I'm going to life drawing, I'm going to life drawing! Tra la la la la....

Yay! My website is up and running!

Alexis Barattin Illustration and Design

...Street art is a gift because it is something that can't quite be explained in terms of conventional motives... maybe that purely creative act is the motive... to give from yourself and not expect anything in return.

- Timothy Taylor, author of The Blue Light Project, on CBC's The Next Chapter.

Really beautiful, really naive? I like the idea but has he seen Exit Through the Giftshop? What about tagging and how it seems to be (from an outsider's perspective) a way of just getting people to see your name over and over again? I feel like his idea of street art is outdated, or at least street art has transformed significantly. Plus I'm not sure if I really believe in the idea of no one having a motive. Not only because I think having a motive is kind of default, but also because we live in such a celebrity culture that the need to tap into "the fame monster" is second nature.

I think I have to read this book!

A self portrait for my I-am-so-close-to-being-finished website's About page!

For your listening pleasure

From the sketchbook

Brain typography!



Click here to see it bigger!

I know I tend to go on about Jillian Tamaki's work but her webcomic SuperMutant Magic Academy is pretty great. I'm just saying.

Finally finished the pencils on this baby, here is a sneak peek. Hopefully going to get inking tonight!



This character belongs to Guy Davis fabulous comic The Marquis.

EDIT: I did! I did! I did get to inking it!

A sketch from tonight.

What the duck?!

Click here to view it at original size.

Capgras Syndrome is a disorder where the sufferer believes someone close to them, usually a family member, has been replaced by an impostor. This man thinks his daughter has been replaced by a spy out to get him.

This piece is part of my Illustration thesis. My thesis uses retro sci fi imagery to explore contemporary neurological case studies revealing that actual science is even stranger than science fiction.

This piece is part of a series entitled Stranger than Fiction, I've used retro and pulp fiction style imagery to explore contemporary neurological case studies revealing that actual science is even stranger than science fiction.

This piece is about Chronic Deja Vu: sufferers constantly experience strong feelings of deja vu. This unfortunate fortune teller can only predict the present.

A is for Brains?

A rough comp of some type I'm working on for your sneak peeking pleasure:



Also my friend Annyen is making something complicated and lovely again, a tiny california job typecase, over at her blog Talk to the Clouds.

Excuse me, can you not see that I'm driving?

A great new Radiolab episode on creativity with amazing advice given to writer Elizabeth Gilbert by Tom Waits on negotiating with creativity:

Me, Myself and Muse

Gilbert also spoke on the nature of creativity and the muse on a 2009 TED talk.

Let me play you a little song on this here piano!

A colour and texture experiment from this evening. I drew a lot of pianos last night.

More experiments in simplified drawing. I'm also using a Japanese brush. I really like them but find it curious that they kind of collapse/flop after I make a stroke. The usual ones I use spring back into position so drawing with them is like flicking the brush around. The Japanese brushes are so much more versatile though.

Also, I am so in love with thick, thick lines these days all I'm sketching with are huge chisel tip markers.

Minimally pretty!

I've been doing a lot of simplified drawing lately.

Bio-mimic-marketing: using images of nature to market a product.