E2W's Sketches

News

2011-02-01T10:16:00.003-06:00

I've just been informed that Look Straight Ahead #1 & #2 have been nominated for the 2011 Gene Day Award, which recognizes Canadian self-published comics released in 2010. Wahoo!

Here's the complete list of nominees: http://joeshusterawards.com/awards/about/2011-nominees/ (scroll down a ways)

Thank you to the panel for nominating me and thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support me as I work on this project - you have no idea how much it means to me.

After all that, I owe you some drawings, don't I? Let's see now...

This was the completed flyer for my art show, which we also turned into a glossy 11 x 14" print (which doesn't have the text on it). If you want one, they are $10 Canadian and there's tons left - you can either go see Theo at Unreal City in downtown Saskatoon, SK, or email me at dishonest _ don at hotmail dot com and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.

This is a page from LSA #3, which is, quite literally, roaring right along.

And finally, a very sketchy homemade CD insert for one of my lovely co-workers who is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes (yes I am aware of the mistake I made with the pipe, argh! :p ) Yep, I also know they have computers to do lettering now. I'm stubborn that way. :p (I gave the CD to her at Christmastime which is why the first track is a Christmas song)

Back soon! To see more, visit my actual website: http://www.e2w-illustration.com

Becky Becky Parentheses

2010-06-21T05:05:00.008-06:00

A photo of Becky Becky Parentheses (I think?) from the recent INDOOR BEACH PARTY gig organized by Paul Hardsparrow. I really like how some of these photos turned out, so I might try to do some drawings based on them later on.

Oh, and here's some recent art-y things that are not related to the comic. (CLICK AND READ, gosh darn you!)

I do hope these will satisfy you until my next monthly update... XD

WEBSITE!

2010-05-28T14:16:00.004-06:00

Yes, it's true!

http://www.e2w-illustration.com

I finally got a real website together, after almost 10 years of procrastinating!

Let's celebrate with some tea and some tunes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw8WiI-QtY8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb5szwK-HEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v50d4pGJfno

Curiously Cinnamon

2010-05-21T16:11:00.006-06:00

At last, England's answer to Cinnamon Toast Crunch!

...To paraphrase James Lileks, why must companies anthropomorphize every goddamned thing in the world?

And I don't like the way they're looking at me...let's turn the box around.

"Meet the CRAZY SQUARES - crunchy cinnamon squares packed full of irresistable taste. This bonkers bunch live for the curiously different cinnamon taste that is unlike any other breakfast cereal. They crave the cinnamon taste so much that they'll do anything to get hold of it, even lick and munch on each other!"

...

...

...I don't know about you, but I feel Curiously unclean after reading that. England, I'm starting to worry about you.
A note found in a Roland Barthes book. I...what? I don't...is that a song? "Wild Beasts" definitely sounds like the name of a band. Well, I hate to break it to you, but there's already a band called LES SAVY FAV, named after - oh, never mind.

...I'll post some drawings later, I promise. XD Still doin' the comic! Please check it out, I'd appreciate it. :)

Hammer Time!

2010-04-18T13:56:00.003-06:00

HA!! Taken about a block from where I live in Bournemouth. XD (I should add it's unusual to see this type of stop sign here)

Dancin'....don't you wanna go wanna go wanna go dancin'

2010-03-22T16:13:00.004-06:00

I've finally taken to doing little sketches in Photoshop here and there. I never used to like sketching with a tablet but now I'm starting to see the advantages - one being that I can make mistakes and don't have to worry about turning the page into a horrible unintelligible smudge from erasing so many times...Anyway, this is a creepy sketch I really liked and may develop further - on paper, however. :p

I'm just tryin' to be a better person!

2010-03-07T15:09:00.004-06:00

Ha! This is hilarious - some ancient unfinished My Name Is Earl fanart that I just came across. Totally forgot I drew this. It's not gettin' finished anytime soon, so here it goes! Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to screaming at InDesign! :p

Sexy Punk Onion

2010-03-01T16:03:00.003-06:00

Ha ha ha! ...ha. This seemed funnier at the time... :p

Chicken Milk

2010-02-26T17:08:00.002-06:00

At long last, a new On The Bus!! I'll try to do more of these from now on, as I'm sure they're the most entertaining things I draw by far.

LIFE DRAAAAAAAWING

2010-02-25T15:04:00.004-06:00

WOOOOO

(once again, see my other blog, that's where most of the art action is these days)

Look Straight Ahead

2010-01-14T11:10:00.003-06:00

Hey guys. Just posting to let you know I've begun posting some material on my new blog Look Straight Ahead - this is a graphic novel I've been working on since June, and I intend to use it as my Extended Major Project work.

I don't expect I will be updating this blog much over the next few months - all the comic-related work will be posted on the new blog. So what are you waiting for? Go over and have a look, and tell me what you think!

Let's Talk About Comics (Learning Log)

2009-12-16T04:55:00.014-06:00

I love comics (I'm sure you've figured this out by now). This borders on an obsession. Every single waking minute of my life is spent trying to figure out how to tell stories with pictures in little boxes. I watch films (admittedly, not enough) in the hopes that doing so will unlock the secrets of visual storytelling for me. I know the elements that make up a good story, but it seems I haven't figured out how to tell one of my own just yet.

I pretty much knew that I wanted to draw comics after reading this... (I should also mention that I was 7 years old at the time)

That is Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog #0, drawn by Scott Shaw!, the co-creator of the DC comic Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew. (Again, for my British readers, you might remember a different Sonic comic from your childhood published by Egmont/Fleetway simply titled Sonic the Comic.)

This, however, is a story for another day...I'll save it for my Extended Major Project entry at the end of the year.

