TV Drawings...

Here are a couple drawings I did with my junky brush pen while watchign TV the other night.. The old guy on the top was the owner of a candy store.. He was soooo wrinkley.. I didn't do him justice.. My sketch makes him look too young.. The other guy is supposed to be Jim McDonald from Coronation Street... Yes.. I watch Coronation Street.. Not a great sketch. By the time I decided to draw him he was mostly shot from behind.... but it actually has gotten me thinking that it'd be fun to do caricatures of different TV casts.. might be fun.....funny note... the grey on these sketches is actually the last remains of my nice black brush pen.. I just couldn't stop drawing with it......

April...

April and Chloe fell asleep on the couch for a while late saturday afternoon. So I went to the study to do some doodling while I had the time. I ended up doing a little cartoony drawing of my wife with a blue colerase with the idea of scanning it and adding some color in photoshop.. Later that night they went out to a friends birthday party.. and as I have no scanner at home.. I decided to redraw the sketch on some brown construction paper with a weird old caligraphy marker I had.. Not my firsty choice.. but it was the only black ink utensil I had.. Then I added some whites and shadows with my derwent drawing pencils.. Meh.. It turned out ok.. If I learned anything it's that the construction paper that I have is pretty cheap.. it would almost start to disintergrate when any pressure was applied to it.. i think I'll still coor the original sketch in photoshop... the drawing was a little stronger than this.. and it's be neat to see how different / the same it'll be..

More at the mall..

Went to the mall again yesterday.. With my Crappy brush pen in hand.. It was ok.. DIdn't really hit any drawings outta the park.. And there weren't too many interesting people about... But. I did run into an interesting person right before I got on the elevator to go up to the studio.. He's the guy with the black toque and the soul patch.. So I did a drawing of him while I rode the elevator.. My first ever elevator drawing...

Lost...

Wow.. Charlie finally went over the deep end last night.. and Hurley got himself a woman!. And Locke's beating the crap outta people!! Oh yeah.... These are a couple of really quick crappy brush pen sketches i did of Charlie and Hurley while I was watching Lost..

Chloe and the cats.... Or... Crappy brush pen..

Man.. I finally found a brush pen at one of the art stores here.... and it's CRAP!!! It's very unpredictable and really flimsy.. It made it really hard to draw with.. and it definitally didn't react like a brush would... anyway....

My daughter chloe has a strange relationship with our cats.. she loves them.. and constantly has to pet them if they're around.. she calls them "cat".. and " diddle diddle diddle"... But.. The male cat smeagol.. she gets a big kick outta him.. she'll chase him around the house and just point and laugh at him.. He usually gets freaked by this and runs.. which makes her follow and point and laugh again.. and the cycle continues.. So i just had to try and draw it... I'm working on characaters designs of my 2 cats and my daughter. they don't look anything like this though... I need to capture Her interaction with the cats in animation... Some of it is pure gold...

My little budding artist...

Here's a drawing that my 10 month old daughter Chloe did in my sketchbook the other night.. She was very deliberate in her color choice.. it was great to watch.. She'd pick a color... make a few very delicate lines.. then beat it around the page.. then stop...... another delicate line.. change color.. and repeat..

The first drawing she ever did was drawn at my animation desk at home when she was around 5 or 6 months old.... It was on animation paper.. with red and blue cole-erase.. sniff.. makes a dad proud.. it hangs on my drawing board in front of my desk at home now.. Now... if i can just teach her to inbetween...;)

More from the mall...

Nathan and I went back to the food court yesterday.. It wasn't as packed as before.. But there were still some interesting people about... I drew with sharpie.. and a little with a brush pen I borrowed from Nathan.. Man.. I can't daw with a sharpie at all.. But I know some people can.. I've seen the results.. Just requires a bit more confidence than I have at the moment... These drawings were done with a "look at the person for a few seconds and never look back" approach.. so they're not the most acurate.. but some of them captured the essence of the person.... I teach my first of 6 classes in "Advanced flash animation" at the local community college this afternoon.. It's probably not good that I don't have my lesson plan 100% locked down yet.. Better get to it.. Wish me luck...

