DRAWSMALL!

2 birthdays

2011-05-23T21:24:00.000-04:00

A niece turned 8, a goblin sword man turned 30. Happy birthdays!

Hop up, jump in!

2011-04-08T03:09:00.001-04:00

The time I thought really hard about Handy Manny. Please don't sue me, Disney.

Kitty + sandwich

2011-04-05T16:57:00.000-04:00

Oh Kitty, your mouth can not accommodate that sandwich!

Hey, Pear!

2011-03-11T23:23:00.001-05:00

Late at night I had an idea involving fruit. I think it might be funny!

Watercolor

2011-03-11T23:12:00.000-05:00

Ok, so after years of sort of aimlessly messing around I am trying to get hip to watercolor in a more serious way. I have swapped out all the semi-opaques and opaque colours in my palette for transparent ones, and I'm finding the results a lot more luminous! This was a gift for a friend and my first painting with the new colours. If you have any watercolor tips or tricks, send them my way why don't you!

I know you must be growing tired of these kinds of questions, but how on earth am I meant to get a watercolour to look good on the computer?! Scanning seems pretty hit or miss, and then even when I save for web all the colours look muddy once I get the image into my browser. Why why why? Help me, internet!

Humans!

2011-02-20T12:01:00.001-05:00

Other people doing stuff in public.

Words and Picutres at Meghan and Dee's blog

2011-02-17T13:22:00.001-05:00

Guess what! Dee has made a new blog for his stories and my pictures are on it too! You can see all the good stuff at deeandmeghan.tumblr.com

As I'm sure you can imagine I am really really jazzed!

As an aside, the most recent drawing I did for Dee's new story is my very first one with Derivan Liquid Pencil, which I talked about not so long ago here. I got a lot of nice texture and it is so much more forgiving than ink! It was such a pleasure to work on and try something new.

Handtype

2011-02-16T14:27:00.002-05:00

When I get blocked or frustrated with a drawing I like to draw words or letters. I really like doing type by hand, for projects or for fun, even if I am not a very wordy person.

I usually do it while I'm listening to something else, like a podcast or a video. That's how I end up with winners like "your blood controls everything."

It's Valentime!

2011-02-13T14:20:00.002-05:00

Drawing block

2011-02-07T16:29:00.003-05:00

Trying stuff

2011-01-23T21:08:00.002-05:00

I recently picked up a tube of Derivan Liquid Pencil. The website shows pictures of it in little jars, but mine looks like this.

As far as I can tell it's graphite in some sort of medium and was conceived as a substitute for powdered graphite. It comes in a few different colours, each of which is available in a permanent and rewettable variety. I got the permanent kind but I have since learned that the rewettable variety is not only rewettable but erasable too! It has a consistency close to oil paint and can be extended with water.

I don't generally write reviews of art supplies, but when I got this thing home and did a little research I was very discouraged by what I found. Despite having been available since 2007 (who knew!) there were very few user reviews or demos of the product outside of the company website. Most of the samples and techniques on the Derivan site seemed to emulate realistic pencil renderings of various degrees of complexity. Nobody seemed to be talking about the weird things this stuff can do, or using it in an exciting way. So without further preamble here is a short list of things you might not know or expect about Derivan Liquid Pencil: Grey 9 Permanent.

1) It is friendly to watercolour. After a certain amount of dry-time (more on this later) you can paint right over Liquid Pencil. I was also able to tint the product by wetting my brush in some watercolour before wetting and extending the Liquid Pencil, which gave an effect I would imagine is similar to the available coloured varieties. In fact, the product itself can be used much the same as watercolour: You can put down a stroke of Liquid Pencil and then come back in with a wet brush to drag, lighten or disperse the colour. It can also be used wet-on-wet for ink-like effects.

2) The permanent variety is rewettable. Sort of. Unlike ink, Liquid Pencil has some body and doesn't dry straight away. Before it dries completely the product can be worked with a wet brush and clear water (see above) to lighten areas. Doing this pushes the pigment around and areas of greater density begin to build up. Working this way has a vaguely sculptural aspect, not unlike using an eraser with powdered graphite.