--

I've been drawing and self-publishing my own comics since 2002 (the ones I drew before that were mostly copied from other sources). I'll be completely honest here and say it's my dream to become the next Seth . (Or is that really just a pipe dream? Oh, well) Not only does Seth draw comics, he's also internationally renowned in other artistic venues, such as book design, editorial illustration, and fine art exhibits. He also has a very distinctive art style...the minute you see one of his works, you know it's his. As a fellow Canadian I have undying respect and admiration for him.

--

Speaking of Canada, I feel that there aren't enough quintessentially Canadian comics out there, so I set out to change that somewhat with At The Hundredth Meridian. The comic follows the progression of the four seasons in Saskatchewan, beginning with May. The reason for this is that winter in Saskatchewan typically lasts from the beginning of November all the way until the end of April...winter is finally over at the start of May.

The Saskatchewan landscape is...flat. You can't really say much else about it. I drew each page of my comic on long strips of 11 x 17" paper in the hopes of conveying some of this vastness in the artwork. They were largely drawn without any reference, based solely on my own memories of the landscape seen from the backseat of my parents' car. I grew up in a small town called Humboldt, which is an hour away from a larger city called Saskatoon. Most of my dad's extended family lives in Saskatoon, and so we spent a lot of time traveling back and forth on Highway 5 (pictured above). As a child I had a lot of time to ponder the vast landscape. When you stare out at the desolate horizon, it sort of fills you with a sense of longing...though longing for what exactly, I couldn't say...

In this interview with Seth, he mentions exactly what I'm getting at with drawing from memory:

"It is hard for me to generalize on other mediums but I do feel a unique connection between memory and cartooning.I started to formalize some thoughts about this when I was studying the life of Thoreau MacDonald (the son of Canadian painter J.E.H. MacDonald). Thoreau mentioned in an interview that he never drew his pen and ink drawings of the rural landscape while actually out in the field. Instead he would go for a walk and look about and then, when he came home later, he would sit down and draw the scenes from memory. Thoreau understood that he couldn’t capture the reality of the natural world in black and white ink drawings but he could replicate the memory of being there."

A landscape by Canadian painter Catherine Perehudoff

Canada is full of phenomenal landscape painters, but landscapes remain largely unexplored territory in comics. On my visit to the Tate Britain gallery in London I paused to look at one of the write-ups concerning landscape paintings: "Some painters, like Samuel Palmer and John Linnell, combined an intense study of nature with a sense of spirituality, inspired by Blake. Other artists sought to convey a feeling of mystery and foreboding." Why? The plaque continues thus: "[A]s cities grew rapidly larger[...]traditional rural life was transformed" and "nature became the focus of intense feelings & desires."

Ironically, I have never been a true nature lover. I gain artistic strength from all types of landscapes, be they urban or rural. I have always found bustling city streets to be aesthetically pleasing (which is extremely odd, given my aversion to large crowds of people), and sometimes enjoy sketching architecture.

I do think I was definitely trying to capture the feel of the Flight comics anthologies. These are all full colour comics and most of them are totally silent. (This may be due to the fact that many Flight artists are also animators, and student films are often silent as lip-syncs are very time-consuming to animate) A lot of comic artists, myself included, often forget to sit back and let the pictures do the talking.

Development sketches for the plant creature.

What about the cloud people and plant creature? Where did they come from? Again, similar characters can be found in Flight comics, although the cloud people (and their subsequent transformation into cloud monsters in the winter months) are meant to represent Saskatchewan's tourist slogan, "Land Of Living Skies." While I was attending animation school back home I also grew to enjoy animating and drawing special effects - i.e., anything that wasn't a character, such as smoke, fire, or water. My animation instructor had worked as an FX animator and was interested in the ways that characters & FX could be combined. One example that comes to mind is a scene from An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West where a trail of smoke becomes a cat, before disappearing in wisps of air.

For my EMP project next term, I plan to explore another subject largely undocumented in comics: mental illness. Specifically, one teenager's struggle with mental illness (in addition to the struggles associated with growing into an adult) and how it affects those around him. There is only one graphic novel that I know of which explores this issue: Nate Powell's Swallow Me Whole. There ought to be more.

At the hundredth meridian...where the great plains begin.

2009-12-15T14:12:00.008-06:00

I finally managed to put together a cover for my project...and here it is. (It's since been pointed out to me that power lines are usually only on the right side of the road, not both sides. Oops. Call it artistic license, I guess!) My Canadian readers will no doubt remember that "At The Hundredth Meridian" is the title of an old Tragically Hip song. As hipmuseum.com explains, “The one hundredth meridian is the line of longitude that separates much of Western Canada from the Central and Atlantic regions. The line also serves as a division between the moist and urban east and the arid and rural west. It has also come to provide a convenient political dividing line (sort of the Canadian equivalent to those familiar Blue and Red States) between the liberal leaning east and conservative leaning west."

Hockey and the Canadian landscape are the two most common topics of Tragically Hip songs, which probably explains why they aren't very popular anywhere else.

For my non-Canadian readers, here's the song so you can understand what on earth I'm talking about. Isn't Youtube great?! I've always really liked this video, it has some interesting imagery and it's rather exquisitely photographed.

March.
And April. I don't really like how these turned out, but I sort of ran out of time to do better ones. :X

I spent some time over the summer creating my own Photoshop brushes, and used those to colour my book cover. Here's an example of a page of brush marks that I scanned in and made into Photoshop brushes:

In my earlier posts (check the archives for November 2009) you can see how I tried using these to colour the interior pages as well. Unfortunately I didn't really like how those were turning out and was told that my ink drawings were strong enough on their own anyway.

I have never been able to simulate hand-drawn textures in Photoshop, yet there are countless digital painters who can do so with ease. It's very frustrating. I think it is time I invest in a new graphics tablet, as my Wacom is old and quite low-end: it measures 4 x 6" and it has no tilt sensitivity. In fact, until yesterday I wasn't even aware that tablets other than Cintiq tablet PCs came with tilt sensitivity!

