the king's speech (spoken like a true prince)

while playing with a print set i just bought, the idea's just came like flashes and this is the result. this is hand made with no digital mucking about aside from scanning it. i had a good laugh researching this one, i must say. i'm not completely set on the title and alternative title. i think it needs one or the other but i'm not sure which yet...both will have to suffice for now.

details here:

 and here:

basia bulat

basia plays the guitar, autoharp, banjo, ukele, sax, and flute. autoharp! i really like the arrangements in her songs - so many layers to try and zero in on. i find it really funny that she cashed some student loans to record music while she was in montreal (she's originally from london). i guess when it's to record with howard bilerman, you really don't do anything other than what she did though, ha ha. basia bulat in moleskine.

23012010

a couple of weeks ago i was able to finally go to life drawing for the first time in months. i was out of practice but it felt pretty good. i should probably mix up the media i use more but i still find it challenging to capture something i'm completely happy with. every once in a while i'm ok with the session. the drawings below from an earlier session occurred on such a day. life drawing at ocad, in moleskine.

one minute poses.

five and ten minute poses.

twenty minute poses. i think i'm going to break out the brush pen more.

speaking of mixing it up, i really love francis vallejo's life drawings.

his other work is, uh, ok too. check it out and you'll see what i mean. this kid's a machine and seems to really breathe through his work. check out his blog here, too.

just a skull

a couple of websites and a painting have been keeping me so very occupied though i'm not complaining. i love these brush pens. so much more to be done with them. need to find the colour refills.

jd salinger

a quick one. not much to say that everyone probably doesn't already know. jerome david salinger in moleskine.

african wild dogs

pound for pound, these guys have one of the highest bite force quotients of mammalian carnivores. apparently, their hunting percentages are pretty good too. and they chirp! unfortunately, they too are endangered. they remind me of hyenas although they're apparently weaker than those scavengers, one on one. i thought wild dog was a bit of a vague name but the naming controversy for these mammals leads some to prefer to call these guys "painted hunting dogs." lycaon pictus in moleskine.

20091014

i haven't been drawing as much due to holiday happenings and tinkering with my website (soon to come!). to boot i will be working on two other sites and a painting so who knows when i will get time to draw. here are some life drawings at ocad from a little while back. hope you had a nice holiday and new year's.

one minute poses.

five and ten minute poses. you can skip over these ones now.

twenty minute poses.

entangled

so i told myself that i'll try and do a proper illustration for IF but having just gone through my sketchbook this one seems right. there are obvious reasons and there ones that probably aren't so clear. and that also leads me to think this one is right. one minutes life drawing poses, along with other people drawing with me, at ocad.

20090926

i've actually had projects to work on without much time to proper doodle. the bulk of what i've drawn lately have occurred on the subway or at life drawing sessions. here's another session at ocad.

one minute poses.

five minute poses.

ten minute poses.

twenty minute poses.

norah jones

she's got a new album called the fall coming out on 17.11.2009.

andy warhol

i had no idea andrew warhola actually worked as an illustrator for a time. not an earth shattering tidbit of info but i find that interesting, nonetheless.

liisa

liisa is a toronto girl that you've probably walked by and maybe noted her 5'11" frame (amazons!!!) but you've probably seen her in many a fashion magazine and not realised it. her mouth is what helps me immediately recognise her but she's otherwise quite chameleon-like to me like another model i seem to like to try and draw. i'm told she is quite the antimodel, from an attitude perspective, which is always a good thing. i can't remember where i got this image from but i may try and take this further, illustration wise. liisa winkler in moleskine.

life drawing

below are drawings from a session at ocad quite some time ago. i think this was the first time i had gone in a while. life drawing is such a love / hate thing for me. i've been going more regularly as of late and i feel like my drawings are getting tenser and tenser. the drawings are definitely messier and i dare say less organised. i think i'm trying too hard but i still love the challenge of the setting and the various ways one can challenge oneself to draw differently. i'm not sure how much it shows but during these sessions i am trying to draw a little outside of my comfort zone.

