Doodleburg

Sketch dump (what a nifty phrase!)

2011-04-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

Sheesh, a fella might update his blog a little more often than once a year. Well, I offer no excuses; I only show you a little of what I've been up to lately:

On my way to work...

2010-05-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

Years ago, before I went back to school to learn animation, I kept a small sketchbook - 5.5" x 8.5" or smaller - on the bus ride to work, and filled up several of them over two and a half years with drawings, mostly in pen, of my fellow passengers on their own way to the salt mines. Then a move out to the boonies put me beyond the area served by Translink, and I had to take a carpool to work, which meant no more drawings of other bus riders. After three years of carpooling, I'd fallen out of the habit of sketching other people inconspicuously, and I'd lost the nerve to try to regain it. Lately, though, out of anxiety over time lost during the trek to Big Bad Boo, where I now work, I took it up once again, and have managed to produce a few presentable drawings. Here they are:

Doings and undoings from my sketchbook

2009-11-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Recent drawings follow. The second page consists of sketches of a few of my fellow passengers on the early morning Seabus.

"Alone in the Elevator"

2009-05-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hey, I drew a comic strip. Wanna see? Just click on the teaser thumbnail below:

I'm still drawing!

2009-02-04T00:11:00.000-08:00

And I'll prove it with this selection of my recent drawings:

I made a movie!

2008-12-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

At Capilano College, whose commercial animation program whipped me into shape for the industry that has been my bread and butter for the past two years, part of the curriculum was a film studies course in which we were taught how to present a story on film -- staging, camera moves, cutting and the like. For our final assignment each of us was to make his own movie, with the help of his classmates. I hit upon the idea of a music video of a certain classic novelty song. I could rattle on about the joys and pains of what followed, but better I should just show you the result:

And life drawings too!

2008-11-30T23:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't been as busy animating for a living this year as I was last year, so I've found more time to get some life drawing done. Here's some of the best of the lot:

Semi-annual update

2008-11-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

They do seem to be coming as often as that, don't they? Anyway, even though I've been animating for my supper all the livelong day, I've found the odd moment to indulge the urge to doodle. Here are some of the results:

Like some of you, I'm between situations at the moment, so I expect to tackle at least one project of my own while at liberty, and one more ambitious than anything posted here to date. Tune in again soon, won't you?

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Hey, kids! Sketches!

2008-07-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

And none too soon either:

Recent sketches

2008-05-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

And about time too:

Some of these could use a little colour, don't you think? I'll see what I can do with them shortly.

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New stuff to look at!

2008-03-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

And plenty of it too! I just finished uploading a whack of my latest drawings to my website. Have a look at it, if I may be so brash as to suggest as much.

New demo reel online

2008-02-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Work on Ruby Gloom wrapped up at Mercury earlier this month, so now I'm gathering up and sifting through my animation, drawings and what not to make a presentable whole to prospective employers. Part of that whole is my new demo reel, which I just uploaded to my website. Look here to see some of the work I did over the past year and a half -- all of which got on TV! New character designs and sketches will also go up soon; watch this space for news thereof.

Whattaya know? New drawings!

2007-12-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

Best wishes for twenty-ought-eight to all! Follow this space in the new year for exciting developments. No, really!

Life during daytime

2007-11-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

As of last week, after over a year of working Sunday to Thursday from 3:30 p.m. till midnight (and sometimes later), yours truly has moved to the day shift and now works Monday to Friday from 9 to 5 (and sometimes later). The new schedule has taken longer for me to get used to than I'd figured; for the first three days I was still going to sleep at 4 a.m. as had been my habit even though I now had to get up at 7 a.m., and as a result my efficiency at the studio during those days was, how shall I say, substandard. But I've been turning in earlier and earlier since then, and should be my usual chipper and alert self tomorrow.

My new work hours also allow me to attend life drawing sessions regularly. I took in the one at Basic Inquiry this afternoon, the first one I went to in several months and the first one I attended at that place. The selections below show how it went for me:

I've been cartooning in my sketchbook since my last post, of course, but nothing I've drawn since then seems much different from what I've put up here before, so I'll pass on showing any of it off. I have to shake off some old habits and do something really interesting before I pipe up here again. Some of my coworkers past and present are starting a comic book and I'll be attending their first meeting to see whether I can be of any help to them, and vice versa. If so, you'll hear more about it here soon.