Perhaps I should resign myself to the fact that digital painting just isn't for me, and continue colouring by hand...

February

2009-12-09T08:17:00.004-06:00

Don't mess with winter, fool! I warned you!

I think I made the top panel too tall by accident, which is ironic since February is the shortest month. Er...YEAH...I MEANT to do it that way! Honest! HA HA HA!!

January

2009-12-07T12:20:00.002-06:00

Raaaawr. Winter kills.

(MORE THINGS WITH HORNS, WHEN WILL IT END?!)

Saturday Life Drawing 28-11-09

2009-12-05T02:17:00.001-06:00

Get ready, get set...it's a life drawing montage!

A woman in my life drawing class is supposedly bringing her dog to today's class for us to draw...sounds fun to me!!

Son Of Archeopteryx

2009-12-03T08:34:00.005-06:00

A fragment of a larger drawing, from a comic splash page...to be uploaded later...oh, I'm such a tease. (This is the best part of it, anyway, so you ain't missing much. :p) Yes, it's another archeopteryx...skull...with horns...for some reason...pasted on a human body...? Apparently, I really like drawing things with horns. Who knew?

Decembrrrrrrr

2009-12-01T01:32:00.002-06:00

I'm cold. Are you feeling cold yet?

November

2009-11-29T04:41:00.006-06:00

November looks better in black & white. There was a mild countrywide snowstorm here in the UK last year, causing traffic jams and all-around general chaos. I shouldn't laugh, but damn, the whole thing was hilarious - it only snowed a couple of inches.

That being said, I had a rather frightening dream this morning about a massive snowstorm. I was inside a gigantic house I'd never been in before, with enormous windows. When I looked outside I could see two people, a father and daughter, trapped in the storm and waist-deep in snow. I wanted to go and help them but didn't know how. Suddenly, I was also waist-deep in snow, although I was still inside the house and I don't recall ever opening the door to let any snow in. I don't remember much after that.

October

2009-11-28T04:50:00.004-06:00

Wow. I'm not even sure what to say about this one - good OR bad. It's just kind of...there. Needs some actual COLOUR to make it pop...

Saturday Life Drawing 21-11-09

2009-11-22T10:09:00.003-06:00

And now let us pause for some life drawing.

Man, I sure had fun drawing that gladiator outfit. The hands are a bit off though...and the photo makes it look pretty distorted...I ought to replace this with a scan later.

September

2009-11-21T11:15:00.003-06:00

Right...only seven more to go...and less than a month to do 'em...PLUS all the calendar date pages...AND a front cover of some sort. Oh, well. It seems to be progressing fairly well now, so I'm not that worried any more...

August

2009-11-20T11:40:00.007-06:00

Not a big fan of the sky colours on this one, but I suppose it doesn't matter since I'm thinking about converting them all to monochrome when I'm done (each month will have its own colour).

Paul (aka Hardsparrow) and I went to see the Fall in Poole last night and it was AMAAAAZING. Better than the Southampton gig last year. The merch table also sells old copies of the Pseud Mag fanzine (for which I drew the front covers up to and including issue #10) and the official blue lyrics book, also containing some of my artwork. How cool is that? Not as cool as the fact that I've gotten to see The Fall twice and that it's just one of many great experiences I've had here...I don't realise how lucky I am.

Will I miss Bournemouth when I move back home? No, I think it's the people I've met that I'll miss most of all. And an odd trait of mine is that I never seem to live in the present. I'm always either constantly nostalgic for the past, or worrying about what might happen to me in the future. Why do I seem unable to enjoy the NOW? Last night seems to be the only time I ever truly have.

July

2009-11-19T03:31:00.002-06:00

Cloud people!

Man, I gave myself way too much work to do this year...

Things to do in London

2009-11-18T14:51:00.007-06:00

So I made a jaunt up to London this weekend with some extremely kind and accomodating friends from back home...both of whom enjoy films and art galleries as much as I do. :) We visited the National Portrait Gallery (which was excellent but gave me a splitting headache from trying to read all the small print on the plaques!!) and The Museum Of Everything, a gallery of outsider art. We also tried to go to Riflemaker, but unfortunately it was closed even though their website seemed to indicate they were open on Sundays. Damn. (Here's the exhibition I saw there two years ago, which might give you an idea why I was keen to return there!!) I saw a lot of other things though, so many that it's all kind of a blur...

The tube system finally makes sense to me...and it only took, what, THREE trips to London to figure it out? Yeesh!!

Here's a couple of marginally entertaining snapshots...no sketches, sadly!

This is the Spar convenience store in Haymarket...and what's that on the window?! YES, you can get Tim Horton's coffee in London! Unfortunately it comes out of a dispenser, and as such, it's pretty terrible. But whatever.

Chillin' with Shakespeare in Leceister Square with my Timmie's coffee.

Oh, like YOU wouldn't have taken a picture of this. :p On a shop window just outside of the Sunday Market in Brick Lane (I think??)
It's CALVIN!!! And he's not peeing on a Ford logo!! Outside of Gosh Comics on Gt. Russell St. I just about cried when I saw this. I loved Calvin & Hobbes. I loved it so much that I can actually recite numerous strips verbatim, all these years later. The void it left on the comics page when it ended has yet to be filled, and I doubt it ever will be.

(Oh, I'm still working on the calendar, I promise you that...expect a flood of updates concerning that soon!)

June

2009-11-09T14:16:00.002-06:00

But...it looks the same as the other one! Nooooooo!!!! D: D: D: (Except this time I drew the filthy, filthy sloughs)

Now in two amazing colours!

