Hadn’t been to the Montreal Monthly Comic Jam for a while. My pal Rick Gagnon invited me over, so I decided to make the effort. Pleasant seeing Rick again. He embellished a couple of drawings of mine. The watercolour is especially great, because he did this (using my paints) in very low light, where it’s […]
Author Archive
July 29, 2015
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Back at the Comic Jam
By Jack Ruttan in collaboration, color, pen and ink, Rick Gagnon, sketches, watercolor, watercolour
July 26, 2015
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Watercolour Clematis
By Jack Ruttan in color, sketches, watercolor, watercolourPainted clematis spilling over the newel post, while sitting on my friend’s porch.
July 21, 2015
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Morning Face
By Jack Ruttan in sketchesJust some anonymous imaginary person, painted on the little computer.
June 25, 2015
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Digital Painting of a Building
By Jack Ruttan in digital, montreal, sketchesI assure you, these are hard for me to do. Trying to retain a bit of the handmade charm of the drawing, while the machine wants everything straight and boring. Also, choosing colours is difficult in this medium. In watercolours there are only a few tints, which you get used to. Still, even though this […]
June 25, 2015
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Review of The Penguin Book of Crime Stories, Vol II.
By Jack Ruttan in Book ReviewsI’ve read The Penguin Book of Crime Stories, Volume 2, Peter Robinson ed. Easy book to get through – reading story after story is like munching potato chips. I’ve now got the idea that a crime story is about conflict, but taken to the level that most of us rarely aspire to. We can hate […]
June 15, 2015
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Peggy and Stan
By Jack Ruttan in heads, sketches, watercolor, watercolour, womenDid a picture of Stan, who is Peggy’s hairy friend on the “Mad Men” TV show, when I realised I had space on the paper, and should probably do Peggy too. She was much harder to draw, and I spent most of the morning on that. Oh well. I like this paper.
June 9, 2015
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Something New
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, color, sketches, watercolor, watercolourIn a bit of a mood. So, these people are appropriate. I still love drawing with the ballpoint pen, no matter how unarchival it may be.
June 5, 2015
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Small Paintings
By Jack Ruttan in color, sketches, watercolourI first thought of titling this post “Fairly Insane Paintings,” but am trying to be kinder to myself. These all measured seven and half-inches wide, and I think I’m going to do a lot more of them, but on better paper. They were fun to paint. I don’t know what possessed me to put a […]
June 5, 2015
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Wedgewood Image
By Jack Ruttan in color, storyboards, watercolor, watercolourI’m very pleased with this image from a current project for filmmaker Jonathan Balacz, WEDGEWOOD. Even though it just appears as an image on a screen inside an image. The two figures are on separate layers, and I hope will be animated to chase each other through the scene, like Punch and Judy puppets.
June 3, 2015
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How not to Watercolour
By Jack Ruttan in color, heads, sketches, watercolor, watercolourDoing studies of faces today. Also watching Youtube videos detailing all the mistakes I’ve been making doing watercolour. It’s nice to know, but I still have fun doing things my way. Learned stuff, though, which is always good. [Link here!]
June 2, 2015
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Buddies
By Jack Ruttan in color, digital, paintingsThis digital painting seems nicer with the “saturation” turned down. I’m still not happy with my digital work, as it doesn’t seem to come as easy, or look as natural, as the watercolour. Still, it’s an interesting challenge, and things always improve as you work on them. To make nice lines with the stylus, I […]
June 2, 2015
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Characters
By Jack Ruttan in color, heads, sketches, watercolor, watercolourPainting characters the other day, while watching season one of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which is an often excellent cartoon series in terms of storytelling and characterisation. [Excerpt from Avatar: The Last Airbender] These faces aren’t from that series, but the line about the power plant was.
May 30, 2015
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Landscape
By Jack Ruttan in color, paintings, watercolor, watercolourHere’s another landscape. My family has a lot of landscape painters in it. Don’t know if I’m really keeping up the tradition, but it’s fun to smear paint around sometimes.
May 27, 2015
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Two Paintings of Montreal
By Jack Ruttan in montreal, paintings, watercolor, watercolourI need to take better notes, because it would be nice to know exactly where these places are. One is Ave Laval, I think. The one below is a converted firehall on rue Notre Dame West. Or, I could be way off.