3) The coolest thing about it has nothing to do with a pencil. Whatever binding agent or medium the graphite is in is incredibly slippery, making the product very mobile. Because it won't dry on contact, Liquid pencil can be pushed around on itself and the resulting brush strokes and textures can be pretty interesting. Once dry, it doesn't make the paper's surface slick like waxy or oil-based materials, or even like a regular pencil. As such it can be layered and would no doubt be a great tool for underpaintings.

Do you use Derivan Liquid Pencil? Do you know someone who is using it in a cool way? Let me know! For more reviews of this and that check out my other blog, Various and Sundry.

Lynda Barry

2011-01-16T12:50:00.002-05:00

I went to the Lynda Barry talk. There were a lot of people getting books signed and she spent a really long time with everyone individually and giving them each a chunk of drawing-wisdom. She is one nice lady and she had a lot of nice things to say when I told her I am also a lady-cartoonist. She even drew a picture for me in my sketchbook! Am I a lucky duck or what? I'm hoping my sketchbook has become enchanted by her Lynda Barry essence, and maybe my drawings will be half as lively and joyful as hers.

I don't exactly take notes, but I doodled and jotted down a few things.

Little painting

2011-01-07T01:31:00.004-05:00

Dee, of allergen house fame, wrote a really super story about maps! I was so jazzed about it I made this little painting to go with the story. You can read the brief but lovely story about maps here. You can click his name to see some pictures he took.

I haven't been doing very many ink washes or watercolours for the past little while so it is kind of a pleasure to do. I also did my thumbnails in brushpen for the first time. Look how keen they turned out!

In other news, my blog looks like hell. Blogger has changed the image insertion thing and now when I align my images left all my text wants to line up beside them, like a magazine layout. I really dislike that, but fighting it means a whole bunch of soft returns and checking back and forth in the preview. SO, internet savvy readership, what should I do here? Is there a better template for me in the sea of hideous free templates? Should I finally switch to wordpress? Should I brush up on my CSS and try to sort this out myself? I am eagerly awaiting your advice!

Happy holidays everyone!

2010-12-24T05:02:00.004-05:00

Happy holidays and a really super new year to everyone! Thanks again so very much for all your comments, questions and general support of the Drawblog. See you in 2011!

Elfs!

2010-12-18T21:17:00.005-05:00

My 7 year old niece has been drawing elves like crazy, so I drew some for her!

I did these with a nib instead of the brushpen. I've been inspired to go back to it by the amazing delightful fantastic and French work of Domtille Collardey. I don't know her or anything, I'm just crazy about her drawings. Check this out for even more fun!

Special days of the recent past no. 19

2010-11-26T23:58:00.002-05:00

Something new, kind of.

UPDATE: I have since been informed that Cujo is the name of a scary dog from some manner of Stephen King book or film. So there you are.

My First Website

2010-11-20T17:00:00.004-05:00

The intensive I'm presently doing includes two Dreamweaver classes. As an outcome we had to make a pretty simple website, and I made this one! Don't worry about the video, it's mostly there to meet course objectives, although I'm told it's not totally uninteresting if you can sit through the whole thing.

UPDATE: The video page won't work at all! How'd you like that! Anyhoo, have a look at http://drawsmall.tripod.com

I usually dislike making excuses for myself or what I put on the blog, but I can willingly acknowledge a marked decline in the drawings due to time constraints. I have projects due constantly, without exaggeration, and each is on at least this scale. I think this is a fine start though, and I hope I'll be interested enough in a month or two to go back and clean it up a bit.

ps: The mail form really works, so feel free to leave Phoebe your comments!

Very important research

2010-11-16T01:13:00.001-05:00

Goofing off in class.

Sketchbook dispatch

2010-11-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

More sketchbook, almost ready to finish this one up. I've gone back to the Cansons but took out half the pages and used only half the book at a time. When the first half was used up I put the unused pages back on the binding and took the old ones off. It helped with weight/bulk, but it was messy and I don't love having so many loose pages hanging around. I don't know that I would do it again.

