Guess who showed up in my sketchbook? Mr. Grumpypants himself, Guy Davis' character The Marquis. He's such a fun guy to draw, I think because his silhouette is so iconic. Plus he always looks like he's got a pebble stuck in his shoe.

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Flickr'd

Hello internet! These are some people from my nephew's 5th birthday party - there was a trampoline but I wasn't allowed on it :C More importantly - DOGS!

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A Message from the Past

So I was feeling kinda gloomy today and I was flipping through a semi-recent sketchbook and found this little comic I did about how great i was feeling at the time. It's like me-from-the-past is sending me a secret message!

Sometimes, in lieu of a diary, I make these really rough little comics in my sketchbook to record whatever's going on in my life. I might post some more of them - they're obviously really rough and messy but they have a certain je ne sais quoi about them that I like. Tumbled

This one escaped my frog page for some reason so here he is with a splash of colour.

While I'm working on other things, here is a page of frog sketches! I want to do something with frogs, I'm just not sure what yet. They are very interesting creatures.

Here's a really lose sketch of a drawing I might start working on. Full body octopus hug! Or racy pinup? You be the judge!

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Some little cupids based on illustrated woodcuts from 1900

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I was playing with some left over paint and voila - a rose!

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Hivemind

I've really been into bees and ants the last few weeks after reading Angels and Insects by A. S. Byatt. This piece represents a lot of the experimentation I've been doing with texture.

Here's a little drawing from the sketchbook:

It's me in doodle form! One more before I pack it in.

Little bee! This is part of a larger illustration I'm working on but ain't he sweet?! This drawing is actually only around 2.5cm, graphite.

Last one of these!

One more! Another experiment with a limited palette.

I got my hands on some actual paints! This is a study in a limited palette: yellow ochre, titanium white, raw umber, ultramarine blue and I think I threw in a tiny bit of maybe burnt sienna near the end.

Some more creepy faces!

Some face drawing from tonight, from a book of facial expressions:

I made this Free Cece poster to hang up around the city, if you'd like to put some up too you can download the original (letter) size by clicking on the image. For more information about Cece Macdonald's case visit: Support Cece!

I stand with Cece!

From the sketchbook, two guys in pencil:

I've been making a mask for the last couple of days. It's a very ambiguous animal.

Scenes from a sketchbook:

More paintering from this evening:

And a close up of the eye, for anyone interested:

WHERE ARE YOU THIS WEEKEND?!

From the sketchbook: a jellyfish experiment.

More exciting experiments with texture.

From the sketchbook:

A sketch from today, just playing around

Bad Mood

I just found this doodle of myself that I must have drawn when I was feeling grumpy.

Speed painting study of George W. Lambert's Ballet Dancer in Costume:

Painting/texture study. I really like trying to get handmade textures into painting. I also really like throwing in really opaque, crisp edged lines in there, it ruins the believability in a really nice way.

Siblings

I painted this while listening to a cbc Ideas episode called Delusion of gender:
In 1797, the English clergyman Thomas Gisborne wrote a popular book called, An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex. It outlined the different mental abilities of men and women and was a Victorian best-seller. Today many scientists believe there is a male and female brain. Australian academic psychologist Cordelia Fine begs to differ. She has written several books about brain development and the science of sex differences.

Edit: Thought I'd post a little bit of progress, it's crazy how much a few lines around the mouth can fix it up. At first I was like 'man that is not my mouth at all' but I shifted the shadows around a bit and VOILA! Now he could be my distant cousin, har har. I think the dark background is helping. I'm trying to be really bold with that exciting orange flesh colour, it's a colour I'd normally stay away from because it's very bold.

Trying to get that blue/orange relationship going here, too. Colour relationship are very mysterious to me. Anything colour related that is working in this painting I feel I owe to three of many amazing OCAD instructors: Gillian Isles, Harvey Chan and Robert Berger, all three fantastic artists and teachers.

First Pass:

From tonight. This isn't finished because I'm late to watch Game of Thrones - PRIORITIES, PEOPLE!

More painty fun - also a pug!!!

I'm experimenting with more textures, trying to see how stuff fits together. Also I love dogs. I was staying in a neighbourhood this month with lots of dogs and every morning walking to the bus stop was great because I got to pet so many!

Hello bloggy-blog!!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. My website is down for maintenance and I'm housesitting in a house with internet that I can't get to work. It's really weird to be without internet, even if it's only in the evenings. Last week I kept feeling like I should be doing something... on the internet. Also there's a parrot that I'm watching.

Here is something from my sketchbook:

I'm poking at a series that expands on my Pathway image.

Sketchbook offerings:

I've been looking at a lot of books on Alchemy lately.

This is how I "take notes" for future pieces, I make a lot of little piecemeal drawings of things I have seen and liked.

This piece is about the strangeness of heading in a new, unknowable direction. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's funny how new things can be scary and magical at the same time.

From the sketchbook! Clothing studies from Historic Costume in Pictures. For personal use only. No suesue.

Two recent drawings from my sketchbook:

Here is a 'lil frog illustration while I work on something that involves tigers!

Tigers! I'm working on an illustration that involves tigers so I've been drawing quite a few of them. This one looks younger and more spry than the tiger I'm aiming for but I like it!

Botanicals:

A black and white study, I like abstract shapes:

What happens when you cross mushrooms with squirrels, lions and pigs? Something like this!