Sketchbook page
My blog and I have been through some times. But since the advent of Facebook and Instagram and all of those corporate web things, the blog has been sort of neglected as of late. I used to post here daily, putting up whatever I had drawn that day, good bad, or indifferent.
I still draw a lot, but haven’t been posting as much. So, here’s a random page I’m sure hasn’t seen the light of day, just to keep my hand in.
I saved my blog today. It’s a little bit dated, and I’ve got to go through and prune the links on the left hand side. But I’m still carrying on!
I like drawing green monster boys. Did this one as quickly as I could, on the digital.
I’ve not been playing with the blog for a while, and something got broken. I’ve fixed that, and backed everything up, I think, so here’s another post! If this makes it to Instagram, I will be very happy.
I’m getting more cosy with the digital tools; painting on the computer. Still, I want to be more disciplined, and paint things that would look good in a portfolio. That means doing things with an eye towards pleasing people, rather than whatever strangeness comes out of my head.
It’s difficult to explain. I can draw whatever inside the sketchbook and it looks like a sketchbook, but what I do on the computer seems more like individual paintings rather than pages.
If something pleases me, or feels like it’s destined for general consumption rather than being strange, somewhat wobbly images from inside my head, I’ll put it up.
Maybe do some more 3D things. Or, maybe, comics….
I’m afraid I’m avoiding watercolours by drawing things such as this. He’s sort of true to this drawing software, which started life out as “Manga Studio.”
Back into watercolours. They’ll get better, I promise! Will use reference next time. Gee, there seems to be no shortcuts when it comes to stretching paper. I tried a lot of them, and no thanks. Paper tape and staples do the job.
A generous friend sent me a set of 168 wooden coloured pencils. (Is it “coloured” or “colour”? The last one sounds slightly illiterate.) I’ve taken them out of their packaging, where they were inaccessible, and put them into yogurt containers, where I can reach them and see what I’m drawing with.
Some of the pencils crumbled inside the twisty sharpener, so I’m sharpening them with the razor blade, as shown. It’s more like gentle stroking rather than a twisty reaching motion, and easier on the cores.
Here’s an example of something I drew. The pencils are called “blendable,” but they are only just. Maybe some sort of solvent will work. 
There’s a list of colours you can fill out with the accompanying numbers in case you need to buy a new pencil, but I wish they had come up with even dumb names for the colours, because I like those.
This is kind of cute, and seasonal. I’ve forgotten where it appeared, or what things were supposed to have gone wrong.
Sketches done on the Montreal Metro, trips over and back to Verdun. I waved at a baby, and he waved back! 
I think I’ve solved the “what to title the post” problem for the moment. Even my tools seem to be working better now. Still little strange things, such as how to make the pencil line bigger and smaller in something called InkScape. Who figured out that interface?
At least watercolours and pencils don’t have little numbers you have to enter in….
It’s hard thinking of witty titles for these things. I’m putting up more pages. Not the stuff I did the other night when I couldn’t sleep. That was weird and also messy.
Over the past couple of summers, a depanneur (convenience store, for you non-Montrealers) had a jar of gel pens for sale. When I was buying beer or cat food, if I was feeling flush, I’d pick one up. They are fun to play with, and I had a set of kid’s fluorescent paints to play with as well, but the scanner and putting it up on the internet takes away some of the vividness.
Ah well, I guess it’s like William Blake’s handcoloured poem prints. I’ve seen them for real, 200 years old, and reproductions don’t do them justice. Not that I’m comparing myself to Blake, but he’s one of my heroes.
Sadly, the neon pens aren’t very lightfast, and will probably fade to white in a few years. We will see.
Ha, I just noticed the oddness that this ancient scanner introduced up top. But this is the first time I’ve got the scanner working with the new computer (thanks to some old software), so I’m still thrilled.