1 min poses

5 & 10 min

20 min

it's blitz!

i guess maps was the song that first made me pay attention to the yeah yeah yeahs. i think their latest album is one of the few i wasn't disappointed by this year. it sounds a little more produced than i expected but it works for me. i like the balance of synth they put in; some bands have tried hard to do this and it's just been baaaaaaad. yes i'm talking about you, coldplay. i'd say my favourite track is zero. brian chase, karen o, and nick zinner (not in that order) in moleskine.

studying hedi

i'm actually busy with projects if you can believe that so posting frequency is getting even lower. not much to say about this one. photo by hedi slimane, in moleskine

thunderheist

my search for good new music is usually fruitless but one day i came across thunderheist. i'm not going to say that their stuff is for everyone; their debut isn't particularly deep conceptually or lyrically. the electro-beats are pretty good though. if i had to say, theirs is like junk food music but the junk food is really good. they could really bring it to the next level though, if the ripples don't stop at the surface. toronto's own grahm zilla and isis salam in moleskine.

studying: drawing or painting?

i have tried some staedtler brush pens in the past but the nibs are essentially foam dewdrops or something with no bristles. they're decent for some effects but i think i like their results more on smoother drawing paper. texturewise, well, it's not so easy to achieve this (for me, but i could just suck). i should probably just watercolour more but the lazy genius in me loves the compactness of brush pens and i've found one that works for me so far. i wish they'd release coloured inks for it here. it's not without it's quirks as well but the range and precision can't be beat in my books. you judge? above is the pentel. this is with the staedtlers.
also, i don't know what to call these? drawings? paintings? the ink seems waterbased so....watercolours? my ignorance knows no bounds.

elliott smith

it seems i relate a lot of things to music. IF's topic is tango but i kept thinking of waltz #2 - one of my favourite songs. i can't really think of many songs that actually employ a waltz tempo these days. either way he seemed to dance a fine line between many elements over his life time but his talent was pretty undeniable. i'm not the best of guitar players but his ability was pretty crazy - try playing angeles. elliott's music could probably be described as sombre in general but i suppose that depends on how you're looking at it. if you haven't heard of him, you probably heard his stuff if you checked out good will hunting. anyway, i say his stuff is worth the listen. while you're at it, go listen to between the bars and pitseleh. go. elliott smith in moleskine, 8x10"

ravens 2

i'm not too sure why i'm a bit fascinated with these birds (aside from the way the look) but i think it's because of the different interpretations they lead to, depending on the culture. they're scavengers, plain and simple. they're smart but they apply their intelligence mostly for their scavenging ways. historically, those in the west seem to have thought them to be more ominous and negative on account of their blackness and what they eat. yet in parts of asia, they were thought of as gods. they're just there, to me; just part of the chain of things. i didn't know that they're the official bird of the yukon. corvus corax in moleskine, 9x10"

panda

i seem to do a lot of portraits but i do enjoy drawing the odd animal or two, among other things. i do prefer candid images or those that are simply uncharacteristic of the subject in terms of general perception. pandas always seemed to me to be rather harmless, sedentary beings so i thought that i would try one that looked, well, angry. i knew that they like to mow down on some bamboo action usually but i didn't know that it is actually 99% of their diets. they are still taxonomically deemed to be carnivorous though and they do crave the odd bit of meat, fish, eggs or what have you.

i'm also fond of this checkered/basketweave texture/pattern as of late. i suppose i'm reminded slightly of pixels as well. in retrospect i probably should've tried more of a gradual enlargement of the 'fadeout' to the larger patches but hey. hindsight is a friend that shows up the party invited but a bit late sometimes. an angry asian ailuropoda or my boy dj panda in moleskine, 9x10"

yes this is a double post to i.f. sorry, couldn't resist.