I’m grouchy today, so this R. Crumb-influenced drawing of a young woman is appropriate.
March 22, 2011
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Oversized Sketchbookery
By Jack Ruttan in men, sketches, watercolour, women
I’m doing another Australopithecine strip. Just wait. Could they try and make a shorter name for those little monkey-like beings, possible ancestors of you and I? I don’t know, “Monkey People” is inaccurate.
Am going to do some B.C. kind of commentary on the modern world, but want to try to keep it as much “in period” as possible. No monkeys wearing glasses, etc. Though they do have modern sensibilities, while dealing with their own prehistoric concerns. We’ll just see how it turns out, if stories continue past the next strip!
In the meantime, I’m decorating pages of my big sketchbook, as above. You can’t really tell that the above is big, but it’s 11 inches by 14. Too large to put into the scanner at one go. Maybe you can’t see the joins I made in Photoshop.
I’m noticing [here] that the creator of Achewood is putting away his strip for a while. Fans might howl (afraid I didn’t follow the strip), but I understand. A decade with a strip and the same characters makes it hard to keep things fresh. I hate drawing the same character more than once! Wondering what it’s like to have an audience demanding the same thing from you week after week. Don’t have to worry about that, at the moment.
Here are some other things I was doodling the other day. May get around to colouring them at some point:
The face belongs to Mitchell Bernal, an artist with Disney and other places, whom I was watching an interview with on Schoolism.com. It’s fairly tortuous to watch, I’d just put it on as audio in the background, but his story is very instructive to us art types. Art, or writing, is a hard road. People have to love your stuff if you’re going to make living from it, and there’s no guarantee of that. But if you’re like me, you keep on pumping it out. As I do here and elsewhere.
Tags: black and white, men, sketches, watercolour, women
March 18, 2011
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Pleistocene Panic
By Jack Ruttan in UncategorizedI was freaking out over current events, and looking at a candle flame in my Swedish Lantern. Thought of this story, and drew it all in one night. I wonder if this argument actually took place long ago?
Here’s a bonus Rachel Maddow:
Tags: ballpoint pen, cartoons, comics, current events, Pen & Ink
March 12, 2011
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More Ballpoint Rambling
By Jack Ruttan in horses, men, sketches
Ballpoint pens are fun, and you can kind of get some nice tones happening. Not very archival, I imagine.
Tags: Animals, ballpoint pen, horses, men, sketches
March 11, 2011
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New theme, same old drawings.
By Jack Ruttan in men, sketches, watercolour, women
Finally chose a new theme I like for the blog. It wasn’t easy! It will take me a while to get used to this one, but at least all the little details seem to work. On the old one, that wasn’t the case. I still might change the font for the headings, if my meagre knowledge of CSS and Php allows me.
Still, I’m drawing and painting things. Above are a couple of panels. Below, my subway people from the other day, now painted.
Tags: black and white, Brush Pen, colour, men, Pen & Ink, sketches, watercolour, women
March 9, 2011
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Alsatian
By Jack Ruttan in dogs, men, montreal, watercolour, women
The drawings look more realistic when copied from photographs. My problem is, it’s boring to draw from photographs. I’m painting shapes rather than trying to think around an object.
Oh, I just remembered. Drew some sketches on the metro the other day. These to me are the best faces. I don’t know they have a kind of beautiful sadness you don’t see in photos. People in their own little worlds, trying to keep to themselves. Headed to who knows where.
Unfortunately, the cars are old, and sections of the track are bumpy. Funny to see everyone still reading, listening to players, but bumping up and down with those straight faces. Hard to draw, however. That’s what happened to the face on the bottom.
Tags: Animals, Brush Pen, colour, dogs, men, montreal, Pen & Ink, watercolour, women
March 9, 2011
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Intense Women
By Jack Ruttan in paintings, watercolour, women
Trying to make these as intense as possible, colour-wise. Don’t know if they work. But there you are!
Tags: colour, paintings, watercolour, women
March 8, 2011
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Up too late, and Blogging…
By Jack Ruttan in men, sketches, watercolour, women
Feeling very boring tonight. Above is this character from “The Exterminators,” a Vertigo comic a friend gave me. Below, a guy with a dog. Yay!
Tags: colour, men, sketches, watercolour, women
March 6, 2011
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Musketeers and Horses
By Jack Ruttan in horses, paintings, sketches, watercolour
While I was painting these, I was watching the excellent Cyrano de Bergerac movie with Gérard Depardieu.
I had the honour of working with Mr. Depardieu, as an extra in the crowd, for the film Nouvelle France. Didn’t see much of him, but he seemed like a real gent.