2009-11-06T15:44:00.004-06:00

Ta-daaa~~~

Only eleven more to go! :X

(Edit: Now with a less gray sky)

Midnight Millionaires Club

2009-11-04T15:35:00.008-06:00

A submission for a zine called "The Midnight Millionaires Club" that someone on my course is putting together. I tried putting fake screentone on this in Photoshop but I don't really like it all that much...it probably would've been okay if I'd stuck to just one shade of gray. :p (Edit: New improved version! still a bit "meh" though)

You've probably heard of the pop/novelty group The Barenaked Ladies - I'm told "One Week" was their only hit in the UK. In Canada, their first big hit was "If I Had a Million Dollars," a love song where a guy sings about all the wonderful things he'd buy for his lady love if he had a million dollars. Anyway, it contains the line "I'd buy you a monkey...haven't you always wanted a monkey?"

The banter about Kraft Dinner in the middle is the most popular bit, but my favourite line was always "I'd buy you a green dress - but not a real green dress, that's cruel."

Of course, I'm taking this out of context - it comes after an earlier reference to a fur coat - as in - not a real fur coat, that's cruel. XD

Speaking of cruel, that monkey looks very pissed off and very stiff...maybe it's stuffed :(

Archeopteryx

2009-11-03T15:19:00.001-06:00

I declare that if there is not yet a musical group called "Archeopteryx" or "The Archeopteryxes," there should be.

Seed Catalogue Calendar page 1 - May

2009-11-02T15:46:00.004-06:00

AAAAAND page 1. If this is a calendar, why am I starting with May? Because that's when winter finally ends in Saskatchewan...The Land Of Living Skies. No, really - that's our tourist tagline. See?
This is apt, of course, since the vast bald prairie stretches on and on and on and...that's why this drawing is so huge.

I am gonna colour this later, but maybe I shouldn't mention that - it might not happen, then... :0

Four Seasons

2009-10-26T04:57:00.005-06:00

Plant creatures representing the four seasons, beginning with spring...for yet another new short comic loosely (very loosely) based on Robert Kroetsch's poem "The Seed Catalogue." Oh man, colouring seriously drives me nuts. Colours never look the way I want them to. What's the secret to using colour properly, anyway? :< If Robert Kroetsch made a comic, I suspect it might look something like this.

Anorak cover

2009-10-16T15:01:00.005-06:00

My entry for the Anorak magazine cover design competition. I don't expect to win, but felt like doing it for fun, regardless. Plus, I had that cardboard texture that was just crying out to be used for SOMETHING... :p

knock knock, is anyone there

2009-10-12T16:52:00.004-06:00

Jeremy brandishing a T-square. Kinda sloppy - but then, I only drew it because I had that oh-so-clever idea for the psychotic smiley shirt...

Cows...yes, I would certainly run if I were face-to-face with this group of cows.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MARVIN...

2009-10-10T14:24:00.004-06:00

Drawing for a weekly contest of sorts on an art forum. They're singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR MARVIN" in binary. Yes, really. (Marvin, of course, being the Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) Encoded using the binary translator at http://home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/

Yeah, I also recycled some of those old circuit boards from my "film". What're ya gonna do? XD Wait a minute, can a robot even have a birthday?! This drawing makes no sense on so many levels... Oh, well. :p

DANCE insert WIP

2009-10-08T13:32:00.003-06:00

I'm not dead, but I AM still a bit jetlagged. From Saturday. And I've also developed my twice-annual cold...ugh! :X Here's part of the DANCE OR HANG IT UP insert that I forgot I was still working on. Since it features many people dressed in strange costumes, such as these two folks, I should have it finished by Halloween. Yes!

Expressions 1

2009-09-22T21:37:00.003-06:00

A couple of new things to fill out September's archive. First, a pseudo expression sheet for Scott.
And yet another drawing of my hapless hero Jeremy. Y'know, it occurred to me that I might have to change his name, due to the main character in "Zits" who has almost exactly the same hairstyle. Also, the Pearl Jam song. You all remember that song, right?

...Yeah. :X

DANCE OR HANG IT UP

2009-09-03T10:42:00.004-06:00

And now - another mock-up CD cover for another compilation I'm working on, of "danceable" songs. Complete with cliche paint splatters! (Again, 100% made by me, so at least I can feel a little better about them :p )

But...but...are they at a disco, or a rave? I don't know. I'm so confused. Does that make this picture anachronistic? I sure hope so, because "anachronistic" is one of my favourite words.

Cover Painting

2009-08-31T13:35:00.002-06:00

I liked my Frenz painting a lot and I've been trying to explore that style further. I probably sketched this about a month ago and only just finished. Not sure if I like it though. A couple things really bug me. And it is kinda disturbing, but I sort of want that. Hmmm.

Model Sheets?

2009-08-31T10:29:00.005-06:00

Three very hastily-scribbled pseudo model sheets for the new comic. (Untitled as of now because I've decided I don't like the title "Unhinged" but I haven't come up with anything else yet) Never mind, though - this is already 10000x more preparation than I ever did for Printheads, and hopefully the characters won't look drastically different from panel-to-panel this time around.

Lee doesn't look much like a teenager, and his feet also went off the page. Oops.

There will probably be a couple more of these soon...at the same level of quality. For all the life drawing I've done this summer, I still keep making so many of the same mistakes when drawing out of my head. ARRRRGGGHH..... So frustrating. I need to start drawing the actual comic already, that'll help me.

Zoo Sketches

2009-08-25T09:41:00.003-06:00

A selection of sketches from a trip to the Saskatoon Forestry Farm.
And a drawing of Twitch from a while back that I forgot to scan. I liked the ink I used for this, a lot, until I realized it WASN'T WATERPROOF. D'OH. D: How come nobody here can sell me Winsor & Newton waterproof ink anymore?

Folkfest Sketches 3

2009-08-13T18:01:00.006-06:00

I love this sketch. Not only is it in BALLPOINT, but these people got up and left the instant I finished the drawing. This happened several times, actually. Either I'm getting really good at this on-site life drawing biz, or I just got really lucky.