Sitrep

2007-10-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

Your humble correspondent is coming to you today from a terminal at his local public library. Various illnesses with his own computer and a work schedule bordering on the harrowing have prevented him from informing his readers of his doings and undoings. He is intent upon resuming blogging as soon as possible and, in the meantime, passes on a clip of a prototypical music video for your enjoyment. So, enjoy!

"Cheer up!"

2007-08-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

And other doodles for today:

Self-playing guitar and more

2007-07-29T14:21:00.001-07:00

Now presenting selections from this month's sketchbook folderol. I like the gag at the bottom of the first page; I gotta do more like it. Maybe, as per Sean's suggestion, I could put it on a greeting card.

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Return to life drawing!

2007-07-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

Wonder of wonders, I made it to the life drawing session at Cap yesterday. I finished my scenes on the latest episode of Ruby Gloom by late afternoon, so I took in a summer session at my alma mater last night. I got there ten minutes late and was surprised to find that the room was packed with students of the human figure. I'd have despaired of finding any place to lay my drawing pad if Will Bradford hadn't been there and waved me over in his direction to share his desk. He even fetched a chair from the hallway for me when I was prepared to kneel at the drawing board. Wotta pal, wotta pal, wotta pal!

I didn't even know whether there were any sessions at Cap this summer; I just headed over to the accustomed room at the accustomed time and hoped I'd find other artists at work. The chances were pretty good that I wouldn't; I learned later that the previous two sessions had been cancelled. But this one was in full swing, and, as noted, well attended -- twenty-six faces all told, some familiar to me, some not. When Susan and I ran the summer sessions two years ago we drew only seven or eight people a night on average. That wasn't enough to cover the model's fee, so I made up the difference and got my money back in the fall. I wish I'd thought to ask the current monitors how they manage to pull 'em in (not that knowing would be any use to me now, mind you).

So anyway, I sat in for the whole three hours less ten minutes and produced a batch of drawings, some of which I've reproduced below. The model was one of the old familiars from our college days. I forget his name, but you know him as the balding, hairy guy.

June doodles

2007-06-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

Some entries from my sketchbook over the past month:

Also, here's a thought-provoking cartoon for those of you who are considering an early and sudden demise.

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The passing scene or something like it

2007-05-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Got to bed early last night (3 a.m.), so I got up early this morning (11 a.m.), and with three hours to go before I reported for duty to Ruby Gloom and her friends, I sat down at my desk with sketchbook in hand and had a gawk out the window onto the street below. Here's some of what I saw (not all as it really appeared):

The spectre of Chicken Man hovers over my head. I shall answer him tomorrow.

Nekkid ladeez!!!

2007-05-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

Actually one naked lady in various poses. Also some clothed ladies, in case drapery gets your temperature rising:

Bobby-soxer boogie

2007-04-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

Another busy month, but your humble cartoonist has nonetheless managed to do some doodling on the side -- eleven pages, no less. Each page has its gems and its duds, and what with the lack of time for scanning, cutting and pasting the gems into a single JPEG, I have to choose and post a page with the highest gem-to-dud ratio if I want to keep my readers (cough). So here's the best of the lot:

I haven't yet followed up on Sean's suggestion that I try my hand at greeting cards. As the above page suggests, my drawings may not naturally lend themselves to ready-made salutations for all crowds for all occasions. The few characters of mine who address the reader mostly dole out insults or abuse. Cards with drawings like that would find a ready market only among psychic sadists and psychic masochists, of whom there are probably too few to pay the artist's rent and grocery bill. Still, the notion remains in the back of my mind, and very likely it'll nudge forth a seemly gag or two.

Regular readers (cough, cough) will recall my throwaway drawing of the inflatable hate doll and my amazement that nobody else seems to have thought of the idea. A Google search didn't, and still doesn't, turn up any mention of that concept other than my own. Earlier this week, however, I tried another search, and this time I found that a copy of my blog entry seemed to appear on a site called bestdolls4u.info. I didn't go any further than the Google search results page, as I'm nervous about my computer's health, but the results page quoted part of the text from bestdolls4u, and it was identical to what I wrote in my blog. Now that site doesn't turn up in a search anymore. It beats me how my words wound up on it. Maybe its webmaster thought he'd chanced upon a hot-ticket item and wanted to cash in on it, and thought better of it a few days later. Hmm.

