August 3, 2010 1

New Art, and Tumblr

By in cats, men, sketches, watercolour, women

kitten-3

I’ve discovered tumblr, which at the moment is where I’m putting a lot of ranting and rambling I’d like to get out of my system. This is good, because it makes me feel more productive in general. No reason I can’t do that here, however. But we’ll see how it goes. I like keeping things separate, for some reason. We’ll see how it works.

Meanwhile, here is a painting I was complaining about over there. Masterpiece, or piece o’ crap? —

big-puss1

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August 2, 2010 0

Trying to Keep it Together

By in dogs, sketches, women

A page of pen and brush drawings:
anotherpage5

I’ve set up a tumblr blog. http://jackruttan.tumblr.com Don’t know why I did that, but I want to make it a little less formal than this blog. Kind of like an expanded twitter. I’d better set things up so they all intersect!

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August 1, 2010 0

Finicky Darn Watercolours

By in cats, men

Gosh, watercolours are so tough! All those many things to control. And things can go wrong so easily. You need skill, and also, I’m finding out, strong confidence to carry it off. Good abilities to practice.

balc-cat

I’m obviously not the super-smooth kind of artist like Jim Woodring or Vargas, but it’s fun to work on new skills. The two pictures below let me try my chops at drawing machines, and the last one, spreading areas of dark as smoothly as possible.

flag-guy1

Kind of depressing that a photoshop filter would do the same job so quickly. (I didn’t doctor that one, though, because it’s about the process!)

If I were doing this again, I’d do preparatory drawings so the subject wouldn’t be so goony, and draw circles and straight lines with a template or ruler. Obviously, I could never measure up to those gentlemen I mentioned above, but we’re all following our own paths.

These two are vaguely (or not so vaguely) militaristic. There’s a side of me that’s a little conservative, and likes airplanes and motors, etc. But I’m pretty much a lily-livered liberal and “Nice Guy” in practice. That might be a little contradictory, but hey, like Walt Whitman, we can “contain multitudes.”

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July 30, 2010 0

Out the Other Day…

By in sketches, watercolour, women

reader

…in old Montreal. Sketched this reader: a very proper older lady, hair slightly blown by the wind. A hoard of daycare kids thundered by several times in a running exercise, and she never looked up, or moved at all.

Below, it’s the terra-cotta pencil. I’m getting more interested in backgrounds to these kinds of things. But I find them more successful when there’s a story, or attitude to the character that I can express. Rather than just trying to suggest physiognomy.

terra-cotta1

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July 28, 2010 0

More Pork Sausages, Mom!

By in men, sketches, watercolour, women

pork-sausages

That’s what the girl jumping rope said in an R. Crumb funny, so I thought I could use it here. Tough thinking up titles for these things, since they’re mainly random collections of drawings. I’m cool with that, though.

figure1

Still doing female figures. Above is one copied from that book. Drawing People. My artist friend didn’t like the book, because of the artist’s style. But I found it packed full of good information, and am not trying to copy a style. Just improve my drawing, which this is doing.

pair2

Also doing faces. The guy on the left was very drunk and annoying in this park I was sitting in. But later, I tried to be more sympathetic. He probably doesn’t get a lot of love in his life.

woman4

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July 27, 2010 0

Guitar Man

By in men, sketches

guitar

Not much to say today. Trying to do good and useful things. But it’s hot. Would rather be wandering around outdoors.

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July 25, 2010 0

Nuns

By in sketches, women

nuns

Drew some nuns this morning, after watching Doubt. Pretty cool film. I liked the backgrounds, which I could have sworn were Montreal, but were carefully shot in the Bronx, New York. The bonnets are a little fantastical.

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July 24, 2010 0

Animules

By in horses

pidgies1

Pidgies! Horsie in a circle!

horse-circle

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July 23, 2010 0

Hey, I’m Walking Here!

By in ruttan's place, sketches, women

walker2

Just having some fun on the computer with this lady I drew and coloured.

P1050957

Should do her reflection in the window!

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July 22, 2010 0

Why A Fish?

By in sketches, watercolour, women

wallgirl

I don’t know. Fish are fun to paint. So shiny and silvery. Blues and greens work nicely.

I’m drawing tons of female figures for a job. These are the ones that don’t quite fit the bill. Still fun. I get better at these things with every job, which is great. Next one should be drawing portraits, or something else difficult.

women-page1

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July 20, 2010 0

Typing Paper

By in cats, dogs, men, sketches, watercolour, women

pants

Don’t think I’ve completely mastered the scanner. Have to look at all the options. In the meantime, here’re a bunch of things I’ve been drawing on scrap paper, while drawing stuff for another job I can’t show you at the moment.

bluepage5

Mainly front balcony things.

puppy-page3

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July 18, 2010 1

Enter Title Here

By in cats, men, sketches, watercolour, women

friendly-tripod

I could go on about things, but I think I’m just going to put these up, and leave it at that. Of course, I’ll probably end up making little comments here and there. Above is a gang of sketchbook people, and a happy “War of the Worlds” tripod. I love the old 1910’s version of these things. There’s a water-tower near here with the word “Oui” painted on it, from the 1995 referendum, which would make a good War of the Worlds Tripod.

complaining-old-man

This is a real guy. An angry old man who complains about everything. You don’t want to comment to him or challenge him, because then he will get belligerent at you. I feel kind of sorry for him, but he’s a good character. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really have an angry dog.

catpage-4

Cats and spot drawings.

blueyellowgirl

She’s actually not that bad a drawing, but she’s big, and the paper “cockled” as they say in watercolour how-to books. I could stretch it, which would take out those light and dark patches. Honest.

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July 15, 2010 0

Some More Sketchbook Pages

By in cats, horses, men, sketches, watercolour, women

‘Cause of my getting a new scanner, I’ve scanned all these pages, which, up until now, were hidden in my sketchbook. Now they’re here, for all of you to enjoy!

sketchpage5

sigourney-page

anotherpage4

anotherpage3

another-page

jampage

A couple of the characters here are taken from Barbara Bradley’s book Drawing People: How to portray the clothed figure. Will have to talk about that, and some other books, some day.

little-girls-page

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July 13, 2010 0

New Scanner Rocks the Black and White

By in men, sketches, women

I’m happy with my new scanner, especially the speed, and lack of power cords to tangle. There’s a lot of black and white stuff I’ve drawn that needs scanning, so here it is. Slovenly walking girls!

tights

Assorted dancers!

dancers2

dancers1tif

Strange tall women!

girlpicture

Guys in suits!

men

I love them all!

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