Flowers For Katherine's Eyes

Drawn from life at the Arts Project in London, Ontario.

Scaramouche

Musicians of the Toronto based group Scaramouche, playing at Victoria College.

Almost Ill

after the operation

Rinpa!

2 academics

Closing the shutters

This drawing is a good example of the principle that the design of a picture can be far removed from its medium, e.g. oil paint, charcoal, etc. Which may seem like an obvious point, but in fact we tend to associate certain approaches composition very strongly with their original format. The waist to head portrait, exemplified by the Mona Lisa, is very much an artefact of European oil painting, and when we see it in other media, like photography, we are often reminded of its origins. Frequently, the photographer deliberately reminds us.

In this case, we have a picture whose composition is a product of Tarragon's recent engagement with Japanese art of the 19th century. And yet, it was made on an Ipad, and is as distant from the complex handwork of a woodblock print as can be imagined.

Hannah

Sometimes the most important thing about a drawing is knowing when to stop:

This picture appeared in a show of life drawings by the Toronto based sketching group the Collective at the Ben Navaee gallery in July of 2013.

Protege moi...

...is what it said on her ribcage. There were other tattoos, but I just don't draw that fast.

It was done from life with a brush ben and crayons.

so alive

Iris

let it be

how awkward

Young Woman with Credentials

This is a woodblock print. The same technique that is used to make all that old Japanese porn we know and love so well. You might ask then, why take this technique into the genre of portraiture? Good question.

This particular print was made using three blocks, four colours, and five printings (the background twice). It follows in the tradition, if it must at all, of the mid-twentieth century sosaku hanga movement in Japan. Books were written. Now, in the the 21st century, technique is back at its rightful place at the top of the cliffs of virtue that determine artistic merit. That's how we know what we're looking at.

To be fair, printmakers have always been preoccupied with technique. Without it they couldn't make their prints. I had to carve the two colour blocks three times each before I had the registration just right, which is a waste of wood. And quite sad.

Emily

Drawn from life with markers and crayons.

on guard

from below

Drawn from life in about ten minutes, using a Copic brush pen and some crayons.

be careful

Light and shadow

One thing I never appreciated, back in art school, was how rare and wonderful it was to set up the studio and the model, and have hours of uninterrupted painting time.

Or even one hour, as in this case. Life is busy.

The picture is a watercolour, sketched out first in pencil. The model stood there for the hour, give or take a break or too. Her position in front of the window made things a bit more challenging - it was a bright Italian day, and I had to squint at her. That light had the effect, too, of washing out everything else, hence the pale tones of the fabrics. The brightness of the sun accepts no rivals.

Tulips

Aaron

A quick drawing from life.

It's a good theory

He'll drive you home

Sexual dimorphism...

...can be pretty extreme.

A drawing done from life with a Copic brush pen.

take one

A one minute drawing.

Shaking their fists, second state

And the same view, at an earlier and brighter hour.

Shaking their fists, 9pm

When Monet painted his series of Rouen cathedral, he had to set up a new canvas and palette for every hour of the day because of the constantly changing light. Think of the hassle.

These days, of course, we have iPads, and we can simply open a new file for each new painting. Assuming, of course, we have the patience to sit and paint anew for each hour of changing light.

whose head?

Reinisa poses with a prop. It's a quick drawing, of perhaps 10 minutes, done with a brush pen and crayons.

New build, low ceiling

over the rooptops

An old drawing, done with india ink and a dip pen from the fifth floor of a studio in Florence. The studio was housed in a late 19th century highrise. But the architecture visible from the balcony is a little older than that.

This drawing is among my first forays with a dip pen. In retrospect, I rather like its awkwardness.

2 figures

quick sketches from around the campus:

After The Shower (Hollywood style)

So I've taken a leaf out of others' sketchbooks and added colour to one of my drawings using procreate. The original was drawn in ink with a brush.

The last of the blossoms

I drew this in Victoria park. Blossoms were falling into my water jar and chasing babies across the fields. Work on Victoria park commenced sometime in the 1840s and took several decades to complete, perhaps because it was in a part of town that the Queen rarely visited. It sits on the north side of the Regents Canal and is probably one of the nicest places to live in London; to live by that is.

The price of property in now far beyond the reach of those for whom the park was originally built, but that's the way love goes. If I am in no rush I commute along the canal to get to my studio in Bow. The canal is built up slightly above the park and affords a vantage point of, say, a twelve foot tall person. It's very pleasant.

Girl reading Twilight

Everybody has to read something.

Buffalo?

The man walking a dog told me as much. Loseley Park is going into the mozzarella business it would seem.

Summer in the country...

Drawn from life in around five minutes with various crayons.

Animals of this size disturb me

But today I was told that an smart parrot has an intelligence similar to that of a three year old child. Still, I don't feel parrots, or mice, will try to take over the world. Although if they could get the Buffalo and Albatross on side...

Iris

at the library

Train coming 'round the bend.

lay me down

Drawn from life in about ten minutes at the Arts Project in London, Ontario.

it's like that

Green army jacket

I don't know how to say it

New novel.

Danilo

It's been a while since we've seen one of my small sketches on cardboard. They're old works, and date from when I was too poor to mess around much with canvas.

Here we see Dan, a painter with whom I shared a studio in Italy, much longer ago than I care to remember.

It was done with pencil. acrylics, and some watercolour.

Hard Sun Up