Grannies and Sketches

 Hello! Woot, update as promised! Here's a collection of sketches and loose ends from this week and a few weeks back. Saw some older ladies battling it out over a bag of stolen vegetables at the wet market. Both got dragged off shouting by police officers into a dodgy white van.

A quick sketch of a hairdresser from around town. His hair and outfit were quite  something. One of my students saw this sketch and noted I got the shoes all wrong, as they usually wear very shiny Sicilian mafia shoes.

 And my current pride and joy! My granny model! She is still faaar from being finished, but I wanted to show some of the idea development (there wasn't too much, but still) Her clothes and hair still need loads of modeling, and now that I have got a hang of working with skin, I want to properly colour all of it. The crocish shows I am quite happy with, but the hair is still bugging me. She also has a few props I need to learn how to model. Loving how much learning is going on through every new project in Maya! It is such an incredibly extensive program!

 Some head desing I did for her originally, and the body model I am more or less using as reference. She has a pretty big hump on her back but her arms fold nicely under it.

Have a good weekend everyone!

When toddlers go Walking Dead

I asked a few of my students to make all sorts of faces, and took a bunch of pictures to play around with on the weekend.  I found 2 amazing little art shops tucked away on a small street while biking around and of course decided to blow a bunch of money on art supplies I definitely did not need more of....anyhow. Trying out some watercolour paper I got I started off with this cutesy cotton-candy-funfair sort of feel....

...and then I remembered how much Walking Dead I have to catch up on. My lineart was still in the same style as the one above. I just went nuts on the shadows. Amazing how easy it is to change the mood with one colour...

 

Walking Dead, the Toddler Edition - Coming soon to an IMAX near you!

Some Watercolour Studies

Line Wash - Bouxwiller, France. Nothing new in this style, my usual sketching watercolor go-to

I had an amazing vacation around Europe with my better half and some of my family this summer, and even though I have a rubbish little camera, the scenery itself made for some amazing pictures. (most of which I took with the intentions of drawing and using as art reference anyways of course!) My new watercolour set arrived a few weeks ago and I finally had time this week to play around and make a few study paintings.

This one was fun and something completely different for me, "negative painting". I basically started with a very primitive sketch of what will happen on the page and with every layer of paint kept painting the background and omitting the new shapes. My trees need a lot of work but as a new project this was fun.

And a quickie of one of my students and our ridiculously fun giant rubber animals which they can bounce around on.

Long Time No See!

好久不见！Hao jiu bu jian！A phrase we actually took from China more or less.
So...it has been quite a long while! I was expecting not to post during the summer but this was just getting plain lazy.  It's not that I haven't been doing art, just....life sort of throws moe and more things at you and you end up neglecting your beloved art blog.
So..I am officially back in China! And this time for a farily long 2 year haul. : ) I'm in a new city, Shunde, which is home to Bruce Lee, one of the best cuisines of China and an amazing proximity to just about everything. It's bigger and much richer than my previous city, so I will have plenty of new experiences and contrasts over here. (for example I have not seen buttless pants or tuk tuks, which to be honest I sort of miss) I've been here now for over 2 months and am in love. I can see myself spending a lot longer than 2 years to be honest. My job is fantastic and inspiring. I am teaching wonderful little 3 year olds not just english, but everything from manners, to cooking to sports and art. Expect to see a lot of toddler art in upcoming posts...
I'll be diligent with uploading new stuff every week, even if it's just a few sketches. Enjoy my life from the Middle Kingdom once again!
Oh, and I still don't have a scanner so....bear with the quality while it ships its slow way to me from Canada....

Real First Names Are for Pooftahs (pardon the language)

 

The Whole Population of Carrabin

I'm back in the land of internet! Nah, just kidding, I'm still in Australia (where you can actually buy airspace as well as land), but managed to get my hands on a little signal, so decided it's time for a nice big update. Proud to say my sketchbook is nearly full (it's been a while since I've successfully gotten to the last page before smearing everything with food and coffee stains) though I've been more focusing on specific projects, rather than random sketches (so its not so fun to look through).