Off to the mines again. I'll be done the latest episode by Tuesday night, if the gods forbear to toy with me.

Latest sketchbook foibles

2007-03-31T21:24:00.000-07:00

It was another busy month at the dream factory, so I neglected this blog. I seem to have made a mockery of my pledge to post here at least twice a week. Still, I found the odd moment for some doodling, if not for uploading any of it, and I filled several pages of my sketchbook, some of which are presentable. Here's one of them:

New Ruby Gloom site!

2007-02-22T02:23:00.000-08:00

But first, a selection of my latest sketchbook scratchings:

Ahem. The website for Ruby Gloom, whose heroine is my hard but fair taskmistress, has recently been revamped, and among its new goodies are a grab-bag of video clips of Ruby and her friends engaged in merry adventures a-plenty. Nothing up there animated by me, though. Not yet!

Inflatable hate doll

2007-02-16T03:38:00.000-08:00

Oh, it's lovely to work in the popular arts, where you can draw whatever pops into your head and your boss not only doesn't mind but occasionally even gets a chuckle from one of your doodles. Where else can you do that? Nowhere, that's where!

Not all above is unbidden foolishness, mind you. The five full figures in the top row are of Ruby Gloom, the lady who feeds and houses me, bless her heart. Here I'm trying to find the best way to make her scamper onscreen with cheery expectation.

Here's one more dipsy doodle, from the flip side of the above sheet:

The phrase "inflatable hate doll" has flitted through my head once or twice in the past, but I don't recall putting down a likely likeness of an inflatable hate doll before, so since I had a pencil in hand at the notion's latest pass through my noggin, I fleshed it out for keeps. Now, this sounds like the sort of idea that would occur independently to plenty of people at one time or another, and as with other such ideas anyone who thinks of it just has to share it with other people in some form, at least to show what a clever Dick he is. And, of course, the result would appear on the Web -- along with other instances of the very same idea, as conceived (each independently of the others) by dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of other people. But a Google search turns up not a single web page containing the phrase "inflatable hate doll". None at all. A cute if smutty joke that could have occurred to anyone fairly bright and not given to prudishness, doesn't seem to have done so -- until it did to me. There's a fine lesson to be learned here. If I figure out what it is I'll let you know.

The results: a selection

2007-02-09T03:58:00.000-08:00

Right, well, so here they are, the best bits from that life drawing session I've been babbling about for two days. This was my first whack at sketching people in the flesh (and nothing else) since September. I had a rough start with the 30-second gestures; it was as if I'd forgotten how the human body is put together. For the rest of the session, though, I produced drawings that were as good as any I'd produced before -- which is a bit disconcerting when I think how I could have improved in the past five months with regular attendance at Basic Inquiry or some such place. Well, let me count myself blessed for not having gotten worse.

The model, whom my esteemed schoolchums and I have drawn before, was very good as usual. I don't remember her name, which is embarrassing because I used to be on the life drawing committee that hired her. She's an Asian lass probably not far past twenty, with a face as round as the moon, short coral pink pouty lips, bangs, and a continuous look of unfocused annoyance. The rest of her you can discern (I hope) from the following:

I bought a string of tickets to future sessions, and I shan't be letting them go to waste. However, I'll keep my future life drawings to myself except when I produce something really boastworthy. Cartoons, of course, will come thick and fast.

The results (teaser)

2007-02-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

So I made it to Cap's life drawing session yesterday morning, just as I said I would. I sat in for the whole three hours and produced half a dozen pages of sketches, eight or nine of which I can bear to show here, but I'm already half-way out the door to work, so I'll put them up when I get back home tonight. For now, here's a pair of them, just to prove I did too go to life drawing, so there:

The busy beaver returns...

2007-02-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

...just long enough to post to his blog for the first time in a month, before he dashes back to work. February promises to be the busiest month yet, which, you may reasonably assume, means that this blog falls silent again for another couple of fortnights. But no -- your host shall endeavour to find the time to commit pencil to paper in his scant free time and display the results here no less often than twice a week. Ha ha! You see if I don't.

As a matter of fact, I'll be taking in the life drawing session at Cap this morning, and I'll be uploading scans of the choice bits, such as they may be, by this time tomorrow. There. Having neglected life drawing for longer than I care to admit, I am now primed to take it up again, if only to avoid looking like an ass after the foregoing announcement.