Tags: Animals, colour, horses, paintings, sketches, watercolour
March 4, 2011
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Wintery Couple
By Jack Ruttan in men, paintings, watercolour, women
Tags: colour, men, paintings, watercolour, women
March 2, 2011
10
The Case of the Exploding Electric Toothbrush
By Jack Ruttan in ruttan's place, sketches, watercolour
I’ve been using an electric toothbrush for a couple of months. A little nervous about it at first, because the sound of it in my mouth was like the dental tools which still make me shivery. But it seemed to do a great job polishing the teeth, making them white and shiny.
That was until the other night, when I was brushing before going to bed, and the device exploded on me, while it was in my mouth!
It went off with a loud pop, which blew the cap off the bottom of the toothbrush across the living room (I was wandering around, as I tend to do sometimes when brushing teeth). Both batteries flew a long way also, and the case was split open, as you see in the shot below.
It was a healthy force, a recoil causing it to nearly fly out of my hand, but I wasn’t hurt. Pretty shocked, though. I don’t like things exploding like that when they’re near my face. Wondering what would have happened if someone else, or something had been in the way. Can lose an eye that way, as Mom used to say.
I think the culprit wasn’t the toothbrush per se, but the cheap Dollar Store batteries I’d bought to put in. Batteries last about a month. These were little AAA cells, but the brand was one I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. (I liked the old “black cat with lightning-bolt” tail). As you can see in the photo below, these look corroded.
Maybe moisture was getting into the case, and caused a reaction. Anyhow, I tweeted about it the night it happened (got some sympathy for being an easily-scared boy). Later I looked up the Colgate web site (with annoying music) and called customer service. More annoying music, and a voice mail menu, and I reached Melissa, somewhere in the US.
Short of it is, I’m sending the brush with batteries to them via UPS. I hope that helps them make better, or at least safer toothbrushes. Think I’m also writing Consumer Reports, or maybe they can read this blog entry.
When I looked up “Exploding electric toothbrush” on the web, most of what I got was about a lawsuit a gentleman in British Columbia was pursuing. It seemed he wasn’t as lucky as I was. From the link, it seemed like he was getting a lot of ribbing from commenters for suing. But that was the only reference to toothbrushes exploding I could find, and I imagine there must have been others this has happened to.
So, I hope this helps. A friend of mine thought the problem was that I had bought a cheap toothbrush (no, think it was rather the cheap batteries, but you never know!). She had been having gingivitis problems, which had been resolved by a $90 rechargeable Oral-B. This one cost about $10.00
Still, for the time being, it’s back to manual toothbrushes for me. Even though they’re a little less effective, I’m now shy of putting electrically powered things in my mouth.
Tags: Brush Pen, cartoons, colour, ruttan's place, sketches, watercolour
February 21, 2011
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Light Box Mark II
By Jack Ruttan in cats, ruttan's place, sketchesAs related in an earlier post on my tumblr blog, this year I built a light box, to trace drawings for watercolours. It was made out of a cardboard box my scanner came in, a couple of dollar store LED light bars, and a square of frosted glass I’d found in an alley.
It was adequate, but not ideal. Happily, at the art store I had a chance to look inside a commercial light box (costing $100 and upwards: my thing cost me about $4.00 for the two light bars). That gave me a better idea of how these things actually work. So, here is light box Mark II:
The battery-powered bars are now attached to one side of the box inside, and aim slightly downwards at a white reflector. Ideally, this should be highly polished white metal, as found on the sides of supersonic jets, and tested in secret labs.
I went for a sheet of craft cardboard. Fifty cents and tax at the good old dollar store. It seems to work fine, though I’m looking for a more powerful light. Maybe a lamp scavenged from a street sale or flea market. The nice thing about this device is that it’s light, cheap, and fits on my lap.
Note this heavy steel straight edge I used to cut the high-precision parts for this creation. Engraved on it are the letters “RCAF” and some strange code. This could only have been used to draft plans for jet-powered Spitfires to win the Battle of Britain!
Tags: Brush Pen, cartoons, cats, colour, ruttan's place, sketches
February 20, 2011
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Sunday Things
By Jack Ruttan in cats, sketches, women
I’m not relating to Sundays much. Thought I’d get some time off, but I’ve got to prepare for a meeting and some work. Still, I found time to sketch these things. Small cat, and some dame. I don’t call them watercolours because they involve the brush pen, and aren’t pure. I like modelling things in pure form, and not adding lines. But lines are essential, sometimes.
Anyhow, this is the thin crinkly paper, that can’t take much paint. Hope they’re all right.
Tags: Animals, Brush Pen, cats, colour, Nora the cat, sketches, wash, women