Or maybe people noticed I was drawing them, got creeped out, and then left...
Many people at Folkfest have unique markers for their campsites - well, I would imagine they do at any of these festivals. Someone was using this hilariously overstuffed Robin doll as a marker - how could I resist sketching THAT?
This picture of the hill illustrates the need for markers. And this is only about halfway down the hill, mind.
And here's me. What the hell am I doing? I'm not sketching, so I must be erasing something...I also can't avoid pointing out my autographed Luke Doucet shirt, and that's because I think he's massively underrated...go out and buy all of his albums right now.

Bunny Ostrich

2009-08-13T11:41:00.005-06:00

More colouring practice. WOW, I have no idea what compelled me to draw this (I also have no idea whether or not those legs can possibly support its weight, but never mind). It was one of those weird, hazy images that floats into my mind in that period of time just before I fall asleep. "Clack Clack" was one of those, too. Scary, huh?

HULA HOOPS (Folkfest Sketches 2)

2009-08-11T13:51:00.004-06:00

Another sketch page...some of these are not actually Folkfest sketches. Oh noes! The sleeping guy was painted with a portable water brush, which I LOST the very next day. After using it only once. I still have no idea what happened to it; it literally just vanished.

HULA HOOPS! "You know...for KIDS!"

Actually, that just reminded me of something else...

Yes, this is a Hula Hoop crisp, discovered by Paul Hardsparrow in the packet of said crisps that he was eating at the time. It resembles either a chicken or a pair of underpants. This picture is from my first year at AIB. Yes, I save photographs of ridiculous stuff like this. I always have. Somewhere I still have a picture from years ago of a misshapen Ritz cracker "turnover" that was literally folded in half. I'm not quite sure what's wrong with me...

Folkfest Sketches 1

2009-08-10T11:32:00.005-06:00

I went to the always-amazing Edmonton Folkfest and drew. Oh, how I drew.

I earned lovely sunburned ears for my trouble!

And here's a video of Old Man Leudecke, one of the acts I saw there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mErfdSIoPcY I should mention that he prefaced this song with an anecdote about being grounded as a kid. All he was able to do while grounded was listen to records in his parents' basement. "And they had everything - I could have listened to anything I wanted...The Beatles...Jimi Hendrix...but no, I decided my favourite record was by Franz Lang (?), a yodeler. And I asked my dad, 'Dad, could I ever learn to yodel like Franz Lang?' And he said, 'No, son, yodeling is an innate talent.' And it turns out dad was right."

Joel tells me this guy was at the Regina Folkfest last year, and I'm ashamed to say I don't remember him from that. You'd THINK I'd remember...oh well...

Brother Danielson

2009-08-04T15:17:00.004-06:00

Another thing I drew, which I must have started about three weeks ago...anyway, this is supposed to be Daniel Smith, aka Brother Danielson, eccentric artist/musician/devout Christian and founding member of the group the Danielson Famile. And sometimes he dresses as a tree onstage. Like this. That film is well worth tracking down...very inspiring...

Streets Of America

2009-08-03T20:51:00.004-06:00

Here's yet another doodle I cobbled together in Photoshop, using some Eraser X brushes, some of my own, and a picture of my parents' driveway. Thought up while I was listening to some vintage Bad Religion and thinking nothing at all...and grown out of a desire to draw people from a bird's-eye-view angle. I've always had a lot of trouble with that, and I need to practice it more because it's fairly necessary when you're trying to draw comics.

I'm really not sure what's with all the biohazard symbols, but here's the tutorial I used in creating them: http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/topic/How-To-Make-A-Bioha-ard-Symbol-4431-1.html But this is actually a tutorial for The Gimp, not Photoshop - therefore I was disappointed to find that I couldn't figure out how to rotate one layer at a time, nor how to subtract from a selection. Does anybody know how to do either of these things in Photoshop?

Halloween Zebra

2009-08-02T00:58:00.004-06:00

I'm tired of working on this, so I'll just pretend it's finished, for now! This fella would like to wish you a Happy Halloween, two months early...

Folkfest Back Cover

2009-07-31T22:46:00.003-06:00

It is now August! (In England, anyhow) I can now upload more stuff. Here's the back CD cover, without text.

And this is the tracklisting...bookended with two Canadian classics for good measure.

1. Kate & Anna McGarrigle - The Logdriver’s Waltz
2. Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You
3. Great Big Sea - Lukey
4. Neko Case - Things That Scare Me
5. Allison Krauss - Down To the River To Pray
6. Natalie Merchant - Poor Wayfaring Stranger
7. Loreena McKennitt - Bonny Portmore
8. Fleet Foxes - Heard Them Stirring
9. Woodpigeon - In the Battle of Sun Vs. Curtains, Sun Loses And We Sleep Until Noon
10.Gordon Lightfoot - For Lovin’ Me
11.The Duhks - The Green Fields Of Glentown / Le
Reel des Nouveaux Maries / Flash Away The Pressing Gang

12. Steeleye Span - My Johnny Was a Shoemaker
13. Luke Doucet - Long Haul Driver
14. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
15. Seasick Steve - Things Go Up
16. Jefferson Airplane - Martha
17. Iron & Wine - Naked As We Came
18. Nick Drake - Clothes Of Sand
19. Great Lake Swimmers - Various Stages
20. Chumbawamba - Bankrobber
21. Bowser & Blue - The Night They Invented Poutine
22. Wade Hemsworth - The Blackfly Song

Yes...THAT Chumbawamba. Doing a Clash song. A capella. It's much better than you might think. Well, I'm out.

Spirit Of Folkfest

2009-07-27T21:11:00.003-06:00

A CD cover for a Folkfest compilation...to listen to in the car on the way to the Edmonton Folkfest. Hooray!

New improved version! Back cover and CD label still coming soon.