I'm really hoping to have some new actual content up soon, hang tight!

Schoolwork

2010-11-11T11:17:00.002-05:00

Most of you probably know that I have gone back to school to do a design intensive. For anyone who didn't know or was too shy to ask, I am learning to be better and more efficient at doing stuff like layouts and photo manipulation. I guess that might sound a bit dry, but it isn't always, and I really am improving fast. Hopefully when I have more time I'll be able to integrate more drawing elements or hand-lettering into these kinds of projects.

Here's what one of my homework assignments looks like.

Image from http://mariannika.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/wacky-cupcakes/ where you can also find the Wacky Cake recipe in its original context.

In somewhat related matters I have a few questions for those of you in the clicking/drawing/making trades. I have been experiencing a lot of eyeball strain and back pain, and the beginnings of generalized flabbiness, as a result of all this computering. Do you have any tips to toughen me up or at least save my eyesight? I'm a bit concerned as this will eventually be my job.

Bonus question: Colours that look fine on my computer are attrocious on everyone else's computer, it seems. My CS colourspaces are all synchronized and I have tried changing the colourspace of my computer (I am using windows vista on a laptop so perhaps my monitor is partly to blame) but to no avail. Someone told me the problem is that PCs are not calibrated whereas Macs are calibrated, but they didn't elaborate beyond that. I thought you calibrate TO something, like another device or a peripheral like a printer. Can something just BE calibrated? Is that what my problem is?

Thanks!

Humans!

2010-10-10T21:40:00.004-04:00

Hello and sorry sorry sorry for my long absence! I have been distracted. Please enjoy some of this life drawing, or, perhaps more accurately, "people facing away from me on the bus" -drawing.

Also, this!

Hey!

2010-08-21T22:30:00.001-04:00

Hey, it's been awhile! I have been a pretty busy bee. New stuff and a very special day coming soon when I get a chance.

Special days of the recent past no. 18

2010-07-25T20:34:00.003-04:00

I went to see Wolf Parade! Initially I was inspired to draw a comic on concert etiquette based on my experience at the show, but then I got caught up in inking this thing.

To be honest there's only one panel here I really like, but I need practice inking so I decided to go ahead with it all the same. I've moved from smooth bristol to vellum finish and I'm giving the pocketbrush another try. So far the texture seems nice, but I've got a long way to go before I'm likely to see any increase in proficiency or speed.

For those of you curious about how these things get done I've scanned my entire sheet of bristol, complete with pencil lines and several false starts.

Summertime in magazines

2010-07-17T19:04:00.002-04:00

Hands Challenge (sort of) complete!

2010-07-04T11:36:00.006-04:00

I'd say the hands challenge is complete, to the extent that June is done and I am about done drawing disembodied hands. But in actuality I have only drawn about 86 hands, and could easily draw 500 more before I gain any real knowledge about hands. I had hoped that with practice I would be able to successfully compose good-looking hands from my memory or imagination, and I'm not sure that's happening. However, the project was a success in that now when I look at a hand I have a much better idea of what I'm looking at.

Some of these are my own hands, but some are copied from Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, which I referred to for its insights on hand construction. Burne Hogarth's books can be challenging to say the least - he uses formal language peppered with jargon and occasionally I have to re-read a sentence several times before I catch the meaning. His drawings can also be almost impenetrable: every muscle, tendon and joint is so fully articulated in even his least detailed drawings that, in my vain attempts to copy his sketches, I often lost track of what I was looking at.

That having been said, if you want any kind of a formula for drawing the figure Burne Hogarth is your go-to-guy. The Dynamic Anatomy book is full of minute measurements and recipes that, theoretically, would allow you to draw the figure without any reference if you knew them by heart. The text is so dense that I find every time I go back to Dynamic Anatomy I learn something I feel as though I have never seen before. The thumb joint begins at the mid-point of the palm! Each division of the finger is a third smaller than the one below it! When you close or open your hand, all other fingers follow your pinkie! Who knew, right?

