Couple of half-sketch half paintings. Gal and gorilla. And long haired villain guy below:
Tried to get out to the comic jam tonight, but was driven back by the big rain, and a sore knee. Somehow conspiring to be as rotten as possible, when I wanted to get out. I guess that’s called story irony. Still think inanimate objects turn against me.
This is something different from my usual run of sketches. The Long Haul, which is a studio in Park Extension I hadn’t heard of before, is having an open house weekend. More here
Park Ex is an interesting neighbourhood, due to the number of immigrants from all over the world living there, plus artsy types. Some very strange re-purposed resto-bars, like low-budget Bladerunner. If I wasn’t living here, I’d certainly want to be there.
Saw this girl this afternoon, walking by. Not so apparent from my brilliant sketch, but she’s wearing thigh-high legwarmers with “Sally Jupiter” garters.
Sorry to report that this brilliant ugly old cat I used to see every day when I walked around the corner has passed on. 21 years old, a full and happy life.
“For in his morning orisons he loves the sun, and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.”
Thought the above would be rather larger. Maybe I’ll upload it with more detail. It was me painting at the Old Port yesterday, with people on Bixis going by, and old boats.
Below, Nora small cat gets avant-garde:
As I wrote in Twitter, it’s fun painting funny faces early in the morning. I snapped these with the camera rather than scanning them. Below is the purple lady from a couple of posts back. I guess that would be called a “second state” if I were printmaking.
Little Nora wanted her picture taken, too!
She seems a little peeved here, actually. I don’t know what goes on in these little furry heads, but usually watch the tail. In Nora’s case it looks tense.
After hiatus of a couple of weeks, met with my friend Rick Gagnon, but at a different bar this time. Different vibe, too. Above are his inks over an old man I drew. Below is a whiffle jet of mine, which I drew in pencil on the back of a printed sheet of paper (because Rick had the sketchbook), and then fooled around with in photoshop.
Pretty busy with work, which is mainly finding work. Did this sketch this morning, in tribute to one of the purple-haired ladies in UFO, the old British TV series. Will try to do a better one, sometime.
Sorry. Between twittering, reading, and work, I haven’t had much time to draw and blog. Here are some faces; partly for a project. Hope it gets off the ground!
Just more out of the sketchbook. Whatever’s there.
These are just sketches of people on the street (mainly walking dogs, by the way). I added little details like the shirt logos, and the background. And the can of fire starter.
David Hemmings from Blowup
I’m running a watercolour workshop later this spring, or early summer, the dates and details are yet to be confirmed. But the place will be the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore, at 211 Bernard West, in Mile End. This is my first try for a poster for the workshop. It will be going up in black and white, though I thought that since it was advertising watercolours, it should have watercolour.
I want to introduce artists of all abilities to methods and tricks which will help them create the pictures they want to do in watercolour. Whether it’s splashy abstracts and blots, or controlled, realistic and detailed. Mostly I want it to be fun, rather than intimidating. More on this in posts to come!
I’ve seen this cat every morning for years now, when I walk up rue Chapleau to the corner store at Hochelaga to get a banana or a beer. His owner called him “The King” once, so he’s the King of the block. Getting on in years now (think he’s about 16-18 years old), but still a happy, friendly cat. Click his pic for a few more of him, from this morning.
A car that’s sort of a 1950s Cadillac, though not exactly, and a guy from the street. I was working hard today. Had time to sketch these on the sunny deck.
The women are back playing baseball in the diamond near here. They’re loud, but not unwelcome.
Feeling nostalgic today, or at least watching all of the people getting into cars with flowers for mom. And my own Mom, so long gone (died in 1979), but always with me. Her paintings on the wall, some of her brushes and paints which I still use. Very few photos of her. I was rummaging through the paper photos and slides I have from years past. Lots of boring pictures of airplanes, buildings, and monuments. I was looking for faces, like the one above, of my Mom, Irene Ruttan, on the coast of Oregon, sometime in the 1970s.
It’s hard to get the people you care about to stand still for a moment and snap them. We’re too busy running through life. For a while, looking at the photo above for the first time in a long time, I hardly recognised that face. But it came back to me, or at least merged with the memories I have of her. Not all of them happy. I so wish she was around with me at the moment, to share with me, and help me through challenges. She’s given me so much already.