In the meantime, please enjoy our latest selection:

Doodling on the job

2007-01-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

I tossed these off at the studio while waiting for scenes I've animated to be rendered into Quicktime files:

The anatomy on the bottom character is rather slapdash, but I rather like the pompous way in which he announces he's going to kick some ass, so I'm showing him off here.

Gaw-dayum hippay!

2006-12-24T13:57:00.000-08:00

Just a little something I had to get out of my system. The lady on the right seems to share my disdain for the subject.

Merry Christmas if you want it!

Today's doodles

2006-12-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

No words; I'll let the doodles speak for themselves:

Something new has been added

2006-12-13T03:59:00.000-08:00

And about time too. This evening -- well, this morning, really -- I filled up a page of my sketchbook, and half of it turned out to be not too embarrassing to show the world. Here is that half:

Decently clad ladies (and gentlemen too)

2006-11-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

Just to show that I don't have to rely on cheap attention-grabbers like yesterday's entry, I now present a selection of sketches of a wholesome and edifying nature:

Naked ladies!

2006-11-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

Wot the title sez:

Still more practice

2006-10-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

For your viewing pleasure. Heh.

More practice

2006-10-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

Like the title says. No comments today; I'll just let the work speak for itself. As for the work I do for Mercury, Ruby Gloom made its debut on YTV on Friday the 13th and will appear again on Sunday -- today, actually. I'm not sure which episodes are appearing then. One of the managers at the studio mentioned to me and some other animators that the first and second episodes would air on the 13th and 15th respectively, but YTV's website says that a "sneak peek" appears on Friday, followed on Sunday by the premiere. What the sneak peek consists of, I don't know. I doubt you'd have seen my work on Friday or would see it today, as I didn't come on to the show until episode three.

In other Mercury news, the night shift's work week now runs from Sunday to Thursday. A while back, the supervisor asked us in the evening crew if we preferred to work on Sunday so we could have Friday and Saturday evenings off. Most of my co-workers are youngsters who are keen to hang out with their buddies on the choicest evenings of the week and to do other cool stuff like going to concerts, so they said yes. I said it didn't make any difference to me, as in fact it doesn't. My amusements I can take any time.

Update: Why, here's the list of episodes right here. Nothing by me on the air just yet.

Practice, practice, practice!

2006-10-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

Two entries in as many days. Let's hope I keep going at this rate.

Sign of life

2006-10-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

Here's the first full page of sketches I've attempted in two weeks. All I have to say beside it is to remind myself, too late for the drawings now before you, of what one of our esteemed instructors told us: "When you skip drawing for a day, you notice the difference. When you skip it for two days, everybody notices."

Waiting while the computer does its thing

2006-09-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

Today's batch of doodles were scratched out now and then at the studio while I waited for Harmony to make a Quicktime of the latest scene I was working on. At the snail's pace at which my computer, a machine of quirky temperament, sometimes works, I can bat out as much as a page a day. The husky at the bottom was drawn from life; his owner, a supervisor recently transferred from Mercury's Ottawa studio, started bringing him to work every day three weeks ago and has proved a hit with the rest of the stable. A handsome and amiable fellow, he saunters among the crew and receives their petting and nuzzling amiably. Some rough-house with him up to the point where he starts growling, which I found unsettling at first, but it was soon apparent to me that it was all in fun and he knew it. All the same, not having before handled an animal larger or more troublesome than a cat, I never try anything more daring than a pat on his head, which he doesn't seem to mind. I could never tell if his growling meant he was enjoying himself or he wanted to sink his teeth into my hand.

I seem to be a doodle

2006-09-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Here, on the latest page from my sketchbook, in the upper left corner, the doodler stands among his doodles. The look of bafflement will be familiar to all who've seen me in person. The pouty-lipped character at the toe of my left foot is supposed to be a woman, but looks more like a man in drag. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the nose?

Reintroducing Bernice

2006-08-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recognize this lady:

Yep, it's Bernice, one of the main attractions of my throwaway portfolio. Here she is again, from the latest page in my sketchbook. If you've looked at this blog before, you'll have noticed that none of the characters who've appeared here have appeared more than once, so it was high time that I showed I could draw a single character several times and make each drawing recognizable as the same character. The results, I fear, are mixed. But this is the first time I've drawn Bernice since I prepared my portfolio, and back then I hadn't drawn much more of her than appears here, so I hope I'll be pardoned for not settling on her visage yet. She's a game gal, so I think she forgives me.

