Watercolour Faces
By Jack Ruttan in color, Gouache, heads, Jack's House of Cats, men, montreal, paintings, Portraits, self-promotion, sketches, watercolourI’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!
Green Hair
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, heads, paintings, Portraits, sketches, watercolor, watercolour, womenCat Gurl, etc….
By Jack Ruttan in sketches
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….
April Blog
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, color, Coloured Pencils, heads, montreal, paintings, pencil, ruttan's place, sketches, watercolor, watercolourHere 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.
Dinos
By Jack Ruttan in sketches, watercolor, watercolourI’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!
Ninja Turtle
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesThis is actually just a sketch of a guy in the metro I’ve embellished a little. I don’t get much time to draw in the metro, and I certainly can’t watercolour. But it’s fun to play with things in my book, after the fact.
Tree and Cat
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesTags: cats, colour, sketches, watercolour
Jack R.’s Patreon
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesI haven’t been able to put this on the sidebar of my site. But I’ve created a Patreon Page. People can visit it, see cool stuff maybe you can’t see here, and make contributions and such-like. It’s what artists are doing these days.
You can also write me and ask for a commission. A watercolour of a photo you like, a family member, pet or scene. Here’s the link!
Skinny Nameless Punk
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesMy comic strip I created with Richard Gagnon has flown the coop for the moment. I think I need to update my “comicpress” theme, and am afraid they want money from now on. Still, I’m working on it, and in the meanwhile, I did a little drawing of him to practice my digital drawing skills.