I love (and fear) monsters, so draw them a lot. The above (“Jasconius the Friendly Whale”) has little to do with Saint Brendan, except it’s something I drew remembering a National Geographic Society map of his voyages. The real story is different.
More ball-point pen-drawn monsters below, and a guy. Stories are long-winded, so I’ll let you imagine them.
For a job that’s taking longer than it should (these are the lazy days of summer, after all), I’ve been painting flowers. It’s outside my comfort zone, but that’s why I take these tasks on, to learn new things. The clematis above aren’t perfect (mainly a matter of colour), but I’m working on it today. For me practice makes perfect, or at least better.
Note the half-hidden cats who were lurking in my friend’s garden as I was sketching.
My Mom painted flowers and landscapes all her life. She hated hard edges, and enjoyed the serendipity of the happy accident. Once the cat walked over a painting of hers while it was wet, and all she did was draw little stems from the paw prints, and they became some new type of flower.
She was private, and never really shared the secrets of her craft with me. But I did inherit her paints and brushes after she died in 1979, and maybe a fraction of her talent. At least I’ve got the urge to draw and paint. It’s something I love and it’s saved my life, when I’ve been feeling too dark.
I wish it had saved hers. Ironically, it got less relaxing for her when she started getting more successful, and selling pictures. Wish I had more of those pictures around, but there are a bunch with my sister. Above is a stand of poppies we had in our garden in Calgary, Alberta.
I’m working on the trees and bushes, also. These are matters of light and dark which I am figuring out. Also something of perspective. I’d like to paint the actual tree in front of me, rather than just a symbol for a tree.
This rather disorganised (and at the same time, too detailed) image is my friend’s catalpa tree in her back yard, in bloom. Did you know “catalpa,” which is a beautiful word, is really a misspelling of “catawpa,” which is what the native Americans called the tree?
Fun with people, and dinosaurs.
And Nora the cat:
I’ve been drawing and painting a lot, but not blogging much. Will try to remedy that today. So here are some pen drawings with the amazing erasable gel pen in different colours. La la.
Need to practice my landscapes. Well, that’s what this is for! Everyone should draw, everyday.
But I don’t want to sound prescriptive!
Pretty girls! Airplanes! “The Artist” movie.
Angry men! My friend’s floofy cat! Isaac Asimov!
Actual people from street (including little boy with oldstyle Chinese haircut), and things from my fevered imagination.
Various women, wonderful and otherwise, also a gingko leaf.
That’s about the size of it. This one is cheaper, and fits not too badly into the scanner. I’ve been away drawing things, so I thought I may as well put up everything I’ve been doing until now in one blow.
These were drawn with a pilot frixion gel pen, which has the virtue of being erasable. So, no pencil underdrawing, and no whiteout if there are terrible mistakes!
That’s part of my friend’s back yard, where I’ve been spending a little time with her and her cat.
She told me a story about a silly dog who peed on a street artist’s painting. Instant sale I should think, unless the dog owner scampered!
My friend contributed a little drawing (lower left) and some words, while I was out looking for beer!
Just away from the scanner for a bit. Please don’t send search parties after me. You can see me lurking in Verdun!
I like drawing wreckage, also pretty women. They don’t really go together, except perhaps in a fashion mag.
More faces, like it said up top, but this time I’m inking them with the brush pen, so they’re not as scratchy. Not sure which I prefer. Above are Liv Tyler from The Lord of the Rings, two faces from the DVD cover for “Sky Captain,” and the sinister Conrad Black, recently released from prison to commit more depredations.
He actually seems like a smart guy, Mr. Black, but I wouldn’t want my grandma investing money with him!
(Oh yeah, bonus ghost cat)
Below are more faces, and another thing I like, cars. Both the running-shoe modern type, and the old-fashioned big-butt muscle cars.
And another note. I got a little ego-boost from the CBC. More news on that, later.
Stuff I drew the other day. Still drawing … you can’t stop me!
Drawing this morning on the balcony, before the rains came. People walking by, mainly moms and dads back from delivering kids to the nearby day care.
Bonus: a sensitive portrait of my foot.
The coarse cardboard at the back of the sketchbook is nice for drawing with certain types of tools. Here I used colour pencils, and also colour ballpoint pens.
Then, a more normal drawing (in execution at least) from the middle of the book, based on one of Big Daddy Roth’s dragster-driving monsters. I used to love these.
Think I’ll colour this one. Of course he needs more popping blood vessels!
Bought some fun new pens (called “Pilot FriXion Ball” gel pens, in brown, .5 mm and .7mm respectively, plus a new sketchbook, because those were on sale at the art store). So I decided to sketch with them using brown pencils to embellish, as necessary.
“Brown Studies” is not what the name really means, which I think is a Victorian code phrase for pornographic literature. I could look that up (because the internet seems to hold all knowledge, especially of those kinds of things), but won’t because I’m lazy, and just want to post these up here.
The usual from me, but maybe more variety, and possibly even a hint of coolness, because I drew some things from the recent issue of “EXCLAIM” magazine. Other things are from off the street, vaguely, or out of my roiling, fevered head.
Happily, the rains stopped yesterday, enough to allow me to sit on the balcony and get a modicum of sun. Interesting people were out in the streets, but I’m worried that they seemed more hip than the usual residents, and I wondered if this neighbourhood was further gentrifying.
The amount of English I heard spoken in the streets was a worry for me too, because I treasure my exile in this area.
Tags: ballpoint pen, sketches