I have some ideas of Bernice's character and background, which I try to convey when I draw her. She has a wry sense of humour with some tendency to snarkiness, she's tolerant and mainly nonjudgmental, she's somewhat self-absorbed but not annoyingly so, she has some sort of office job at some large company, she's been married (I don't think she still is) and had at least one kid, and is coy about her romantic life. Further details will probably develop as I draw her some more.

More sketches already?!

2006-08-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, here's my second page of sketches in five hours. I'm really crappin' 'em out tonight, aren't I? Don't answer that.

Sketches and more

2006-08-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

What a weekend. Yesterday morning my phone rang and when I answered I heard a child's bright voice say "Hi, Uncle Michael!" It was my seven-year-old nephew, my brother and sister-in-law's little boy. He called me -- or rather was put up by his parents to call me -- to tell me that he and mommy and daddy were coming in from Abbotsford that afternoon to take in the PNE, and would I join them, pretty please? Because I like my nephew and am averse to disappointing him, I said yes. Also, I hadn't been to the PNE in over twenty years and forgotten what it was like. If I had remembered, I'd have offered to buy him a pony instead. No, I exaggerate. For the first two hours I was oppressed by the seemingly endless sea of strangers and the rides that threatened to sling me out of my seat head first onto the pavement, but after that I perked up and managed at least to enjoy watching people enjoying the rides I avoided for my cranium's sake. All told, not an ill-spent day at all. And my nephew seemed grateful for tagging along with him -- possibly in no small part because I let him talk me into buying him a Turbo Twister remote-control toy car. (I'd provide a link to a picture of this, but I can't find a site from which I can be sure of not picking up a virus.)

I spent today at home, as the last breather before the deadline at Mercury in less than two weeks. I'd been puttering aimlessly but pleasantly at home until mid-afternoon, when I remembered that there was a comic con at Heritage Hall today. It would have been almost over by the time I could get there. Bah. Well, at least nobody was expecting to meet me there.

Oh, yes, I have some sketches to show today. Here.

More patrons of public transit

2006-08-21T00:37:00.000-07:00

The two drawings on the right in the top row are of the same girl. I drew her chin differently each time; I can't remember which is correct.

Bus-riders, bellowing chanteurs, and more

2006-08-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Another page from the ol' sketchpad:

The lady in the upper right corner and the gentleman directly beneath her are fellow bus-riders; the rest are products of my fancy. I like the two views of the singer in the leisure suit. I imagine him sounding like Tom Jones, only he's even louder and more obnoxious, albeit in a charming way. ("It's not unusual that I'm loved by all of you", da na-na na-na-na...) I tried not to cut the bottoms of his feet off, but couldn't avoid that without instead nicking the cap of the guy in overalls. My sketchbook is 12 inches long and the face of my scanner is about a quarter-inch shorter than that, and since I like to stuff a page with doodles it's a matter of luck if nothing gets trimmed from one of my pages on its way up here.

Seabus sketches

2006-08-08T02:49:00.000-07:00

Last week, on my trip via Seabus to Mercury, I made a modest essay, my first in a long time, at drawing from life -- that is, sketching strangers discreetly in public. Here's the first of the lot:

The bottom four drawings are of the same person -- a strikingly attractive fortyish woman of somewhat Latin appearance, to whom I fear my scratchings do something less than full justice. In the upper left corner is another Seabus rider, rather less striking but still deserving the justice I haven't quite carried out. The character in the upper right corner is a figment of my imagination who insisted on occupying the same page as the stately Latina.

Here's another Seabus rider I saw the following day, accompanied by another figment of my imagination. I'll let you make up your own mind which is which.

Here's yet another patron of the ferry, verily surrounded by creatures of my own invention (all benign, to all appearances). I didn't actually draw him on the spot; I committed his appearance to memory and drew him several hours later during a lull in work at the studio. Drawing from memory is something I've been meaning to practise; I think it'd help to make me more observant, to sharpen my recollection, and generally to keep the old fusebox in fine fettle. I'll be doing more of these soon. I announce this now so I'll be prompted to follow through by the fear of being razzed by my reading public for not doing it.

