Drawing this morning on the balcony, before the rains came. People walking by, mainly moms and dads back from delivering kids to the nearby day care.

Bonus: a sensitive portrait of my foot.

Bought some fun new pens (called “Pilot FriXion Ball” gel pens, in brown, .5 mm and .7mm respectively, plus a new sketchbook, because those were on sale at the art store). So I decided to sketch with them using brown pencils to embellish, as necessary.

“Brown Studies” is not what the name really means, which I think is a Victorian code phrase for pornographic literature. I could look that up (because the internet seems to hold all knowledge, especially of those kinds of things), but won’t because I’m lazy, and just want to post these up here.

The usual from me, but maybe more variety, and possibly even a hint of coolness, because I drew some things from the recent issue of “EXCLAIM” magazine. Other things are from off the street, vaguely, or out of my roiling, fevered head.

Happily, the rains stopped yesterday, enough to allow me to sit on the balcony and get a modicum of sun. Interesting people were out in the streets, but I’m worried that they seemed more hip than the usual residents, and I wondered if this neighbourhood was further gentrifying.

The amount of English I heard spoken in the streets was a worry for me too, because I treasure my exile in this area.

Darn. That implies “rotten” in French. I was trying to evoke “pot-pourri” as in variety, a kind of goulash of drawings. Anyhow, above is a haughty dame perfectly dressed in a retro outfit. I was happy to see her the other day. The view from the balcony is getting interesting again. Well, not today, because it’s raining. I think even the cats get SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) if this sort of thing goes on for too long.

Anyhow, below is a random sketchbook page, including Jude Law:

Tough guys, yeahh. (again, from the balcony):

Went to a launch, which was really a reading, of books by some friends of mine. I like to sketch during these things, but this time I found that drawing the people sitting around listening was more interesting than drawing the readers.

Once, long ago, I had decided to draw every author whose reading I had attended. That resulted in many drawings of people looking down, talking into microphones. Became a little the same after a while. Also, I haven’t been to many readings for a while, being somewhat out of that sphere as of late.

But it was pleasant catching up with some of the people I hadn’t seen for a while, and hear what they were doing.

This was at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, in Montreal.

A little of everything here. A watercolour painting up above. Coloured pic of Jean Paul Belmondo from the movie Stavisky below.

Sketches, one perhaps not so wisely coloured. I’m interested in what dinosaurs looked like, because I have the lumbering old-style beasts still stuck in my head. This Tyrannosaurus has a few feathers, which surprises his mortal enemy, the Triceratops. The cave woman is not period, however. Unless that period is the 1960s.

Then some normal, like, sketches off my balcony.

This is supposed to be Sylvain Chomet, director of the Triplets of Belleville.

Here are some digital and watercolour pictures (and blends of both) that I’ve been doing today, and over the weekend. So many things to tell about these, and there are still challenges, and important things to learn. But what’s most important is that I’m feeling comfy with the tools, and having fun.

Above is using a movie poster “Another Silence” for reference. Drawn totally with the tablet.

Below, an object on the table at my friend’s, again drawn digitally, from life.

A couple of watercolours. English Bob, below, has digital enhancements (really more of an accident, and my erasing, which looked cool) in the background.

Cindy, who is a face I made up, is pure watercolour.

Hope all of you are having fun with your own experiments!

It will be nice when I can reliably produce images i’m happy with. Anyhow, it’s fun to play with, if a little time-consuming.

I’m not a portrait type (that’s why I’m working on these!), but the machine has tools (particularly Photoshop’s “Liquefy”) which allows you to make little adjustments to a picture which would otherwise take lots of uncomfortable erasing and redrawing. I think mine work best when I’m quick and loose, but this medium encourages a lot of tinkering. Certainly don’t want to do photographic likenesses, though it would be cool to have that ability. A couple of these are drawn from photographs, but not traced!

This last one was from a manipulated pencil drawing, while the others were sketched completely on the screen.

This is the exact format I don’t need to work on my new site. Nonetheless, a couple of miscellaneous watercolours I was doodling in my watercolour book. The woman is a Solid Gold Dancer, the height of femininity in the 1980s.

This guy was painted because I took out from the library a book of John Howe paintings for J.R.R. Tolkien stories. When it comes to drawing, I like nasty things and pretty things equally as much.

I inked her and coloured her digitally from a little ball-point pen drawing, and I’m happy with it. I can get more sophisticated as I learn more little tricks. But most of the stuff works, and I can do it in a reasonable amount of time. So, hooray!