The Regulars of Westonia

Morning Coffee

Farmer Boys

Truckies

My Mining Boys

First off, I had the not so brilliant idea of drawing everyone I met in Australia (since January) who's had some sort of contact with me whether good or bad. It's turned out to be a rather sour endeavour after the first few drawings...quite amazing just HOW many people you meet when on the road! But those involved seem to love looking at themselves and their friends, and as I promised, I'm posting them now. No, I still have no scanner, hence the over exposed pap smear quality. I do have plenthy more where those came from...but I figured one location would suffice. Only 20 zillion to go!

Finally a cover image for my comic, Septembuary!

 

Also, I hope those of you following my work have been checking up on my other blog "Septembuary", as I do regularly post new comic strips there. And here's a bit of news that may come as a surprise, I'm going back to China! I've gotten a pretty good job this time round (helps when you know what you're looking for) with heaps of perks, paid holidays and all that, so I can manage a life between Asia and Europe. : ) Partly I'm going back because the money is much better than back home at the moment, partly because I felt horribly guilty for not devoting time to learn the language, and mostly because I want to continue compiling my comic book, for reasons I will disclose in a future post.

Yes, Australian News seem to breeze through any actual IMPORTANT events while spending countless hours on exaggerating useless things, and adding a whole soap opera thing to almost ANY story.  No, I have nothing against the little prince. Yes, I have major beef with certain news stations. 

And now back to Aussie land. Having worked in remote areas for the last few months (as in no tourists) I've been getting a really neat and different feel for the country this time around, and my partner suggested I should write down my ideas or do something with them. I've been wanting to explore different styles and such and this little side venture (cause I definitely don't have enough of those) gives me that chance. Plus, the inknig takes waaaay less time than Septembuary! Here's a little teaser for ya.

A few more weeks left in this beautiful and incomprehensible place and then I'm back to the Northern hemisphere where seasons and temperatures make sense, and the internet is free, plenty and functional. See you then!
 

Some tidbits and life

One of the bikies from the biker gang Deroes, who spent a lovely night at out roadhouse. My technically "illegal" party experience with outlaws.

People having a good time at the local school's 100th celebration. Lots of country and Jonny Cash, and a fun atmosphere all around!

I'm quite surprised at how fulfilling and busy life can be in such a remote place. Currently reading "The World Before Yesterday", which is an amazing book about the few tribes and bands of people still living traditionally and how their culture functions, and it's amazing to see how so many of the facts relate to a small community here in Australia. Things and business is based on mutual growth, on personal relationships and basically looking out for each other, not just getting the biggest piece of cake.

And the kinds of people we have passing through the roadhouse are amazing. It's not tourists at all, which is a bit of a breath of fresh air. I'm just seeing raw, untempered Australians whose lives vary from incredibly successful to incredibly tragic. The stories I hear every day are just so inspiring, comic or bizzare. I think I have a new project idea to add to my to-do list. : p

A little bit of stuff from a little bit of nowhere..

Man I need a scanner...crappy camera quality really knows how to wreck just about anything..
A few sketchbook pages from recent moving around. After 4 flights and 3 jobs, I finally got somewhere I like and doing something I like with people I like. It's amazing how much difference a place makes when you like spending time with the people in that place. It can be even the biggest hole in the wall. Maybe have a permanent population of 3.

After hours

The juggler had an interesting choice of words if you can read my notes

 

What better time to post than at 3 AM in the morning! These are quick live sketches from Wizard World, which I was working at last week. The first few days were kind of slow business, so I observed people. But then it got busy and I had to work...so unfortunately not a lot of time to draw. Carnie people are interesting and depressing folk I have to say.  I'll have to draw a whole character lineup some time...

In other news....

I'm about to fall asleep on my keyboard, but can proudly say I finished my target projects for the day! Unfortunately, I can't quite show you yet what I'm working on (telling people what I'm doing jinxes me), but my pre-trip update is going to be GRAND. Like, I'm happier with it than my portfolio, though that's just me. And it will be one of the first, if not the first, biggie projects I actually completed.

