Had lunch with a couple of cartoonist friends. Richard Gagnon, Éric Theriault, and Kurt Beaulieu. Got them to draw things in one of my old sketchbooks. Whee! Almost like the good old days, except what’s older are us three…. This was done with my Pentel Brush Pen, which I promptly lost later in the day. […]
Archive for the ‘montreal’ Category
Lunch with Friends
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, brush pen, heads, montreal, pen and ink, Portraits, Rick Gagnon, sketchesWatercolour 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 […]
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 […]
News Extra
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, montreal, sketchesThis was such a fun freelance gig. I did illustrations and writing for NEWS EXTRA, a newspaper tabloid sold at supermarkets and gas stations. It pretended to come out of Florida, but was actually published from an office in the Notre Dame de Grace neighbourhood of Montreal. Every other week or so I brought in […]
Housing Clinic
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, black and white, montreal, pen and ink, sketchesSketches taken during a visit to Arnold Bennett’s housing clinic in Montreal. He does good work with people who have apartment problems.
Mount Royal Sketches
By Jack Ruttan in color, montreal, paintings, parks, sketches, watercolor, watercolourYesterday, I went to a friend’s place just over Mount Royal, Not far from the Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery gates. And it was such a nice day I sketched this elaborate monument just inside the gates. Got to the other side of the “mountain.” That’s the part I call the “front” because it faces what used to […]
First Snow
By Jack Ruttan in montreal, ruttan's placeMy nice neighbour Sylvie is trying to coax a little declawed cat out from under a front porch around the corner. Unfortunately, she’s doing this by rapping with spoon on a closed can of cat food. I think she’d do better with opening the can, leaving it a little distance away from the gap under […]
A Montreal Moment
By Jack Ruttan in montreal, ruttan's placeI have a middle-aged neighbor named Michel, who lives across the way here on rue de Rouen. Yesterday afternoon, when I was lugging my bike down my front stairs, he beckoned to me, and crossed the street, wanting to talk. I was headed off to Expozine, the November book, comics and alternative art fair. But […]
Shrine to Leonard Cohen
By Jack Ruttan in montreal, ruttan's placeComing back from Expozine, the November book and alternative art fair, I thought I’d take a detour and visit Leonard Cohen’s house at the corner of Boulevard Saint Laurent and rue Marie Anne in Montreal. My friend used to have an apartment around the corner, so I knew this place well. Never saw Mr. Cohen, […]
Remember the Days In the Old Schoolyard
By Jack Ruttan in color, montreal, paintings, ruttan's place, sketches, watercolor, watercolourKids in the schoolyard facing my balcony are playing in the leaves. I couldn’t resist sketching them. They move too fast, so this is mainly imagination, but I hope I’ve captured a hint of the colours and fun.
Dig Pigs
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, comics, montreal, watercolor, watercolourThis morning I was annoyed at all the construction noise outside, so drawing this felt like a good way to get rid of my frustrations. The title “Dig Pigs” is from graffiti I saw on one of this city’s ubiquitous “ROAD CLOSED” signs. It made me laugh.
Colour Pictures
By Jack Ruttan in color, montreal, paintings, sketches, watercolor, watercolourTwo-Two-Two-Oh, rue Parthanais
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, montreal, pencil, sketchesDrat, forgot the little fruit juice bottle full of water, so this is pencil only. This is the artists’ co-op on Parthenais street. Someone trusted me enough to let me watch their bike as I sketched this. Glad they weren’t away for too long.
New Paintings
By Jack Ruttan in color, Jack's House of Cats, montreal, paintings, watercolor, watercolourIt’s been a while, but here are some new paintings for “Jack’s House of Cats.” Both of them are re-imagined a little. I snapped the Hotel Kent in the early 90s, when the sign was still up. But in this, I tried to picture what it was like in its “heyday.” The Bain Morgan is […]