So that concludes the 100 Hands Challenge. Don't stop sending me your hand resources and hand advice, I will need them for a long while yet!

More hands on the way!

2010-07-01T20:15:00.001-04:00

Hi there, blog enthusiasts. I've fallen a wee bit behind on the drawing and scanning for the 100 hands challenge due to a new job and working on other projects. Expect the underwhelming finale of the 100 Hands Challenge in the coming days!

Preston Blair Hands

2010-06-16T17:05:00.003-04:00

These are some hands I copied from one of the lessons from the Preston Blair book. I don't know the actual name of the book but if you are interested in cartooning you probably know the one I'm talking about. You can access the sheet I drew from and some words of wisdom from benevolent internet crank John K. here.

I don't know a tonne about the Preston Blair book, but it seems to deal mainly in teaching drawing for animation with standard cartoon character types as a guide. I've always kind of dismissed it for that reason, as I'm not interested in becoming an animator and I don't find the character types used in the book especially interesting. Likewise, I've passed by this hand page a few times and kind of assumed it wasn't for me as the hands have only 3 fingers and they're all gloved. However, I know that my drawings are sorely lacking construction and that this is a specialty of the Preston Blair course so I decided to take a whack at it.

These hands were deceptively hard! I tried to follow the instructions and copy the examples on the page by following the steps at the top, but even with such simple steps it was difficult. Blair's hands have such zip and a really pronounced directionality that's hard to copy. I did my best, over 30 of them, but I'm still not a very good copier and I found it hard to loosen up at all. I learned a lot though, more than I have copying hands from pictures. The Preston Blair hands really start the thumb at the wrist, which is something I had never thought of before, and all the lines really follow the underlying shape , which makes the action really easy to read. My copies totally suck but I'm definitely going to keep this in mind from now on.

For those of you keeping track, we're at around 60. This is going faster than expected! If you have any hand resources you love, or you want to share your experience with the Preston Blair hands, please do let me know!

Keybo

2010-06-11T11:51:00.006-04:00

Keybo might be the cutest robot ever. He loves to dance! Maybe I'll draw a little more of him sometime.

100 Hands Challenge

2010-06-11T11:34:00.004-04:00

Somewhere along the way I got really sloppy at drawing hands. After a certain point I told myself that hands were something I "ought to know by now", so even though I lacked confidence in drawing them I just kind of carried on drawing them improperly rather than try to help myself improve.

With this in mind I've given myself a challenge for the month of June to draw 100 hands. Not 100 perfect hands, or 100 interesting hands, just 100 hands. My hands, other people's hands, hands from pictures, exercises on drawing hands, animal hands, Handy Snacks(tm), any kind of hands!

These are the first 29, with a few feet thrown in. Is there something you have been practicing, or a challenge you gave yourself? Would you like to start your own June challenge? Let's do it together! Send me a link or tell me all about it.

Seven

2010-05-16T17:49:00.004-04:00

Somebody turned seven! I have a feeling the colours didn't scan so great. Sorry if they are blinding!

Squirrels!

2010-05-02T18:42:00.002-04:00

Why is this post different from all other posts?

2010-03-30T23:14:00.005-04:00

This is about a year old, but still as current as a comic about passover can reasonably be. If you have any information you'd like to share, particularly regarding the purpose of the sleepy-matzoh blanket or the mysterious burnt egg, please feel free!

TV Party

2010-03-27T17:38:00.003-04:00

Please feel free to weigh in with your own theories as to what is under Brett Michaels' various headscarf configurations.

It's Valentime

2010-02-21T19:19:00.006-05:00

Better late than never! I hope you guys had a good V-Day! Click here for the first appearance of Generic Stand-In Boyfriend.

I've noticed that any colour images I put here come out looking a little artifacty. Would I be better off hosting on flickr or similar? Am I missing an important fact about resolution? Please, hit me with your knowledge!

