Sketchy 02

Another post for SKETCHY, the sketchbook series. Enjoy mates.

Sketchy 01

Adding a new post series, I decided to call  Sketchy. These are a series of drawings from my sketchbook usually done on my creative jam sessions away from work, sitting in my pjs and watching a movie, documentary, or TV. It's my pure fun of the wandering pencil and the good old imagination unfiltered and totally subconscious. Sketchbook stuff is rarely seen and yet its some of my favourite times, and the drawings are meant to be raw and unedited (I do use Photoshop to modify slightly). It's important for me to have these moments where I can have some down time to just disconnect, and I admit my time is structured but I force myself to make time to grab the sketchpad and a nice B pencil as often as possible and begin. All in all WYSIWYG.

I usually draw 11 by 14 on 50 pound paper and I prefer drawing horizontally but find it difficult to format for blogger, so I stick to the vertical orientation. Enjoy. Cheers

A Charming Snake

 Out for a pleasure walk in the early morning and came across a Garter Snake. What a rare find!!! Snakes have always been my favourite reptiles.  The way they get around is really amazing and they are seriously misunderstood. I got up close and personal with this one as I got in touch with my inner Crocodile Hunter.

Wexford Collegiate Open House

Posted some pics of Wexford during their Open House as my son, Rowin, prepares for High School. Wexford is a specialized Art School catering to students who excel in visual arts, media, film, dance, and drama. Me and Rowin took a tour of the school and looking at all the cool things it had to offer hoping it will become his next school. 

We had time to engage with the staff and students and really loved how open, welcoming, accepting, and diverse this school is. I felt at home among Artists who, in my opinion, are awesome and eclectic people to be around.

Students work in groups to paint the lockers 

in diverse styles and expressions. How many schools do that...

This is the washroom facility... cool. I like a place 
that understands a toilet is just a toilet and everybody uses it.

Rowin looking at the papier mache whale and 

calf, displayed in the main foyer.

Sirius Black

Back to Harry Potter for more character inspiration. Went completely digital on this one.

Studio Shed

Finally finished my long anticipated Studio Space. It's a point of pride and a thing of beauty. Painting was the most time consuming of all. Love Board and Batten, dislike painting it. Requires extreme patience.

It's becoming the go to place for after school hanging out with the kids and my wife has taken possession of the corner for her crafting table. Besides sharing is more fun, right. Just awaiting Solar Panels and it will power itself. Added more images under the tab, In The Workshop, showing the progression stages for us building nerds who enjoy looking at Framing.

The Portrait of the Artist in from of his Studio Oct 2016.

LOISH'S New Book

Picked up LOISH's new book from my favourite art store, Labyrinth, in Toronto's west end, while adventuring around with the family. I recently came across her work and was very impressed with her digital paint and rendering. Even more excited to find a book of work, It even came with a groovy case. Began reading it once I was home and couldn't put it down. The cool thing about it is the addedtutorial demonstrating her creative process. Awesome :)

Crotchety Teacher

Thought it was timely to post this as Daily Sketch since its Back to School for the kiddies after a nice long hot summer. The glum faces and the dismal expressions reminds me of another long year of school. "Get used to it kids," I say, "school for you guys will be long. High school and post-secondary and perhaps even more post-secondary." Their faces sink even more. Learning hasn't always been exciting for them and my wife and I supplement their education a great deal. Are teachers not inspired to learn anymore? Has stagnation and comfort usurped joy and enthusiasm for learning? I know there are still some passionate educators out and my children have met them but they are far and few between.

Later in my class I share my kid's sentiment with my students, who are much older. Their feedback is imbued with passion and disappointment as they share their stories of public education as a broken system far too great a topic to get into here...

...As for my kids, here's hoping your educators will continue to rise above the doldrums of mediocrity and show the passion for learning and knowledge to be just as exciting as I see it.

Fun with BLOCKS...

Atticus, my youngest son,  being creative with shapes. It all starts out like a big mess of pieces all over the living room carpet. But somehow the mess is all good when my wife and I see the cognitive development being displayed at the end.

Ohh the joys of perception and creativity. I see mess and he sees things waiting to be discovered. I should talk, my studio space sometimes looks like a nuclear explosion of paper, pencils, paints, and several devices running at the same time. It works out being something in the end though or not. It's the journey that's important. Yeah, go with it. That's more of a serene way of looking at it.  No mess, no mess.

HillBilly BOB

HillBilly BOB realized that with every new bank account opened, he's awarded a new gun. It's a deep south AMERICAN thing.  BOB has now opened several bank accounts and collects a variety of guns.     

Evidently, collecting guns is like collecting coins, comics, or stamps. That was cool in my youth. I suppose the gun collector might have a hard time bringing them into show-in-tell for a classroom event.  I personally would be afraid to run into BOB at the local grocery store.

LAURA ANGEL

Today's daily sketch is LAURA ANGEL. Liked the idea of an ANGEL who has seen and been through too much to give a shit. For immortals, their POV of human history would be a history repeating itself over and over again, hamster wheeling for eternity-bummer.

This is my first real attempt at going right into digital without a pre-drawing. I usually have some pencil sketch that I can rely on, but not this time. Really like working with Autodesk's SketchPro. Happy with the results.

I imagined Laura to be fashionable grundge wearing diva  and being more intrigued with her yo-yo than saving humans from their idiotocratic ways. Maybe she was inspired by characters like Jessica Jones, Alias, Aeon Flux, and other ideas lurking in my subconscious.

Hope to include Laura in a project in the future, but like the saying goes, for people like me with busy schedules, "you won't have time if you don't make time," or what was it "schedule time"...lol

until next time...

EL Terrifiko

Decided to go Mexican but mostly in tribute to my Burrito guys. Although most, if not all, of my MEXICAN WRESTLING reference is in the spirit of Nacho Libre, cool movie but mostly because of Jack Black-poor and lame-I know. Well, there’s also the Intel I get from the guys who work at my favourite burrito place. They’re hardcore Mexican wrestling fanzines and sometimes will play the circuit fights on TV while I’m eating my Pollo Loco.

I do know that good Drama and parlor tricks are key to Mexican wrestlers and really cool outfits. 

EL TERRIFIKO is all upper body and looks like he can handle himself in the ring. I failed to mention that healthy dose of narcissistic arrogance really goes a long way too. Went digital on this one but relied on the original sketchbook sketch to keep the proportions accurate, than went straight to ink-digital ink that is. Thanks Guys. Until next time…

Some more sketches of Mexican wrestlers…

Brave Boy...

The Daily Sketch has taken a hit. Amen to that. I almost feel like changing the category to the Whenever Sketch or the Sometimes Sketch.  I won't do anything drastic yet.  It would be nice to blog daily but I do have a day job and the family at the end of the day.  Work is busy and I get to blogging when I can.  It's always exciting to get a post out there and even more exciting to be able to work on more stuff to post.  

Although I like the pencil version of this one, I make every attempt to use Sketchbook Pro to ink and colour.  It's my favourite digital drawing tool right now. I enjoy the process and try to use different tools to experiment with.  It can be frustrating at times when it's not working or I can't seem to get it to do what I want with it, but I'm told we learn through frustration-haha. 

Tabs and Pages are coming Ohh My

UNDER CONSTRUCTION WARNING

Trying to get sophisticated with tabs and pages in blogger. Didn't realize how time consuming this stuff is, so bear with me when you click on the tabs and nothing happens.  It's supposed to do that cause nothing is there yet. Ciao everyone and see you on the flip side.