Utopia Moment sketches and writing by Jack Ruttan and friends

Here’s my idea of what it would look like if Cirque du Soleil made it into outer space.

A guy in a chair. And one of those cats … it’s in there, too.

Feeling like I’m getting better at it. Actually, I just enjoy doing these.

Meanwhile, I’m watching a cheap supermarket DVD of the silent film “Nosferatu.” The picture quality is terrible, but every frame is a perfect image.

Having an awful time lately with people I like and have worked with, passing away. First Sonja Skarstedt, then Renee Wathelet. Now it’s Stuart Robertson.

Soft-spoken gardening expert on CBC radio, and columnist in the Gazette, he was also Chair of our Electronic Rights Defense Committee for a time. He sometimes had a bit of a temper, but I admired his style, his commitment and the handle he had on the issues.

This is the Montreal Gazette obituary: [link]

Here’s a blog post by friend and co-erdc-er Mary Soderstrom, explaining some of Stuart’s gardening chops: [link]

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]

Today I’m going to be cartooning at the Eaton Centre in Downtown Montreal, part of the events surrounding Car Free Day in that part of the city. Please visit, if you can make it!

Meantime, I bought a new little sketchbook (only 4″x6″), and drew a bunch of things. Mainly animal-related.

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!

Completely shocked this morning to hear about the brutal death of Renée Wathelet, a person with a great soul whose beautiful photographs graced her blog En direct des isles.

The nasty story is here.

Still drawing. Just haven’t scanned and blogged things for a bit. Here’s a little more…

Drew some guys walking in the street, and then added interesting backgrounds to them.

The first one worked out pretty well. Kind of Frank Miller-ish, except it’s a non Frank Miller subject. Will work on making blog posts more exciting. But at least they’re quick to do!

New Wave kid. The above and top are more or less inspired by the film Control, about the lead singer of Joy Division. Below, just things on the street. Dogs go by, people go by.

Mostly based around movies, etc. I’m making you guess.

Feel like I should be more directed in these things. Like just not drawing only whatever pops into my head. Mind you, it’s a kind of therapy, and relaxation. I’m not doing it for a goal.

Above is a scene from an air race in the golden age of such things, the 1930s.

Below, a drawing I made while watching The Mist on DVD, a movie set in a supermarket.

Lastly, this was drawn after I heard a news story about a terrible driver, who kept getting a second chance, and kept getting into accidents. He was almost always inebriated, and kept driving and running people over even after his license was suspended. Guess he really loved to drive, the idiot.

This was also done with my sepia tone colour ballpoint pen. Usually I like the pen point blobbing, as something that adds to the picture, but not in this case.

Having fun with my coloured ballpoint pens. Back to school time is also good for artists, because of all the sales.