Valentine teaser

2010-02-15T21:19:00.003-05:00

I'm running pretty late on this year's valentines comic, featuring the return of everyone's favourite Generic Stand-In Boyfriend. Here's the first few panels to briefly placate you before leaving you ultimately unsatisfied. Happy Valentine's Day!

Special days of the recent past no. 17

2010-02-13T02:21:00.002-05:00

Comments, at last.

2010-02-07T11:16:00.001-05:00

I am delighted to announce that the drawblog now has a little comment button under every post on the main page, right where it should be.

Enjoy.

Enough already, Bill Murray!

2010-02-06T18:49:00.003-05:00

Me and Manny gave ourselves a Bill Murray challenge. I fancy myself reasonably good at likenesses, and even though I don't feel as strongly about Bill Murray as a lot of people my age do, I like him well enough.

It turns out I could use a lot more practice at drawing portraits, as I had a REALLY hard time with this. Me and Manny went a week over deadline, and now I think we've both had quite enough of Bill Murray. Whenever I feel intimidated by doing an assignment I usually make a comic about how much doing it sucks. It's a crutch, but nonetheless I made this comic about the finer points of drawing Bill Murray. By the time I got to the end I couldn't even figure out how to draw my own face!

Forgive me, Bill Murray! Scoot on over to Manny's blog to see how he did.

Moleskine part 2

2010-01-21T16:15:00.005-05:00

Thanks for all your feedback on my sketchbook post. Here's what happened next, in quick and dirty comic form.

My mom was nice enough to go get me a new sketchbook! Unfortunately she got me the exact one I stopped using because it was too clunky. It will be fine for now, it seems it's about 50 pages lighter than what I remembered which was a nice surprise. Thanks, mommuh!

Moleskine

2010-01-08T14:37:00.003-05:00

So this past year I've been using one of these hardbacked Moleskine sketchbooks with the thick yellow pages. I think I bought it online so I could get free shipping on something else. Anyway, I am probably going to blow some minds when I say that I hate this godforsaken thing. One advantage of the moleskine, though, is that the pages are too slippery to really draw in pencil, at least to draw anything you'd like to keep! It's forced me to get drawing in pen again, which I haven't done as much as I should. At any rate, the year is done and the book nearly is too, so here is a highlights reel.

For those of you that are in the know, what I really want is one of the canson (black cover) spiral bounds but with half the pages inside and a thinner binding! I love the paper but I hate carrying them around, they're so bulky. If any of you know where I could get such a thing, please do be in touch!

Very Merry

2009-12-17T22:17:00.003-05:00

Best wishes for a warm holiday and a happy, healthy new year. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continued support of the drawblog.

Messin' with Santa

2009-12-03T20:41:00.004-05:00

Manny suggested we do some drawings about Christmas shopping. I am more of a bah-humbug type, myself. This is the first comic I've done with a brush in a long time, and I suppose in a way it went a little smoother than I expected. Do you guys prefer looking at a brush line to the usual line? A nib feels more like a real "drawing" experience for me, but all my heroes use a brush. For you drawer-types out there, which one do you most like to use?

Manny can get a great drawing out of nearly anything. Swing by his blog to check out his take on the assignment.

Just Ducky!

2009-11-18T21:30:00.003-05:00

Me and Manny did some drawings about talking to animals. Please do check out his very super entry here. Mine is a true story, which I know may be difficult to believe on account of how action-packed it is.

Special days of the recent past no. 16

2009-11-08T15:29:00.001-05:00

Stealth Care

2009-10-30T22:41:00.003-04:00

Manny and me did some more drawings! It was his turn to pick a theme, and he chose "Ninja Retirement Home." Apparently his interests veer towards the painfully specific. In any case, I am actually less interested in drawing ninjas than the average cartoonist so I drew the outcome of a retirement home run by ninjas, instead of for ninjas. Sneaky, I know. Please check out Manny's entry (the clear-cut winner, in my opinion) over here!

