under the lonely moon

A drawing made in about 20 minutes using a Copic brush pen and some china markers.

turn the lamp down low

tree and Saint Peter's

I drew this in a matter of minutes, standing in the window of the Vatican Pinocoteca. There was a Raphael near by, but sometimes real life outweighs the greatest masterpieces.

You can see the arch and stairway reading to the garden pavilion begun by Pope Paul IV in 1558, now known as the Casina Pio IV after the later pope who competed it. In the distance, the huge dome of Saint Peter's, and between them a beautiful pine tree that deserves a name of its own - to judge by its size, it may be as old as the buildings.

I don't think I will

refuse every offer

Drawn from life with a sigma micron.

everything in due proportion

Drawn from life with a pencil. It probably took around 20 minutes.

drawing in the dark

A homage to jet lag. I had just arrived in Italy, from Toronto, and sleep was out of the question. So I walked out into the night, crossed the Arno on an easterly bridge, and strolled up into the hills. I had with me a pot of india ink, a nib and pen, and an old brown sketchbook. It was enough.

abandon that solution

sky colour

One of Tarragon's beautiful tea bowls.

rest your voice

A pencil sketch of Tarragon, pausing between songs. As much as I love to draw clothes, I hate musical instruments - their shapes obey a logic of their own that denies them easy compatibility with the people who carry them. In pictures at least, because in pictures depicted objects have a much closer and more causal relationship to each other than real objects do in space.

face to face

Working out concepts on the iPad.

Tuscan hillside

One of many watercolours painted while wandering in the hills north of Florence. The row of trees leading up the hill to the right shroud the path to a small renaissance church, in whose shadow I sat while I painted. It overlooks the small village of Ponte a Mensola, named for a stream you cannot see amid the trees in the picture.

It was a sunny day in May, perfect for watercolours. Here's another one I did from almost the same vantage point, but looking north rather than east.

Everything's not lost

I drew this from life with the Collective sketching group in Toronto, Ontario.

ashes to ashes

Drawn from life with a china marker.

In the bay

This isn't exactly a holiday-themed image, but I made the painting as a small Christmas gift a few years ago, so I thought I'd post it today.

Hannah as zombie

send me the pillow you dream on

A painting of some years ago, done from life in about an hour. A sleeping model can often be quite boring, but sometimes you get lucky and they repose in an interesting posture on a quilt of many colours.

human desire

make a movie please

Reading The Count of Montecristo in the bathtub.

It's not easy - it's a big book.




I've mentioned before that years ago, when I was too poor for canvas, I made small paintings on cast-offs of cardboard. I made this in the bathroom of a student co-op in Toronto, Ontario, using pencil and acrylic paints.

kimberley

Drawn from life with several Copic brush pens and a Pigma micron.

steve

I can't say why, but it makes me sad

to begin

This is how I begin life drawing sessions. For me, hands and faces are the most interesting elements, so in the initial period, when the poses last only one or two minutes, that's what I concentrate on.

These were all done in china marker, at the Arts Project in London, Ontario.

cover your face

A simple gesture adds pathos to a regular life drawing.

Harriet

I drew Harriet with a china marker in probably around ten minutes. She was one of those models (in fact, not a regular model but a generous volunteer) who has wonderful features for drawing.

Kara bends

More life drawing with a china marker.

side eye specialist

portrait sketch

Somehow he looked like a Polish officer, ready to throw on his kurtka and ride out against the Russians. Or Prussians. Or Austrians...

all my virtues

Drawn from life with a Copic brush pen, in around ten minutes.

autoritratto

I drew this self-portrait many years ago, from a mirror in a bedroom in Florence.

4 heads and 1 hand

Each drawn in a minute or so at the Arts Project in London, Ontario.

Chat & Chateau

I made this for the 2015 In the Round fundraiser at Graven Feather in Toronto, which runs until the end of November. Each participating artist received 3 plywood disks, the size of a CD, to embellish as they pleased.

The picture was inspired by one of my favourite childhood illustrators, the amazing Peter Spier. His books enchanted me when I was young, and to be honest, they still do. His simple but evocative landscapes, inhabited with happy children and sparkling architecture, inspired in me a desire to see a world I was too young to even know existed.

My illustration ended up more sombre than its inspiration would suggest - but that often happens in my drawings. But hopefully someone will look at it and wonder where that road leads.

How long must I wait?

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

get right with me

at the stars

The Field House, Compton

Long evening shadows across the fields of the Surrey hills, in England. The Field House of the title is a late Victorian pile, just visible through the trees.

I drew it with a fine Pigma Micron pen, and a Copic brush pen.

Hypnos

“Apropos of sleep, that sinister adventure of all our nights, we may say that men go to bed daily with an audacity that would be incomprehensible if we did not know that it is the result of ignorance of the danger.”

So wrote Baudelaire, in the translation read by H. P. Lovecraft sometime between 1919 and 1922. It inspired a creepy gem of a short story, which, although it displays some of the faults of Lovecraft's prose (but thankfully not of his personality), is also evocative, sinister and in its own way perfect. You can read it here. It's very short.

It's Halloween, hence this picture. It is on display in Toronto at the Graven Feather, 906 Queen st. West, November 5th to 28th. For the last two years, I've illustrated terrifying tales from history - this one is merely from literature, and therefore less frightening. You can see the others here and here.

I didn't try to represent a precise scene from the story, but rather suggest its events. Here is a body contorted in nightmare, its identity effaced by the placid mask of the Greek god Hypnos, or Dream.

lonely all these years

come as you are

lassitude

life's long wait

Barbara in your face

stand around sam

cameron

that body

beast of burden

take a look at your life

My Body is Ready

Four 1 minute sketches.

read the day away