The Archeologist (progress)

2009-07-23T19:41:00.003-06:00

Another of my ongoing Photoshop experiments - this one including some brushes I made last night. I was getting all hung up on continually using other people's brushes and feeling like I had to credit them every time. Yeah, I'm weird that way - all content in my artwork must be 100% created by me. Although, obviously I had to reference the skeletons here.

Someday I hope to learn how to draw everything in the entire world without using reference. Yep, it's official - I'm insane.

Anyway, this was inspired by this amazing Wintersleep song, which has probably been in my head for over a year.

I am Jack's wasted life

2009-07-20T21:46:00.006-06:00

A slightly older sketch of Edward Norton that I decided to use as colouring practice. (However, the last time I checked, Ed Norton was not a Smurf. Oh, well.)

I don't know what the swirly things are, but I was once given a gross candy on Halloween that looked a lot like that. Seriously. It had a bunch of lint stuck to it, too. Ewww. I think I smashed it on the road. (Not outside of the person's house, obviously - that's just horrible) That's out of character for me, but...um...I guess that's Halloween for you.

Tyger Tyger

2009-07-16T16:23:00.001-06:00

I've been drawing a lot of tigers lately. Here's one of them. No references used, 'cause that's just how I roll.

Inked while listening to Ege Bamyasi by Can, which...seems appropriate, somehow.

Following Lost Prophets

2009-07-13T23:07:00.005-06:00

"Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets..." An exercise in composition and Photoshop colouring...in other words, an exercise in PATIENCE!! (Although this actually didn't take as long as I had anticipated...hmm!)

Don't know if it's finished yet, though...the background texture irritates me. (And, sorry for the JPEG artifacts - I swear it doesn't look like that on my harddrive. Curse you, Blogger!!)

Vicious & Malicious

2009-07-06T19:23:00.002-06:00

High school students with animal heads...ooh, scary, kids...

I wanna be purely evil

2009-06-24T09:45:00.003-06:00

I don't know when/if I will get this finished (I always have such grandiose ideas for blog posts that never see completion), so here's the sketch - an attempt to design some of Jeremy's classmates. Not bad I s'pose - though I might move them a bit closer together in the final, and rearrange the background a little...

Power

2009-06-17T18:21:00.004-06:00

It's Jeremy (because I'm attempting to work on That Comic again) in a pose stolen from the back cover of Power, the final Q & Not U album. He's supposed to be 17, I have no idea if I've succeeded in making him look that young.

And then I went to a barbecue and did some life drawing. There was a one-eyed dog there named Scruffy, who sat still long enough for this one drawing. Yeah, I did try a few sketches while she was moving around, but none of 'em really worked...

Left! ...No, your other left!

2009-06-09T10:55:00.003-06:00

I'm alive!

I just forgot how to draw, that's all. So let's re-start with this...

And, um...

...Yeah.

As usual, your guess is as good as mine. I don't know if I like this or not, it was mostly an excuse to get myself to finish a piece. And practice painting - what better way to do THAT than with a drawing I'm not particularly attached to? So if I screw up, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I GUESS this is some sort of Pascal Le Gras/Claus Castenskiold/Fall-inspired piece.

BONUS: Some random life drawing from May that I found on my camera! (Still having enormous problems drawing faces, hips and legs, as you can see)

world's largest foot FTW

Richard Stance

2009-05-16T14:17:00.005-06:00

Hmm...so yeah, I haven't updated in a while. I'm VERY uninspired lately. Here's a drawing of a guy I call Richard (and yeah, he looks exactly the same as all my other characters...right now anyway) He was in my first comic in a band called the Dead Layaways - sort of. This version is like a combination of two of the guys in the Dead Layaways. I am thinking of re-doing this comic as part of Unhinged - a comic within a comic, if you will.

This was a SUPER fast sketch - I do these types of drawings all the time but they are rarely worth displaying. See, I can't get any sort of movement or energy into my drawings UNLESS I'm doing them super-fast. This is the kind of direction I want my drawings to go in, eventually - that and the Frenz painting.

It sounds like the Frenz painting didn't even make it into the exhibition - I also couldn't make it to the opening. Long story. This was the straw that broke the camel's back - I'm so angry about it that I decided to go home a week earlier. (Other stuff has been bothering me too, none of which need be discussed here) I'm finished classes anyway, with absolutely nothing to do but sit around and watch "Let's Play" videos on Youtube...occasionally making quick drawings like this.

Sorry for the rant; I swear I'll get over it...

Fish One Final

2009-05-01T09:25:00.008-06:00

Update: Here's the final film! WOO!

(Music: "Fish One" by Colin Newman)

Frenz

2009-04-14T09:24:00.005-06:00

Whoa!! What the heck is that?

(It's this, actually:)

Years ago, Paul asked me if I would paint such a thing for him and I've only just now gotten around to it. So, I've finally done it! An honest-to-god painting that I love! Yes, it is made from hastily patching scraps of paper together because I forgot to nick some large paper from the uni. It's held together with backing made from duct tape and Skymag pages. (No, really!)

Garden

2009-04-13T03:09:00.003-06:00

This was going to be a larger piece for the exhibition, but this was the only part I really liked. Ah, well - I might still try to fix/finish it if I have time.

AWESOME PAINTING coming soon!

graph #1

2009-04-02T12:57:00.007-06:00

That's supposed to be Big Brother as a cat on the bottom left; don't know why.

This is the first frame of a crappy little animation cycle I made. The legs look OK, but everything else is twitching and boiling like mad. Oh, well, at least I tried; let's hope it's good enough for my film.

This one reeks of "Hybrid Art College Style" again, but, aaah.....I don't care. ;p

So it's come to my attention that most people like my crude sketchbook scribbles more than my finished pieces. Does that mean I just ruin everything every time I try to finish it, by sucking all the energy out of it somehow? I don't know. I DO know I need to address this.