Reader Awards

2009-10-25T21:25:00.019-04:00

A while ago I had an informal contest on facebook to try and generate a new and exciting blog address. Ultimately, I didn't make any drastic changes, but that doesn't mean there weren't any winners!

Big first-place congratulations to Jinhee, whose entry "Curlywolf.com" is about as sweet as pie!

A tie for second place! Congratulations to Madeleine and Laura, both of whom came up with an epic number of completely unusable submissions. A for effort!

Big big thank yous to everyone who submitted a name, and for being such a fine bunch of readers. Want to contest these results, correct a broken link, or berate me for my corrupt politics? Let me hear all about it in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!

Battle Bobble

2009-10-21T19:14:00.003-04:00

Me and Manny did some drawings about Bubble Bobble! You can check out his drawing, as well as his vastly superior explanation of what we did, at http://manimaj.blogspot.com/2009/10/bubble-bobble-battle.html

Special days of the recent past no.15

2009-08-24T02:51:00.003-04:00

Messing around with photoshop, and a little with a new brushpen I ordered. I've still got a lot of wiggle on my brush lines. Anyone with any tips for photoshop or brush pen, or who can recommend a brush pen with a finer tip, please come forward.

Quickie painting

2009-05-25T07:06:00.003-04:00

A special person in my life is turning six, so I did this quickie painting for her.

Nothing says "Hey kid, you're six!" like a chicken leg and some shower-shoes!

Sketchbook! Updates! More!

2009-05-25T06:49:00.003-04:00

Sorry I've been gone from the scanner so long. I've been doing some stuff. Like graduating!

I'm also working as an intern at a children's book company here in Montreal. It's unpaid, so if any of you know a sweet weekend or evening gig for me, please let me know!

In other news, my big sketchbook is finished and I'm tired of carrying a big sketchbook around. How do people like Moleskines around here? Do they live up to their reputation? Can they take a little abuse?

Mountaineer

2009-04-22T23:03:00.001-04:00

Special days of the recent past no.14

2009-03-20T19:33:00.002-04:00

Layers layers layers

2009-03-15T21:13:00.002-04:00

Day 2

Underpainting

2009-03-14T14:54:00.004-04:00

Some people have been asking me some questions about how that last watercolour went down. The answer is, of course, swearing and prayer. In any case, I also started with an underpainting. Nobody told me to do that, so I'm not sure it's going to work every time, but I sure hope it works this time because it's already done!

Sorry these pictures are sucky - watercolour is pretty unphotogenic.

Scandown!

2009-03-08T21:07:00.008-04:00

On the table

2009-03-03T02:53:00.011-05:00

Recently I've been trying to get back into watercolours. At first I chose the wrong colours I think. I was lucky because my co-workers know a lot more than me about painting and kind of steered me back on course.

Watercolours is kind of difficult but I'm so excited by all the colours that I don't feel so discouraged most of the time. I mess up a lot though. Like, 50% of the time I make something that is completely unusable.

It's kind of fun sometimes to do something you don't know how to do, I guess.

Pop Up!

2009-02-28T12:45:00.004-05:00

I made this 3d diarama paper thing for my drawing class. It's pretty unlikely it'll ever be seen in any other context but it's probably still worth a look so here it is!

It was really super fun to make, even though making rocks out of paper is not as obvious as I had initially thought.

Valentine Quickie

2009-02-16T20:42:00.005-05:00

Quick 'n dirty valentine followup

Valentine's day

2009-02-11T23:26:00.003-05:00

Happy love-day, birdoes!

On the table

2009-01-01T09:45:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays

2008-12-21T21:04:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays, birdpals! Thanks for a great year.

Hello out there!

2008-12-18T19:38:00.002-05:00

Hi there, attractive readers. Sorry for the long absence. New stuff is coming in the future. Please amuse yourselves with this quick and dirty comic about xmas shopping until I get back.

