Saturday, April 25, 2015

Friday, April 24, 2015

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.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

"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.



Tuesday, April 21, 2015

warm-ups

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


Sunday, April 19, 2015

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.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Monday, April 13, 2015

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.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Thursday, April 9, 2015

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.