Trying to do more “House of Cats” pictures, but I’m lacking inspiration. So I went to youtube and watched watercolour technique videos. People’s hands are fascinating, but in these videos you rarely see the faces. So, I drew the hands in watercolour pencil, and then drew the owners’ faces as I imagined them. [link] [link] […]
Author Archive
Hands
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, Coloured Pencils, pencil, Portraits, sketches, watercolor, watercolourNew Animation Studio
By Jack Ruttan in color, Coloured Pencils, heads, men, montreal, pencil, Portraits, self-promotion, sketchesThrilled by the news that a new animation studio is opening up in Montreal (a side-effect, I think, of the low dollar making it more tempting for foreign operations to invest here. Not to mention the high number of talented artistic types in this city). In honour of that fact, I’ve done this amazing, highly-detailed […]
Paintings on Whatman paper
By Jack Ruttan in paintings, ruttan's place, self-promotionThis is a recent painting I did on the Whatman paper. Even though I work hard on adding light, I fancy that it’s somehow brighter, almost sparkly. Here’s the paper stretched and ready to go: Here’s a closeup of the grain. It’s pretty rough, Hot-rolled, as they say (I think). Maybe I’m the only one […]
J. Whatman Antique Paper
By Jack Ruttan in paintings, ruttan's place, sketches, watercolor, watercolourIn the last post I was writing about painting on simple typing paper, and the (futile) effort of stretching it. Well, today I was stretching some old paper I had inherited from my late Mom’s stash of art materials, which I had taken with me to Montreal back in 1987 from our family home in Calgary. […]
Cheesy Paper
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesSometimes it’s fun to do something completely against the rules, and find out how it works. In this case I found out that trying to stretch ordinary typing paper doesn’t work. Kind of fun to paint on with gouache, however.
Mr. Boggedy in the Front Room
By Jack Ruttan in cats, paintings, sketches, watercolor, watercolourFrustration today with Canada Post website, with which the latest technology and biggest brains in the nation (I’m sure), won’t let me figure out how much it will cost to send a painting to the USA. But at least while rummaging through old envelopes I found a cool picture of Mr. Boggedy in my front […]
Hard Cheese for Mister Boggedy
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, cats, pencil, sketchesIt’s been a pretty hard morning to be a gentle, senior cat. First, he tries to walk by the old girl cat. He is hissed at and then swatted for his trouble. He then goes out into the hallway, where he is sniffed and then thwacked by the small cat. Happily it’s all quiet now, […]
Condolence Flowers for the family of Mme. Primeau
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesSomeone I’ve known since 1991. She was born in 1916, passed away this Jan 2nd.
Nora Small Cat
By Jack Ruttan in cats, color, Nora the cat, watercolor, watercolourDifferent kinds of paper lead to different results. This was a watercolour “block” which was slightly softer and “fluffier” than the paper I’ve been using.
“Traditional” Media
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, black and white, color, heads, paintings, Portraits, sketches, watercolor, watercolour, womenI’ve been so deep into digital, that I began to wonder whether I could still do useful things with paper. Below is a drawing a made during a phone coversation (they’re often long, at least with my friend). Black ballpoint pen in my sketchbook. Above is a made-up woman painted on a sample of my […]
People and Backgrounds
By Jack Ruttan in color, digital, men, paintingsI’m pretty thrilled over the control I have of the stylus. Working on backgrounds and lighting now, as well as the people.
Further Digital People
By Jack Ruttan in color, digital, sketchesDigital is like pen and ink, in that it’s hard to know when to let go of something. There’s always one other little improvement to make. Happily, I seem to have tamed my stylus, which was giving me all sorts of headaches, like a pencil nib that keeps breaking off, or a pen that blobs, […]
Bad Cattery
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, black and white, cats, color, Gouache, sketches, watercolor, watercolour