Special days of the recent past no. 13

2008-10-26T00:22:00.004-04:00

We clean up and now it's time to learn

2008-10-25T22:02:00.006-04:00

When I'm in class I like to always have my sketchbook handy. Occasionally I jot down something pertinent but mostly I'm just doodling to prevent my brain from falling asleep.

Sometimes people ask me where my ideas come from, or why so many of them involve hotdogs. I don't always know the answer but I do know that it helps me to be drawing pretty much constantly. Like a lot of humans, the most awesome stuff I make usually starts out as an accident. I get more of those lucky strikes when I'm doodling aimlessly in school or on my commute, anytime my brain can slow down.

Book things

2008-10-21T22:36:00.003-04:00

Too much CNN

2008-10-21T22:27:00.002-04:00

Good God just vote already.

On the table

2008-10-12T12:31:00.005-04:00

The fox is dead. Long live the wolf.

Miniday

2008-10-10T21:13:00.001-04:00

The train has been challenging me a little extra of late.

On the table

2008-10-01T21:39:00.002-04:00

Homework!

Special days of the recent past no. 12

2008-09-26T21:59:00.003-04:00

If you crave still more pigs, visit Martha's blog at http://guineapiglife.blogspot.com/ for more piggy content.

Book things

2008-09-26T21:55:00.005-04:00

For those among you who are curious, I went back to the same ordinary Canson books I've always used. Thanks just the same for all your recommendations! I saw a buddy of mine today was rocking a Valencia, which seem to be very popular.

Train folks

2008-09-26T21:53:00.003-04:00

Here's some nice folks who let me furtively draw them while they were asleep.

Special days of the recent past no. 11

2008-09-26T21:35:00.003-04:00

Hi team, sorry about the long wait. Let's go back to school!

Special days of the recent past no. 10

2008-08-30T00:46:00.001-04:00

Big fat thanks to everyone for their nice words about my travelling birds!

Bye-bye birdoes

2008-08-17T21:39:00.005-04:00

Birds are done, off they go to Toronto. Here are some pictures I took of them.

These pictures are terrible, and I am sorry for that. I just don't have a knack for it. I'd be really happy for any advice, so don't hold back.

Giant birds again

2008-08-13T23:52:00.002-04:00

Here's an update on the giant bird project. Some of you may notice subtle differences. I had to scrap the first effort as I was losing the interior. Am I fast or what?!

On the table

2008-08-10T22:18:00.006-04:00

Humungous bird thing. Hopefully it will be fun to do and I will want to talk about it when it's done. Stay tuned.

On the other table:

Unearthed

2008-07-20T22:38:00.012-04:00

Today I am procrastinating, which means I've been looking at a number of things I previously had no interest in for some time. One thing I came upon is a project I did last year wherein I "creatively vandalized" all 199 pages of Canadian Living. (Click on the pictures to see quite big.)

I did the whole thing in various types of markers and whiteouts, which made it pretty sloppy to begin with and even sloppier over time - pages have stuck together, stuff smudged.

I kind of considered it more like a test of endurance and sort of a loosening-up than anything else. Since then I forgot like 90% of what was in here, but some of it is really quite unexpectedly funny!

Some of it is more like a pretty apt representation of how one might feel after any involvement with Canadian Living for this length of time.

I did a similar project more recently where I painted yeti heads onto the face cards of a deck of playing cards and then gave them to my classmates.

Over a new leaf

2008-07-20T17:19:00.004-04:00

I'm trying to get into drawing more places and spaces, as it's something I normally avoid pretty much entirely. Here's one.

In other news, the sketchbook in which I draw most everything (except the Special Days and small book entries) is now full. I'm considering trying a different kind - any recommendations?

Grocery List

2008-07-14T22:23:00.001-04:00

Come clean

2008-07-07T22:16:00.012-04:00

I'm always trying to get a look in other people's sketchbooks. It's customary to say something kind of self-effacing when you hand your book over to a drawer you respect, such as "Oh, there's nothing so interesting in there." or "Do pardon all the swearing." A lot of times, though, people will warn me that their book is "messy." Some of these people have already seen my book and know that actual, physical scraps of garbage occasionally fall out of it!

