to the victor

Reading a book after dinner

The model is looking at my previous picture, but I'm sure she would like to get back to her book.

long time layover

A Casa Colonica in Settignano

An enormous example of a casa colonica in Settignano, Tuscany. The traditional farmhouses of Tuscany, each one unique, are well suited to their environment. I made this picture in May, probably the greenest month of the year in the region. By August things are much hotter and browner, and the thick stone walls keep out the heat.

The size, on the other hand, comes down to two factors. First, that agrarian and domestic spaces were typically conflated in these old farms: the livestock might share the house with the peasants - although not, of course, the same room. Second, many generations of a family often lived together. It doesn't take too many children and grandchildren to fill even a house as big as this one.

Similar structures can be found in much of the Mediterranean basin; their antecedent go back to medieval times.

The picture was made with watercolour and pencil.

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.