Recent doodles

2006-08-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

Like the title says:

I seem to be repeating myself. Readers of this blog will recall seeing the likes of that, um, generously upholstered lady in the lower left corner. And I've drawn enough guys with guitars for every street corner in downtown Vancouver. Best try to vary my output, or I'll end up drawing nothing but middle-aged matrons bashing away on Gibsons.

Me

2006-08-05T02:14:00.000-07:00

Me, by mine own hand:

More flattering than any photograph. No kidding.

More sketches if you want 'em

2006-07-31T03:10:00.000-07:00

A word about the vampire: on Saturday night, during a bout of drinking for which Miss Lauren thoughtfully provided her birthday as an excuse, Sean remarked upon the typical subject matter of the drawings of one of our erstwhile schoolmates. This erstwhile schoolmate, he noted, tended to eschew vampires, pirates, zombies and other creatures of fantasy and adventure, and preferred to draw "regular people" -- waiters, plumbers, used car salesmen, stoner dudes, ladies of the night and other people in your neighbourhood. ("Oh, the stoner is a person in your neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood, in yer naaay-burrrr-hooood...") Although I wasn't the artist in question, it dawned on me that I myself have preferred the prosaic to the fantastic in my own choice of subjects, so now I have made a modest start at climbing out of the rut in which I have lain all too comfortably for too long. It was only when I finished scratching away at my vampire that I noticed he looks rather a lot like Rick's beaver. You'll notice a line sticking out from his heel. I started to draw a shadow behind him, then stopped when I remembered that vampires don't cast shadows.

* * * * *

I was browsing my new copy of The Penguin Book of Comics, which I picked up for a song the other day at the Salvation Army thrift store on Lower Lonsdale, and my eye fell upon (and my mind boggled at) an installment of Mutt and Jeff dated 1929. I've scanned and posted the strip so your mind too may boggle at it. Here are the facts you need to grok the gag: Mutt is the tall guy with the comb-like mustache, Jeff is the short guy with the brush-like mustache, and Herbert Hoover was President of the United States from 1928 to 1932. Now enjoy.

Look who just turned pro!

2006-07-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Welp, I'm in. I've taken the training, filled in the forms, read the employee handbook, and received my own key card, thus making me a full-fledged hired hand at Mercury Filmworks and by extension a professional animator. I was getting a little worried whether I'd make it. I spent two weeks learning Harmony and taking tests -- twice as long as Mercury usually lets applicants show themselves in action. Being ever the paranoiac pessimist, I was beginning to think that the directors were straining to think of a way to send me off, but it turned out that there were no new scenes available for newcomers to work on until this week. So yesterday I got to pose my first one, a three-second bit showing Ruby Gloom reading aloud from a book -- a softball for the greenhorn. No doubt they'll start coming harder and faster before long. I hope I'm up to the challenge. I think I am.

I'll be working the evening shift, from 3:30 pm to midnight. That's when I'd been taking all but the first two days of my training, and I find I like the hours more than I thought I would. True, I can't go out on weekday nights, but I can cop a few hours of sunshine before I head to the studio. And school has ground into me the habit of working in the small hours of the day, so such a work schedule is not unfamiliar to me.

Further news to come as events and professional discretion warrant. For now, and a propos of nothing, please take a moment to read this vital message about the demon booze and the evils of abstinence therefrom.

Sketchbook follies for today

2006-07-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

My latest page of sketches is pretty presentable, so you get to look at it too, if you like:

I drew all these with a Sanford Design Ebony jet black extra smooth pencil, which is a bit too coarse for putting in noodly details, as I tried to do on the face of the full-figured girl. (That is, the girl whose figure I've shown in full, not that she has a full figure like in, uh, you know. Anyway, she doesn't. Geez, good thing she's only a drawing.)

Off to Mercury now, possibly for more training, possibly to become a full-fledged hired hand. I'll let you know.

Ee-i-ee-i-oh

2006-07-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of my dad's pastimes is scanning old family photographs and, once in a while, sending JPGs of them to his kinfolks. The other day, I got an email from him with the following photo attached to it:

That is indeed yours truly on the plastic toy tractor. I suppose I was five or six years old, and Mom or Dad must have snapped my pic while I was tooling around my grandparents' farm near Kamsack, Saskatchewan. Dad sent the JPG with a note saying "Here, you can put this on your web site and say you were a farmer", and I have now done as he has instructed, being the dutiful and obedient son that I am, and don't let him tell you different.