Yesterday someone told me that they often started something in their sketchbook but would then erase it. That was pretty much the craziest thing I'd ever heard. Somewhere along the way everyone must have got the notion that their sketchbooks are supposed to be very tidy and contain only good ideas. I don't think I'd ever fill a book if I had those kinds of rules. Isn't this supposed to be fun?

Just for fun, here's some objects that fell out during the scanning process.

Special days of the recent past no. 9

2008-06-15T19:57:00.004-04:00

Special days of the recent past no.8

2008-06-15T19:45:00.003-04:00

Me time

2008-05-28T19:33:00.001-04:00

On the table...

2008-05-21T20:39:00.004-04:00

Have some numbermans why don't you!

Same ol'

2008-05-18T02:33:00.006-04:00

Mario 3

2008-05-05T02:50:00.003-04:00

When I was a kid the other kids always wanted to come over to play Mario 3. Also, my mom had bitchen snacks. I was an only child so the only thrill I experienced in letting these other kids play was challenging them to the minigames at every available opportunity in order to beat the "I go - you go" turn system. I was a shit.

Special days of the recent past no. 7

2008-05-05T02:30:00.004-04:00

Special Days of the Distant Past

2008-05-05T01:42:00.002-04:00

School's out. I'm back. Let's do this.

Thinking of you nice people

2008-04-25T15:24:00.002-04:00

Hi there,

I know we haven't seen eachother in a while but I have been drawing drawing drawing and thinking about all you nice people. I'll have some new Special Days up really soon. I hope you're all having a special day too!

Thanks for sticking with me, you and birds.

Spirit animals

2008-03-11T19:17:00.008-04:00

A lot of people have kind of animal characteristics. Not necessarily in that they look like an animal, but they have a kind of animal aura around them. A friend of mine is a bear I think, but she was surprised when I told her. Bears have a kind of particular significance for me.

I'm a penguin, I think. I have another friend who is a penguin too, even though we aren't really so alike. It's not really a personality type thing

I like small bird types the most.

More Harvest Moon

2008-03-11T19:01:00.003-04:00

This didn't make it into the original Harvest Moon post. I guess it's like a blooper, except without newscasters getting hillariously injured.

Regret of the day

2008-03-01T21:48:00.001-05:00

Today I regret not naming my blog the Fancy Adventure Blog.

Admittedly, I have so few adventures that this would likely be considered false advertising.

Special days of the recent past no. 6

2008-03-01T21:29:00.005-05:00

Went to the Super Furry Animals show. Guess who got a setlist!

I wish I'd scanned this at some kind of wacky angle to make it seem a little more rock and roll and a little less like a .doc file.

Tomorrow

2008-02-27T22:01:00.006-05:00

Could be a rather important day for this nut. Stay tuned.

On the table

2008-02-20T23:42:00.004-05:00

Birds en vrac!

Something out of nothing

2008-02-18T10:38:00.007-05:00

As is most often the case.

Reader request

2008-02-16T17:57:00.002-05:00

Jared, the very large elf, has requested that I draw his picture.

Jared's interests include:

-Snazzy shirts

-Kittens

When Jared was born the angels played a guitar solo so awesome it made criminals cry and give money to the homeless.

By popular demand - comments.

2008-02-15T18:39:00.004-05:00

I am pleased to announce that Helper-Bird Laura has kindly gotten some comments going on my blog. Unfortunately, you'll need to click on the individual entries on order to use the comments. I'll let you know of any further devlopments here.

Big big thank yous to Laurabird, and everybird for reading.

Back to the usual

2008-02-12T17:45:00.000-05:00

An unfortunate side effect of the blog has been that people stop asking to look in my sketchbook. Looking at someone's book is kind of paradoxical in that it's one of the most intimate ways you can know someone, but also one of the most painless as you don't have to talk while you're doing it.

When people don't ask to see it, I used to think they just weren't interested in getting to know me. Now I wonder if they're just reading this thing instead.