind of an “Animal House/American Pie” kind of thing, there were lots of hunky jocks around, and pretty girls in extra short skirts. I don’t think my role as homeless guy gave me much of a cachet, however.
It was hot-hot-hot, and you couldn’t keep the air conditioning running because of the noise that would make in the background. Filmmaking isn’t always easy (I prefer writing, but it’s fun to work at being an extra, when called. My schedule is very flexible).
What was neat was seeing how a comedy was directed, and the enthusiasm people put into their performances, despite the heat. One of the creators of the show even got into a super-stuffy mascot costume, and bounded around, despite the 30+ c day, and withering humidity.
You can watch episodes of the first season of the show here. It’s actually kind of enjoyable, in a dumb way. The ones with Denise and I will be showing in October, supposedly.
I mean FROM my head, of course. More things drawn, because I’m mad about drawing. Women, of course, because the burlesque assignment continues (though that’s often just an excuse).
It’s wet today, so no drawing from the balcony. I’m wondering if people think I’m strange, because I’m out there so often.
Interested in odd body shapes, rather than the standard “Good Girl” (some call it “T & A”) art. But still like drawing attractive people.
Went to the park at East Mont Royal Ave today. Mont Royal used to be a working class street, with taverns and fast food restaurants. Now, with the emergence of the Plateau as a trendy neighbourhood, it’s a place where people go to be seen. So, I thought I’d draw some of them.
The dog above took off almost as soon as I started painting it. A part of sketching from life is using your imagination and experience, because the subjects aren’t sitting still for you. The people sitting on the concrete wall were there for a while.
Fashionable woman on the street:
Later, when I got home, the sun was still out. So I drew the cats in a typical scene:
The cats are so peaceable.
Another pretty woman, because that’s what my gigs entail drawing, so I’m working on them.
Hooray! Fun!
Got some work to do. Just finding my way with a lot of drawings. I’m putting most of them up.
My commissions don’t call for watercolour, but if I can do things right in that, I can also handle the black and white. i like my new watercolour book, and also how things look in colour up here.
I think this sketch below, in pen on typing paper, will make an okay painting:
These are straight ink. I did a little overlay in photoshop of grey, and then moved it a bit. I like the “off-register” effect.
Not so happy with this businessman below, but I avoided photoshop tricks:
Bought a nice new sketch book, at l’Oiseau Bleu, one of the few remaining non-chain art stores in Montreal. I’m going to have to draw some of the architecture in the area around there, because there are interesting Beaux arts and Art Deco, even Art Nouveau buildings and details around there. It’s not a rich area, so some of the older things are hanging around longer, not renovated or torn down.
Anyhow, here are a few drawings from it. Except for the last one, which is from another, older book. I’ve got stacks of these things.
I feel asleep earlier in the evening, so didn’t get to sleep when it was time for bed. Sinking in and out, I dreamed in that half awake way that a famous author was staying at my place. Unfortunately I forgot the name of his new book that he told me. Later, I made myself some too hot vegetable ramen soup, and drew these sketches.
I’m posting them in this “big” format because I kind of like how it takes over the computer screen. I’ve been lax on other duties, but will try to get to them, and not worry too much. Later!
