Here’s “Cover Art” by Yours Truly, for the autumn issue of Roses and Wildflowers, “The Magazine of Mythopoeia and Fabulism.”
That’s quite a mouthful, but I’m getting used to it. Please click on the link, and subscribe. Their heart is in the right place!
Here’s another oldie!
https://mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/illustration-by-jack-ruttan
Here’s an illustration I did for The Montreal Review of Books, Fall issue, 2023.
It didn’t actually appear in the print version of the magazine, only online. But still, I got some money!
Butterscotch Candies OF DEATH
I don’t know why these things are so cheap. Only a dollar a bag. They stop me from coughing on the train….
I watched the big Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker on DVD the other evening. I would have been thrilled to see this on the big screen as a kid, but now it just seems like the filmmakers made a lot of notes about what would go into a Star Wars film, and then threw that up on the screen.
They would introduce some new character or machine or alien species that I liked, and wanted to see more of, but then go on to something completely different. All set to a bombastic musical score, and edited very quickly. I need to get back into movies, but why bother when you can create something just as good in your head, or in your $4.00 sketchbook with a pencil on a Monday morning over coffee?
First Day of Fall Cat
I’m just putting this up to see how big the graphic is…. Not too impressive, eh?
It’s relaxing sitting on the front balcony doodling faces and the passing scene outside. People go by, things go by, as James Agee put it…
Watercolour takes a lot of work to get back to one’s level. Haven’t sold a ton of things, but I’m enjoying just splashing around with a brush. Might try holding some watercolour workshops!
Hey! Another April post! I found the one monochrome drawing underneath the cart that holds my printer. It was dusty, and had lived under there I’m sure since the year under my initials.
The second one is from a sketchbook, and more from this year. Sorry for the negative emotion, and swear word.
Still, there are so many drawings around to post and scan. I’m still working on how to archive them. Not that I’m famous, or anything….
Here we are, in my old-fashioned editor, putting up pictures from my sketchbook into my old-fashioned blog. I used to know how to write CSS, and make pretty styles for text and paragraphs. Not to mention the tags for these illustrations.
Haven’t done much of that for a long while!
I listened to a good podcast. One of my comics heroes, Kate Beaton, gave a talk in Edmonton about rich and poor people doing fine arts, including comics. You can listen to it here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/
I think her best point was that working class people are no longer mainly toiling in fields. Most are working in the services industry. I write about that up above, in my sketchbook.
I’m from an upper middle class background, but I’m not well off these days, and what is left of my family is far away physically. AI is doing a lot of what I used to do art and writing-wise, for much less money, and physical problems prevent me from working the way I used to, on construction sites and in retail. I’m also now officially a senior citizen. So, despite past advantages, I don’t feel like I’m coming from a position of privilege any more, and it’s fine if I continue doing comics and writing strange stories.
I need to get those out more, though!
Met a man today I hadn’t seen for a long time. He was working in a garden. He’s doing okay, is still in the neighbourhood, but is moving into a new place, and has heart issues. He’s been following my blog.
I was able to speak with him totally in French, at least the way I speak it, which is with a strong accent and bad grammar.
Below is a watercolour of a squirrel, which was fun to do. They have such rhythm in their bodies! I painted this on my back deck, and also painted a daffodil, which are coming out now.
Jonquille is Daffodil in French. Thus ends the lesson for today.
I’m actually glad the more recent reconstructions of Tyrannosaurus Rex aren’t as feathery as they were a few years back, when I drew these things.
Mainly I’m posting this because I noticed I hadn’t posted anything this year yet, so I wanted to keep the blog more or less fresh. I am paying for the web space, after all!
