Eye Witness Account

For those who were in attendance yesterday at the scene of the crime, I will honor your request and post the "Teddy Bear" drawings next week.
No, I am not trying to stall so I can tamper with the evidence, I merely forgot to bring my pad home for scanning.
For those who were not there, let me state for the record no actual teddy bears were harmed in the making of these images.

Portrait

David profile
Prismacolor on newsprint
March 22, 2006

Group Think

Multiple composition 1
Prismacolor with digital colour.
March, 2006

One For Moose

Because I missed The Beatle Brunch again.

I got home from a severe trouncing by the Red Wings and I felt I couldn't go to bed without trying to get some good karma back into my life.
So I offer this image lifted from the Ticket To Ride video
... just for you, Moose.

See you next Wednesday.

Eight Months In One Afternoon

What a fun day. We had a very special guest in our studio this afternoon.
One of the instructors brought in his eight month old son and the lad was kind enough to model for us. It was the first time I had to tell the class time was up.
Thanks to our model, Baby F, thanks to his dad Peter and thanks to the class and all visitors for doing some great work. If you want to post your drawings from today on this site just let me know.



No he can't stand on his own. Papa was holding him up.


No he doesn't really look like a cartoon character.
It is an animation class, remember.


A baby can turn his back on you but never turn your back on a baby.

Late Night Colour Jam

More fun with Photoshop


Stretching Male
Prismacolor on newsprint
March, 2006


Stretching Male II
Prismacolor on newsprint plus digital colour
March, 2006

Ladies and Gentleman

Ladies:


Female on chair
Prismacolor on newsprint
March, 2006


Female seated
Prismacolor on newsprint
March, 2006

and Gentleman:


Steve1
Prismacolor on newsprint
March, 2006

Red With Rage

Prismacolor with digital colour
March, 2006

The (Naked) Truth Hurts

Just when you think you've seen it all.

Dicey Situation

Tabletop Canuck
acrylic on masonite
March, 2006

This is a painting I did for the Dice and Ice Benefit auction this week.
The event raises money for the Canucks For Kids Fund which aids Canuck Place, B.C. Children's Hospital
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Building.
I have two sets of metal tabletop players ( Detroit and Boston) and I used a player as a templet for the image.
That's where the classic haircut comes from.

Cleaning Up My Act

Evolution
Oil on canvas
14.75" x 10.5"
2003

This is a painting I did as part of nightly clean ups on another painting.
From time to time, when I am working on a large painting, I create another much smaller painting as a way to get excess oils off my brushes and palette. This was one of the better results - in my opinion.
There's no conscious meaning to it.
Just wanted to paint a figure and then I guess I decided she needed a bull-like creature to keep her company.

Back to the angry Scotsman!

Tuesday Night Post

Just a few images to post while I take a break from illustrating an angry Scotsman.

Corpse Bride Storyboards

Have a look at these Corpse Bride storyboards drawn by Matt Jones.

Scroll down and have a look at his thumbnails too.
Take note how he uses blocks of blacks and greys balance out his compositions.

I found them while visiting Drawn!

A Simple Gesture And What Develops

I came across this gesture tonight while going through one of my pads.

I post it here because I think it's a good example of how I prefer to initiate a drawing: first priority is to get the pose. I do that by keeping the drawing as simple as possible.
The straight line of her left leg is more about where the leg is than what it looks like. The arch of the thigh is drawn in one quick line in an effort to nail the flex of a locked leg - not as a representation of muscular detail.
Her right side is a quick couple of strokes from shoulder to knee and the feet are essentially just directional lines.
With the feet, as with everything else, my initial concern is placement rather than what it looks like.
Keep in mind I don't consider this a complete gesture. This is just a first pass through the pose. A gesture, in my opinion, is complete when it contains enough information for the artist to finish the drawing without needing further reference to the model.

Below are two I consider to be more complete gestures:





And I like this one because of how much the pose was pushed:

Fair To Middlin'

Vanity Fair
Marker and col-erase on animation paper
February 2006

Doodled while watching The Colbert Report.

Bamboom (Updated)

February 2006

This isn't finished. I'll post the end result as well.

UPDATE



March, 2006

This is the revised version. Not many changes.
Just removing hair strokes and trimming down the shoulder volume.
The impact of the hair's black mass was getting lost in the first version.
I knew I didn't like the previous version but didn't know exactly why at the time.
Subtracting - rather than adding - detail was the solution.
For me, more often than not, stripping away information is the answer.