Scrambled

2009-03-27T13:51:00.004-06:00

A scrambled TV signal; I just wanted to see what that would look like as a drawing. I've been told I can't use it for my film project, which is a shame :p

Tyrannosaurus

2009-03-26T16:39:00.003-06:00

RAWR, baby!!!

Tree and Duoshade Tree

2009-03-20T15:04:00.002-06:00

A tree and a screentone tree (I think "Duoshade" is actually just a brand name of screentone, oh well). I stumbled upon the screentone effect by accident. COOOOL!!!! This is also my 300th post, apparently. 300 posts of JUNK!

Robots 2

2009-03-19T03:28:00.002-06:00

Your guess is as good as mine...

robots

2009-03-17T14:39:00.001-06:00

eeeeeeeeeee#

Wings 5

2009-03-12T06:48:00.002-06:00

Last one.

Hope I find the motivation to do more Proper Illustrations before the month is out...for class work or otherwise.

Wings 4

2009-03-11T03:00:00.002-06:00

I feel incredibly sad today.

Even more than usual.

Life drawing tonight, though....possibly...

Wings 3

2009-03-10T04:57:00.003-06:00

Third in the series. Since it's impossible to make out, I'll explain - that's supposed to be clockwork, in the form of a stained glass window. Really.

Wings 1 and 2

2009-03-09T11:05:00.004-06:00

One and two in the Wings series. (The scans don't match up, but I suppose it doesn't matter since only about five people will see this anyway....)

Homer Simpson and Doctor Strange

2009-03-08T10:21:00.001-06:00

I really don't need to say anything else, do I?

Life Drawing, 4 March 2009

2009-03-05T18:41:00.001-06:00

Yep...

Yes, more life drawing

2009-03-02T03:54:00.002-06:00

Is it March? Time for more life drawing then... ;p

And a lobster, to fill the position of Random Photograph.

Life Drawing AGAIN...

2009-02-23T06:39:00.005-06:00

More life drawings. Sorry I don't have anything more interesting to post than these. I am still happy to show these off though, because they're actually decent portfolio material. Woohoo!

Last night I was depressed about music again, about how there seems to be nothing really good or innovative lately. This is an ongoing thing with me. I tried to find some decent new music on Youtube, but alas, I came up empty. I did, however, find this:

A live Thinking Fellers Union video from 1995.

SWEET JESUS, THAT'S AMAZING!!! And delightfully disturbing, as TFUL282 always were. I'm pretty sure they're the single most underrated band of all time.

Wings In Progress

2009-02-16T18:44:00.004-06:00

Here's what I've done so far on the Wings images...here are the lyrics, and Here's what the song is actually about.

Well, it's not so much about that, as it is about the significance of events, and how one event can change the course of history.

Anyway, this is such a touchy subject and I'm scared shitless. I'm afraid people on my course (and at the exhibition) will ask me loads of questions about Irish nationalism that I won't be able to answer (I'm reading a book on the subject right now, but that doesn't mean I can carry on an intelligent conversation about it). Also, what right do I have to do such a project when I'm not even Irish?

Then again, Mark E. Smith isn't Irish either.

Nevertheless, I'm still going to lose a lot of sleep over this.

BRAIN NOT FUNCTIONING

2009-02-13T15:54:00.002-06:00

Even more sketches. Rather scary ones at that...

Here is a list of incorrect things.

2009-02-10T04:00:00.003-06:00

Ever wonder why I don't do digital pieces more often?

...Well, now you know.

I just can't compete with the scores of great digital artists out there. Sigh.

Sketchadoodles

2009-02-09T10:16:00.005-06:00

Uh...I don't really know what to say about this one. Two left hands? (And look! There's David Duchovny, in all his stone-faced glory!)

One last life drawing, hopefully not the last one ever. A guy called Max in my class helped with this one (he does the most AMAZING work - start a blog, man, willya?!) - he did the orange bits and I did everything else. We both thought it was awesome and I hope you enjoy it too!

LIFE DRAWING?! - part 2

2009-02-08T15:08:00.004-06:00

FOOT!!!

A GUY SITTING!!!

...

Hmm...okay, so I can't possibly make these drawings exciting. Oh well....Here, have a snowman!

LIFE DRAWING?!

2009-02-06T09:14:00.004-06:00

Seriously? Did Hell freeze over or something? ...I think I drew that left foot about eight times...

More soon! :D

"Way to kill Wing Night, Lacey!"

2009-01-29T07:55:00.005-06:00

Concept art for another visual narrative type thing, based on the 1984 Fall song "Wings." Pretty timely, too, since the current lineup has revived that song and performed it on the last tour.

I should probably buy a compass or some larger circle templates if I'm going to use that clichéd clockwork motif for the finished pieces...

Unhinged ashcan #1 page 6

2009-01-17T08:21:00.003-06:00

Aaaaand page 6, of which you saw the blurry, discoloured photograph earlier. TH' END!! (No, this isn't really the end, that's just all I had the time to do for this assignment)

Unhinged ashcan #1 page 5

2009-01-16T14:43:00.003-06:00

I hate this page. Joel the instructor seemed to like it though. (Robe-with-red-sash-nametag outfit stolen from the Danielson Famile. No other band has filled me with such an overwhelming desire to play music. Wow.)

Unhinged ashcan #1 page 4

2009-01-15T09:29:00.003-06:00

Page four. The only thing that really disappoints me about this one is the stiff, box-like "STOP PUTTING THINGS IN MY HEAD" word balloons. Drawing boringly horizontal letters all the time is a bad habit of mine.

Unhinged ashcan #1 page 3

2009-01-14T10:52:00.009-06:00

Unhinged page threeeee. I remember reading a blurb in Print Magazine (I think) bitching about how over-used that "rising sun" effect is. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Bonus: A Random Wednesday sketch of what the Dead Layaways would look like if drawn by the "Savage Pencil" guy. Well, not really. But I am going to be in an exhibition with Savage Pencil! (And many others...at least I think I still am...) Woohoo!

