may your holidays not be crappy...

hi. happy holidays!

This blog is named after the street I live on: Lucknow Street. It's a fine street with nice neighbours. Sadly, I'm leaving this street in a few short days - though I'm looking forward to our new street (which is named after a dude who owned a sewing machine factory back in history) in Guelph, ON.

I'll probably keep this blog going in the new year though... we'll see.

In the meantime, enjoy your holiday festivities whatever they may be and keep the cat away from the tinsel (literally and metaphorically)! Chasing a frightened cat, tinsel hanging from it's butt, around the house in front of guests is not fun. Trust me. I know.

Also, thank you Nova Scotia generally and Halifax specifically for 5 awesome years. It's been magical!

thanks, you rock.

why give them paper when you can give them a rock?

the patience of a saint

wow. blog's been dry through november! work and the up-coming move preoccupying my brain... but here comes a long-winded ramble.

*****

i've long admired paint-by-number (PBN) paintings and have amassed a large collection of them (thrift-store bought, NOT painted by me). obviously they have a certain 2nd-hand/kitsch element that jives with my general aesthetic but i also really love the intricately combined areas of unblended colour. such nice shapes, such nice colour-schemes.

i've always imagined the paintings' painters toiling away and usually feel a little sad for them; adults colouring within the lines for endless hours instead of creating their own unique images, always - in my mind - banished to a cold corner of the basement whilst the more social family-members congregate upstairs.

but i'm not so sure about that impression anymore...

i've noticed, in collecting these things, that not all PBNs are created (or re-created) equally. i have a strong preference for specific colour-schemes and themes (mainly horses - which, in real life, i have no strong affection for) and even "style" (maybe "proficiency" is the better word - i usually only buy the works of superior craftspeople). in these choices, colour and theme, i guess i am sharing an aesthetic with the painter - presumably, they based their choice on similar criteria. (already they are becoming more "real" to me...)

today i attempted some PBNing and realized just how skilled some of those painters were and that i am truly the proud owner of some very fine pieces - masterpieces of the genre probably (oh how i wish they were signed)!

about a year ago i found a 2nd-hand, unpainted PBN. the paint pots were all dried out but i displayed the outline-y goodness in the house. recently, i decided i would "re-mix" it into a little typographic project (i will post it when it's finished) . today i started that project...

let me tell you, this shit is NOT for the faint-of-heart or impatient person (um - i'm both!).

what i post below here is 40 minutes of work and it looks horrible!! this project, i now realize, is not something i can crank out in a day and throw on the wall. it's gonna take a while and i'll have to limit myself to short work-sessions so i don't go batty! i'm not used to obeying lines that hold colour in one spot!

anyway, back to the PBNers and my changing impressions of them...

i realize now what strong technical skills they must have had to pull these things off so well: brush control, colour-mixing, project management, and the patience of a saint to boot! they had the skills to make quality "original" artwork so why did they choose to spend so many hours at PBNs?

i assume once you get used to doing them it gets less frustrating (it must or you wouldn't be able to do the huge ones) ... and that leads me to the conclusion that these very skilled people maybe used this hobby for relaxation. it was maybe even some form of meditation! i can't picture anyone of my T.V./internet generation having the attention-span to finish one of the big paintings i own! they must have found the process satisfying and felt proud when they finished them (i guess that's why they framed them)...

i've always treasured these pictures because of their looks but now i also appreciate them as receptacles of someone's effort, joy, dedication, and perseverance.

below are some of my larger PBNs.

i have seen another one of these "last suppers" in another thrift store and mine is far superior (though i still wish i had bought the other one - just for comparison). this is about 1 foot x 2.5 feet.

these two are both roughly 2 x 2.25 feet.

the ship is heavily varnished unfortunately.

the clouds are usually my favourite parts in any PBN. these both have great clouds.



(sorry about the flash in my photos - i don't have a great camera and i'm not a great photographer... this is not likely to change)

door jam # ?

