it makes a good story

emily

kara

save your place

Drawn from life in the student lounge with a china marker.

don't wanna be

Robert is a beast of burden. But Jacki is not really that heavy. It's a one minute sketch, done with a china marker.

"few rap songs are about sexual inadequacy"

Drawing with the Collective in Toronto, fellow sketcher Francis F. made the observation. I wrote it down mid-drawing.

warm-ups

Life drawing quick sketches, each done in about a minute. Or maybe two, in the case of the face on the right.

Santa Maria di Salute, Venice

A view across the quay and the loitering gondolas at the vast baroque church of Salute. It's the kind of view that's been done a thousand times but remains irresistible.

It's an etching, about 4" by 6," printed at the Open Studio in Toronto, Ontario. The uniform blue was applied with a technique called chine collé, in which a layer of tissue-thin tinted paper is laid down between the etching plate and the support paper.

Oaks and Wrapped Sign

Tarragon offers an English landscape of pared-down simplicity.

Let's sing another song, boys

Drawn from life at the Arts Project in London, Ontario, using a Pentel brush pen.

Nicolas...

...and various other marks on the page.

it's open to debate

Anna in a striped dress

A quick photo of a painting in progress. The dress will be in colour, and the big rectangle will too - it will be a hanging carpet of some sort. The pineapple like object will probably become a bust - but we'll see.

five heads

Five heads of Willie, each done in two minutes or less.

star man

Venice - the gondolas on the Riva degli Schiavoni

It was a cool November evening when I sat down on the embankment to make this picture.

I was in a hurry. The shapes were quickly sketched in with a black crayon, and then rounded out with watercolour. Although I started with lines - as I almost always do - the picture quickly became about mass and pattern. The final touches were added in gouache; you can see its opaque layers where the blue covers of the gondolas are visible above the dock.

In the background, San Giorgio Maggiore was a box of shadows, except for its brilliant marble facade, which here merges with the air.

meditation

Vithia

Drawn from life in a flat in Toronto.

head of a boy

the things I have seen

A portrait of Alan, drawn in five minutes with a brush pen.