In other news, I broke a lightbulb today! (That is about as exciting as my life ever gets!)

Unhinged ashcan #1 page 2

2009-01-13T18:08:00.005-06:00

I scanned these all at once today - so, here...have another one...

As Matt correctly guessed, the cross on Jeremy's forehead was stolen from the David Cronenberg film Scanners.

I just love to fill my head with pop culture ephemera...

sigh...

Unhinged ashcan #1 page 1

2009-01-13T06:19:00.002-06:00

God is in the hubcap.

What's an "ashcan?" According to Wikipedia, "An ashcan copy is a term that originated in the Golden Age of Comic Books, meant to describe a publication produced solely for legal purposes (such as trademark), which was not normally intended for distribution." See here. Also, "In modern comics, ashcans may be used as a promotion or as an inexpensive format for independent self-publishing. The term is sometimes synonymous with minicomics." And there you have it. :)

Visual Explanation metapost

2009-01-08T11:06:00.006-06:00

Yeah, I haven't updated for a while...sorry.

Also, this is really disturbing. Sorry, again. Apparently I can't draw anything "nice" anymore...Jeremy's bipolar, you see, and the words threatening to engulf him are symbolic of his illness threatening his existence. Waddaya expect, it's supposed to be "Visual Explanation..." There is way, way more to this which I hope to post, but it's all 11 x 14 and difficult to scan.

Jeremy's model sheet - appearing mostly just so I can post something that is scanned and not a crummy digital photo. You'll notice he kind of looks like Seth. Hmmm.

Hearts

2008-11-21T09:12:00.004-06:00

A woman wearing a coat decorated with hearts. The other woman, who I assume is her mother, had foot bones adorning her coat before I accidentally coloured over them. You'd think that I was developing a freakish obsession with drawing human organs and random disembodied limbs, but actually I'm just trying to draw anything I've never drawn before.

Sometimes this amounts to the dumbest possible combinations of things I can think of, which is always great fun!

Random Thursday 20-11-08

2008-11-20T08:48:00.003-06:00

Two jolly Victorian people standing on a brain. BRAAAAIIIINNS!!!!!!!!!!

Random Thursday, 13-11-08

2008-11-13T05:57:00.003-06:00

Some of my favourite doodles from my old sketchbook, including Sumi Ink Guitar Guy, Maniacal Grinning Punching Bag Guy, and Gumball Machine Head Boy. And now I see they're all facing left...sigh...

Random...Friday, 07-11-08

2008-11-07T06:32:00.004-06:00

Sorry I couldn't update this yesterday. Real Life intervened. Here's your weekly dose of randomness.

Percival page 4

2008-11-02T15:29:00.003-06:00

The fourth and final page. I get to hand these in tomorrow! But I probably won't get an actual mark for like, a month. I'm gonna predict a 55.

I'm going to see The Fall in Southampton on Wednesday. Hmm, that reminds me, I had some drawings published in this Fall lyrics book and I completely forgot to brag about that. I'll post some photos if I ever remember.

Random Thursday 30-10-08

2008-10-30T04:01:00.005-06:00

A crap collage. Crap, crap, crap. I was working on another one last night but that one failed even worse than this and now I have to start it over. Oh well.

A page including Cedric from New Edge (!), notes from a lecture on CVs, a sketch of Martin holding an oil lamp and yelling something at Olias (probably "GET OUT OF MY PANTRY, VERMIN") and a flaming skull-on-a-stick with a bunch of spanners. The skull and the collage above are in what Matt likes to call my "Hybrid Art College Style." What's that mean? It's when I try to make something in a super-trendy style and it looks contrived.

Percival page 3

2008-10-27T09:18:00.004-06:00

WHOA! BET YA DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING!! D: D: D:

He's probably cursing like mad here. But I suppose we will never know.

Edit: Yeah, this is quite similar to the bit in my Sonic submission where the ground starts to shake and the Sky Sanctuary Zone falls apart. Except nobody died that time.

Percival page 2

2008-10-26T04:48:00.004-06:00

At last, page 2. Uhh..I don't really have anything else to say. I finished it last night while watching the first X-Men film...why am I telling you this?

California Dreamer

2008-10-24T07:44:00.004-06:00

Yes, this is supposedly the "extra-special" thing I was talking about. Pretty anticlimactic. Reasons I drew this:

1. To practice drawing four-legged animals.
2. To draw something with harsh, dramatic lighting.
3. To draw something with more than one or two figures/elements.
4. To practice some colour theory, following the principle that shadows are the opposite colour of the light source and the principle that black should not be used for shading because it tends to make everything very muddy.

Also inspired by two songs that nobody cares about, including "California Dreamer" by Wolf Parade. (Ha ha...get it? WOLF Parade? A picture of WOLVES? I'm so predictable) That song has been going round and round in my head since July. No, I'm not joking.

I'm disappointed with this scan because the blue isn't quite so saturated in real life. That destroyed the harsh lighting I had managed to achieve. Sigh.

Random Thursday 23-10-08

2008-10-23T08:16:00.005-06:00

This sums up Random Thursday perfectly. I was moving this file into another folder and these weird white bits appeared on the thumbnail. I thought it looked so cool that I had to take a screenshot. Wouldn't it be weird if I enlarged this exact image and did a painting of it? I mean, I'm not saying I WILL - gee, I've been reading too many modern art periodicals lately...

Here's page 75, because I've got to post an actual drawing too. I'll have something extra-special up tomorrow, I promise. :)

Lazy painting

2008-10-20T02:18:00.001-06:00

A scary gouache painting from my sketchbook of a guy with a melting head. Or something. It's so scary that it made my white gouache tube explode. No, really!