I've been listening to an excellent podcast while working called "Making Comics" by the amazing Jason Brubaker, who is both an animator and a comic artist. And he interviews a lot of independent comics artists/animators. Kind of my dream. But listening to all the hard work these people put in to get to their niche and fame really pushes me to work for...12 or 14 hours or whatever it's been this last week. I highly recommend it! A lot of useful business advice for artists too. 

So..sorry for the crummy update, but I hope you like what's coming at you next week!

Beards and Tidbits

When a parent is too busy to hold their child's hand

One day this kid and his mini doc martens are gonna be famous. Kudos for his super tattooed and pierced parents

Beards. Just cause I wanted to exploit the "caption" button.

Heya! 

You know what hasn't happened on this blog in a while? Good old ranting!

So this past weekend, my lovely country of Canada celebrated a holiday which we invented a few years ago (never thought one could do that) called Family Day, conveniently following Valentine's Day. Hmmmmmm...I'll leave that one alone this time. 

Anyhow, instead of spending time with the good old family as I'm assuming most people do, I finally got to venture out into the big wide world after basically not having human contact for a few weeks. (technically english contact, since my french classes are more or less my social life these days...I should probably start writing some of these blog entries in both to practice..hmm) My best buddy and I got to see each other and work together at a Kid's Festival. (big bouncy castles, too much cotton candy and all that stuff) Neither of us is particularly fond of kids, or I guess such huge quantities of really poorly raised kids. But hell, we had some fun selling random crap for insane amounts of money to poor parents. (think lots of flashing swords and bubbles) A dad even told me "You guys are a kid's dream and a parent's nightmare". Was tempted to give him my two cents on that one buuuuuut. Gotta be a nice canadian eh?

However, I did get to see plenty of interesting families, especially the mixed race kids. I swear the world population is getting more and more beautiful with this globalizing stuff. Dark skin, bright blue eyes, or cute little afro with eastern eyes..so awesome! However, of course no day was complete without the obese 4 year olds shoveling bags of cookies in their mouth, with their extravagantly generous-figured parents munching down on a xl pizza. What surprised me the most though about this whole "Kid's Festival" and festivals in general is the moral code of the parents. Every time I work one of these carnie events, sure, someone steals. But you would think it's mostly teenagers, right? Nope. The sweetest old ladies and the nicest moms. You stand there, shocked to see a cute grandma casually stuff a $5 glowing wand into her purse, that by the time you snap out of it, she happily walks away. And the worst part of this? Their kids are watching the whole time! What kind of morals are we setting for younger generations?? Like there aren't enough problems already!

Anyhow, hence a few sketches I expanded on when I got home. Society is a fun thing to observe. Kind of wish I had like 5 years of life where I didn't have to think about responsibility, projects or money and just be free to watch observe and sketch, soaking up different cultures like a sponge. I'll keep on scratching those cash for life lottery cards I guess...

And the beards were just something I wanted to play around with. Test some color combos with my good old watercolors. Who doesn't love beards?

Anywho....got lots more to say, but I think I've spammed my own blog enough for a day. Will need to make this up with a heavy art dump soon. Have a good weekend everyone!

Boy You Got Swagga

 

I know I promised life drawing but....it's been incredibly gloomy and cloudy this weekend and my photo-taking skills combined with a dark apartment equal nothing pleasant. Tomorrow is meant to be sunny so I'll try to post some more. (Isn't all this activity just exciting??) 

But I'm not going to leave you empty handed now, am I? So I drew you this curious old man I saw on my bus ride a few days ago. He definitely had some swagga. Especially his Beleiber shoes. (yes I just made a reference to that boy)

Now back to work and listening to some shiny new tunes! Good week to everyone!

Récherches: Arbres/Trees

 Pastel on sketchbook....scanned these as soon as I finished them as I realized how bad of an idea it was to draw with something so messy in a sketchbook you bring everywhere...