I've got some drawings to show today, too. Click the peek-a-boo thumbnails to see recent entries in my sketchbook:

An ape on his pantomime steed

2006-07-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Sean Covernton, a former schoolchum of mine and a fellow refugee from Winnipeg, issued a challenge this morning to draw a knight on an awesome steed, and although he didn't issue it to me, I took it up with alacrity nonetheless. At the same time I took up another challenge, from Sloth, to draw a baboon, and thinking to show barrels full of resourcefulness on my part I met the two challenges in a single drawing, like so:

Well, okay, so that's really an orangutan rather than a baboon, and his steed isn't all that awesome, though it inspires something just as good as awe, I betcha. I was operating under the same conditions as for similar challenges we gave each other during odd moments at Cap: draw something somebody else tells you to draw, in fifteen minutes, references at hand or not. Some of the results of my efforts from these "design-offs" were, as you'd expect, pretty blah, but others weren't too shabby. That drawing of Scurvy the Teenage Vulture which graces the home page of my website came from my hand during such a design-off. If Sloth and Sean and I hadn't dared one another to draw a flatulent teenage vulture who'd just burst in on his parents as they were having it off, you would not now be greeted at my portfolio site by a pop-eyed carnivorous bird. (You'd probably be greeted instead by Phyllis Diller as Cleopatra -- which, come to think of it, wouldn't be all that different.)

In other news, I started training at Mercury Filmworks on Friday. I was operating a tad sluggishly that first day, due in no small part to having attended a midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean the previous night. Still, I did well enough to be asked back for the next three days, so hope abides in Doodleburg. I just have to take care to watch movies at a saner hour for the next long while.

Fortysomething ladies in the park

2006-06-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Filled two pages in my sketchbook with various doodles this evening; below are the only two of the lot in show-room condition:

(Wish I could figure out how to put these thumbnails side by side, rather than one atop another as Blogger dictates.)

These two sketches were inspired by two ladies I happened to glance upon as they strolled past my apartment, as I was scratching away in my 'book; all the other doodles I did tonight I concocted straight out of my head. The drawings you see here I'm rather pleased with, particularly the pear-shaped gal on the bottom; the drawings you don't see here -- well, there's a good reason you don't see them here.

Tonight's exercise reminds me that I don't do as much drawing from life (as distinguished from life drawing) as I might. I used to do plenty of it until a few years ago; on the bus to and from my job, between home in Langley and work in Surrey, I'd carry a 5"x8" (or smaller) sketchbook and draw some of the other passengers. As with other artwork, my bus drawings were frustrating and fun in turns, and I thought well enough of them to put a dozen in my portfolio for application to Capilano College. Later, though, I moved to Abbotsford but continued to work in Surrey, and since there was no public transit running between the two towns, I joined a carpool. I still carried my sketchbook, but the only subjects at hand were the backs of my co-riders' heads, so I simply drew whatever lurked in my imagination.

Thus I fell out of the habit of drawing on the bus, and later, when I came to live in North Vancouver and took the bus to and from school, I found I'd lost the nerve to take out my sketchbook in public and glance furtively at strangers in an effort to capture their likenesses. It didn't help to remember that hardly any of them gave me grief about "invading their space", as they might see it, when I used to do it; still I refrained. But now I'll see if I can stifle my nerves and revive my old habit. If I do, I'll put the results up here, if they're fit to show.

Sketchbook pages uploaded for your (cough) pleasure

2006-06-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here you go: A-one and a-two and a-three. I did them in a Pentel RSVP pen -- not the animator's drawing tool of choice, maybe, but I like the feel of it, and it makes a refreshing break from the Col-Erase pencil. I'll be putting them up on my website on their own page (which I'll update with newer sketches over time). They'll look a bit, well, ragged next to the stuff that's already there, but there's a certain charm to raggedness, no? Just as long as they don't look as though I drew them with my foot.

This is only a test.

2006-06-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Just like the one for these folks, only not nearly so scary. Or so I hope.

And so ends the test. Normal posting, such as it may be, commences immediately.