Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Siena



This is not the only picture I've made of Siena, or even of the Basilica di Servi in Siena, but it might be my favourite. It's an etching, made on an aluminum plate, but based on a pencil sketch I did on site.

The colour comes from chine collé, a technique in which a thin sheet of paper - hand tinted tissue from Japan in this case - is pressed into the paper support of the picture by the etching press.

The picture was etched and printed at the Open Studio in Toronto.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

stand tall



Rachel is one of those people who knows exactly how attractive she is. Confidence is a good look.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Monday, June 22, 2015

Sketching the sketcher


I've made a lot of portraits of Tarragon over the years. Here I took the opportunity to draw him while he was drawing a still-life of flowers. It was done with a Copic brush pen, and probably took 20-25 minutes.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Jacki and Rob, unfinished


An image that shows my usual procedure for pen drawing, in which I delineate the forms of the body, and then the shadow lines on the body. Next, I would start filling in the deep shadows, but the pose ended before I got that far.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

next to the Guggenheim



Years ago, I went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice with my art class. Here's a very quick sketch of the canal outside the entrance, and few classmates, done with a dip pen and india ink.

The gallery was selling the small ceramic version of Jeff Koon's Puppy sculpture. I wish I had bought one. It would have made a great umbrella stand.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Monday, June 8, 2015

the beacon

At night in Venice, I saw a red light glimmering over the canal, and stopped to make a watercolour.



Worth mentioning: it's not easy to paint in the dark.

Thursday, June 4, 2015