Back in...7th grade or so, a friend went homw to Korea and brought me back a bunch of cutesy stationery. (think sharpener with cutesy bunny ears and unicorns vomiting rainbows...) Obviously you don't ever actually use souvenirs...so I took a bunch of erasers and made stencils with woodcarving tools I have. Then I used some nearly dry acrylic paint to make a few of these! The color choices are a bit boring but..

Pastel on actual pastel paper. So nice to have a medium tones bg to work with.

Watercolor on paper. Referenced a few old russian art books I had for color mixing and such. Gotta admit...russian how to books (on anything) are sooooo much better.

Chinese Ink stick ground into powder and calligraphy brush. Had no idea I owned a kit...

Bilingual tree studies! Now you know 4 useless words in french. : ) You can thank me later.

 

And my usual favorite...putting in colors that don't really belong and trying to make it work. Watercolor.

 It's ironic how now that it's actually cold and snowing and generally unpleasant, all I want to do is go outside and adventure. BUT. Of course, portfolio comes first...one more month! As much fun as it can be, and as much learning as I'm getting done, I'm really keen to get back to my own projects with actual...you know, meaning and humor in them! But still, I'm not one to get bored easily, so I decided since I was going to spend a few days drawing trees, I'm gonna spend a few days EXPERIMENTING!!  And what does that mean exactly? Elementary: gather any and all old art supplies from good old highschool days (where you blew 50 bucks on wood carving and sculpting tools you never used....that kind of crap) and see what happens. So....these are all pretty varied. I'm still trying to settle on a style for my current animation pitch..but that's next.   

Also coming this weekend: new lifedrawing! It's been a while, so don't expect too much. 

Animalsies, David Attenborough and really old Art!

 

So I finally decided it was time. To draw those things I've been avoiding drawing. You know. The stuff you don't see every day. So I dutifully went to the zoo sat down on my comfy couch with a bunch of Planet Earth and Life DVDs. Is that cheating? Honestly, I don't particularly care as I wasn't exactly tracing over the giant TV screen. (I also discovered how to use the TV....took a while) 

Did the whole gesture/build forms over top thing. At first I wanted to shoot myself cause I had no idea what I was doing. You see, it's been...many years since I've diligently drawn animals? And by animals I mean copy colorful photos from my animal encyclopedias when I was 10. Below are some of my masterpieces I found....are you ready?

Like, I mean are you really ready?

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You might need a blindfold for this.

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And a bottle of something strong.

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Behold!

 Now you know the funny thing is...you think you get better as you grow up and draw right? I suppose....unless somewhere along you journey you stumble upon the wonderful world of...dun dun dun: Digimon. And anime. And then your art looks exactly the same for the next...8 years. Voila work from when I was 12......

I'm serious about that something strong now

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some 50% Chinese rice wine might do the trick

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And now that you're gingerly holding your pint glass

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Behold what I call regression!

 

Yup. I know. You just grouped me into "that" group of people.

So as you can now understand...it's been a while. And considering what I managed to draw over the last few days, I'm pretty darn happy with how it all came out. Unfortunately as soon as I turned on the telly and heard his charming voice the drawing bit was totally over... I want David Attenborough to narrate my life. Just saying. 

So after failing miserably to drawing animals in HD I did the next dumbo thing and searched for low rez videos of animals I was working on....so a lot of my sketches ended up being interpretations of pap smeared handy cams from youtube. Talk about brilliance?

Anywho, since I already exposed you to my wonderful beginnings of art, here are a few of my actually awesome pieces from when I was around 9 and 10. 

Aren't they actually better than all that other work I showed you above?? 

These were from the period I diligently went to an art studio in Ukraine after elementary school twice a week. I totally thought I would be the next Leonardo. Hah. Hah. Hah. But I had a fantastic teacher whom I remember and am very thankful for to this day. Sadly I can't find many links to his beautiful work...but here is one piece! My artistic ambitions would not be where they are now that's for sure.

Well....an update on portfolio status: 12 pages done!! And that would be after having milked all my work up till now...yikes. All fresh new stuff from this point onwards!