Utopia Moment sketches and writing by Jack Ruttan and friends

The first one is from a photo in a movie mag. Defiance, if you care. The rest are out of my fevered head.

Met with my friends at the bar last evening. Collaborated with a few sketches, which you see above and below. James up there was drawn by me, and inked by Rick Gagnon.

This lady is a combination of my talents, and Marr’s:

Something for Marr’s sketchbook: an old guy I drew, Marr inked, then I finished with some grays:

Rick, meanwhile was drawing portraits of guys at the bar:

Finished one, and the guy liked it so much that he called his friend over and Rick drew him:

They were offering money for the drawings, but Rick wouldn’t hear of it. I was trying to negotiate for him, but he was busy drawing a third from the group:

Drawing by Marr and Rick. What’s she pointing at?

Now these three things were drawn by Rick and Marr on another night. But they wanted me to post them:

Brrr! Creepy muppets!

Rick also did some formal portraits of other people at the bar. I think these show promise. He’s still sticky about taking money, but maybe he wants to avoid a future stuck in “Artist’s Alley” at Montreal’s Old Port.

Still, he could probably make a living. I get the feeling I’d be too busy making nasty fun of people and get punched out.

I started a couple of comic pages at last Night’s Montreal Comic Jam, but you can’t see them because they were packed away, and I didn’t take my handy little digital camera to take snaps of them, or of the jam participants, for that matter.

So you’ll have to be content with this little doodle from my sketchbook, upon which I splashed some watercolours.

The thing was, the Jam took place at the Cock N’ Bull pub, the same spot I am going this afternoon, to meet with my friends (both of whom I was with last night), and draw more silly pictures. You’ll undoubtedly see those posted here, soon.

A little light. I’d better go. It’s time for the Monthly Montreal Comic Jam!

Link to New York Times Obituary

I grew up with his writing. At one time, tried to read everything he wrote. That would be difficult, considering his rate of production. Still, with all his faults, and his establishmentarianism, he was one of my heroes.

I don’t know what to say about this one. Maybe just back away, slowly.

Actually, I like pictures full of silly characters. This one measures 10″x13″, if anyone cares.

A little at sixes and sevens this weekend, and drawing helps me relax. I’m not going to identify the pair up above, because fans of celebrities on the internet are sometimes crazy, and will go to silly lengths being rude trying to preserve their imaginary relationships with their idols.

I might tell you more stories about it, some other time. I don’t think it’s a feature of the internet, just a strangeness inside of people that the internet has helped bring out. Akin to religion, which I guess is a need inside of some.

Doing a lot of monkeys, but not all like this.

If last week’s drawing and drinking session at the Cock N’ Bull carried on without me, this one started and finished without any of my input at all.

I was sick, and had to beg off and stay home. Never mind, Richard Gagnon and Marr drew up a storm without me. Judging from these pictures Rick sent today, I’m sad to have missed it.

What bugs me, I guess, is that in the few comments I have gotten, here on the blog and on flickr (where these photos are stored), people have been praising me for these drawings, and of course I had nothing to do with them.

But the blog tagline does say “drawings by Ruttan and Friends,” so here you are.

I’ve actually thought of setting up a separate blog, updated once every week to contain these collaborative productions, but that would make this site less fun.

Still, it’s interesting to see how these two carry on without me. The drawings don’t look all that different from the ones I started. Maybe I was underestimating the contribution Rick put into the pictures, or maybe I’ve had an influence on the others.

These last three pics were pencilled by Rick, and show off some of his strange sense of whimsy. The guy above looks a little like me, but I don’t wear a neckerchief, or play hockey. So he’s likely a doppelganger. The last creature reminds me a bit of the baby in that early 90s puppet sitcom Dinosaurs.

I like the kinda rough, dashed-off quality of these. And also the texture of the paper in the scan. It looks like old skin.

This cat looks unhappy, even though he’s showing off the most wonderful ‘gator. Hope he’s not trapped in there, but the animal seems placid enough.

I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow I’ll bother using some perspective. At least I might be in a better mood about things.

In the meantime, there’s this snap of a drawing by Marr and Rick Gagnon from last week, which I forgot. Lovely fingernails, by the way.

Stuff I enjoy painting.

This is supposed to be a DeHavilland DH98 Mosquito, the best plane ever! These used to fly out of Calgary, my old home town.

Just a couple of TV people. What more to say? Talking about drawing sometimes spoils it.