Mall Drawings

Nathan and I went to the mall for lunch on monday and did some sketching.. it was surprisingly filled with interesting people.. Like the manly looking lady with too much make-up... And the old man who kept shooting me these "I'm gonna kill you in your sleep" glances every time i tried to draw him. After a few minutes there was a big void around us.. every body cleared out... oh well.. it was fun while it lasted.. I did some more gorilla drawings too.. But i was told they were getting too boring.. so I won't post em.. I'll try to make this a gorilla free zone..;).

More pens bite the dust...

Well.. I fell on my way into work today.. we're having one of those fresh snow over ice days.. and before i knew it.. bam!! one foot one way one the other... and my sketchbook in a pile of snow... not too much snow damage.. a couple of pages.. But still an annoyance.. But anyway..

Here's a page from my sketchbook.. Still going through a Gorilla thing.. I love them.. they're soo great to draw.. They're probably the one constant in my sketchbooks.. there's always some gorilla's somewhere.. This page marked the end of 2 of my grey brush pens... I really need to go get more today.. hopefully I'll get some at lunch... These drawings aren't great.. and there are a couple of places where inadvertant smudges of ink made me shade in areas i didn't want to... but it's all a learning process.. and it's fun. I think this is the first time I've actually posted a page from my sketchbook... as opposed to a fake mocked up photoshop page....hmm maybe i should do that more often.. or not... i dunno....... see ya!!!...

New Tims people...

We went to a different Tim Hortons this weekend.. It was great.. There was this click of old men that were talking politics... It got pretty heated at times.. The best line i heard was"You can't trust Steven Harper.. Just look at him!! Hs eyes are too far apart!!" Man.. you can't write stuff like that.. There was one point where an elderly lady came in and sat a table away from them and tried to join in on the conversation.. They totally ignored her... Man.. those old guys were harsh.... But great men to draw.. I'm convinced there's an animated short in there somewhere...

R.IP. Faber Castell Brush Pen

Well... My Black brush pen died last night... mid drawing... so.. to honor it.. I'm posting the drawing that killed it... It's a pretty bad drawing actually.. but it's the one that finnished off my pen.. I do have some grey scale ones and a burnt umber brush pen.. I hope to go pick up another black one over the weekend.. It's the top drawing that killed the pen. Which is basically one of the gorillas i posted yesterday with his head turned a bit more... The bottom one was done with a dark grey.. My grey scale brush pen are steadler.. and they are a bit thicker.. which is nice for filling in shadows.. And the tips seem to be made out of a beter substance than my faber castell one. which i think was just felt tip...

Anyway.. Still struggling to find my brush pen technique and having to deal with the permancy of ink... there's no going back with ink.. once it's there, it's there.. for better or for worse..

Brush Pen Gorillas

Did some more brush pen drawings last night. Still don't really have the hang of it.. But I'm starting to see where it might go. There's somethign about the way the brush pen can lay down fast scribbley hatching that has a neat look to it.. I can't really do that.. But I can see how others can.. I can see how using it with a strong source of lighting can lead to a very powerful image.. I'm still in the area of making mistakes.. and then having to deal with them.. And theres tonnes of mistakes here..

Troy.. You should like these.. there was nary a pencil involved.. Just india ink and paper... then some grey scale markers afterwards... it's probably as close to cleanup drawing as I'll ever post ;). I just realized when scanning that i forgot to do the greyscale marker treatment to the top one.. oh well. I don't like the middle one soo much.. it was the first one i drew... bad porportions.. But I'm pretty sure I'm gonna keep playing with these brush pens.. They're fun....

More Faces..

Again.. More faces.. Me trying to break through that wall I have with trying to get some life in my faces. And Brush pen too.. Man.. I am soo not confident enough to be using brush pen.. But maybe sketching with them will force me to be a little more confident with my drawings.. And maybe force me to take a little more time with my drawings as well...

Tim's Saturday

Did some saturday mornign sketching at Tim's this week.. I went pretty craptacular.. But i stole a ball point pen from Kyle and managed to get a couple of drawings done.. I need to work on getting more personality in my faces.. It's something i struggle with.. And I find I can lose it fast when I don't keep practicing..

New Haircut!

Hey, I got new haircut over the Holiday break.. Here's a little before and after comparison sketch I did.. Whaddaya think?? Is the new hair better? Or is the old long and flippy style the way to go??