(I forget what number i'm at with these "door jams" - there have been a few i didn't post...)

soundtrack:

Herman Dune - have you seen the moon

Herman Dune - glory of old

medium:

black sharpie on newsprint

concept:

i have a picture of charles and diana - for reasons unknown. it is positioned just behind some other items so that only charles' eyes are showing. they peer at me from across the room when i'm at the computer. they are peering now. i needed to procrastinate for a bit so i drew the prince. he is so easy to characturize that i can't help but think of him as silly-looking (if i think of him at all). so i was surprised while drawing - and actually considering him for the first time in my life - to find that he was a fairly nice looking guy. not "hot", but he looks fairly kind and gentle and i felt kind of sad for him - in the way that i feel mildly sad for all celebrity-figures who are born in to their celebrity and don't necessarily seek it. i don't think that sympathy comes through in the drawing - he looks slightly creepy - but i was just scribbling and not trying to convey feeling one way or the other...

hedbanz-party-ice-breaker

i don't normally put "work"* stuff up here (never thought about why - it's not really a "rule" or anything - i just don't tend to do it...) but this rejected sketch cracks me up so here it is.

i don't know what i was thinking... i guess i was trying to popularize the game "hedbanz" amongst the classy, wedding-planning set of a state that shall remain unnamed.

chef, photog, and bandleader had to be "obvious" in the drawing. i forgot to put anything on the shelves.

the art director had never heard of the game. how is that even possible?

*so this is what "sketches" for work tend to look like for me... (those hedbanz weren't flourescent green in the sketch - i just forgot to switch the colour mode.)

large bears

a photo of a quick pencil drawing i did from a small photo on the internet, then a bit of colour added in photoshop.

this is the "Groote Beer", the boat my father's family came to canada on.

the name (has nothing to do with beer) means, "big bear" and i find it fitting that my family - fairly large, lumbering beasts with all our grizzly personalities - were ushered to their new land by a vehicle thusly named.

after a recent visit from my dad, which involved a stop at Pier 21 before he went off to a reunion of his siblings, i got the idea that it would be cool to gather stories of the crossing from my aunts and uncles and make something (a comic?) out of it... it is a huge project that will only get 2nd billing to my career but i hope i can accomplish this!

i sent letters to all the siblings (7 uncles and aunts i barely know) asking for information, complete with self-addressed envelopes and stationary. i got my first one back in the mail today - from a man with an appropriate name, "Art"!!

a sad side-note to all this is that my Beppe (grandmother, dad's mom), who is 99, is not doing well. i hardly know her because we never lived near her and i'm not the sort to make much effort. i'm guessing that i won't get a chance to show her any of this project or even ask her about her memories... apparently she prays every night not to wake up...

(part of) what i wore (for part of) today - part 1

there are a lot of "what i wore today" blogs out there (and i enjoy them immensely - don't get me wrong!). recently i've also noticed quite a few illustrated versions of the same concept. i even considered doing this myself but, besides the fact that i'm not an especially note-worthy dresser, i was kind of like, "what's the point? i can just go outside and people can SEE what i'm wearing..."

however, the other day i was prancing around the house in this little get-up and thought, "now HERE's an OUTFIT!!" that's when i decided to start a sketch-series depicting the sartorial choices/accidents no one gets to see under normal circumstances.

without further ado, i now present Part 1 of "(part of) What I Wore (for part of) Today": the absurd frockage of a freelancer in her natural habitat, the home office.

- toque: made by step-mother, owned since highschool but created long before that (possibly older than me??), worn to flatten the hair

- grey/dark-grey sailor stripe teeshirt: salvation army, boxy and unflattering but so soft and so comfy and i love stripes

- floral boy-cut undies: american eagle outfitters, purchased about a year before i got married - making them about 7 years old!!! should be thrown out but i really like the pattern. the stripe/floral combo is where it's at!

- no pants: who needs 'em?

- black mary-janes with 1.5 inch heel: salvation army, naturalizer brand, "mint condish" but a little tight, wearing them around the house in an attempt to "break them in" (oh what women do for shoes!!)

invisible rider with cape

stage one of something i'm working on.

a big part of me desires to leave it like this and not ruin its simplicity with my complicated plans.

ink, an unforgiving mistress

ink and i aren't getting along very well right now.

i've always been a little shy of the liquidy mediums but i'm trying to get it on with them these days... they however keep giving me the smack-down... i'm starting to feel a little hurt.

remember that "preview" of a comic i showed a while back? well, i basically destroyed it...

the only thing i could salvage was the last panel and i offer that to you below.

(i brought it into photoshop and played with the colours obviously but other than that, the linework was done with a small 5/0 brush and black india ink. the lettering was done with a pen - too fast and sloppy. i swear, comic artists must be the most patient people on earth!).

so yeah, this article about "ink and commitment" struck a chord with me today...

Shrine on you crazy diamond...

a "foreign" friend's shock/amusement/disgust about that special breed of North American parade-crashers we call "Shriners" inspired this one.

i put "foreign" in quotes because white Irish people don't seem that foreign in this (red)neck of the mainly-white-woods.

white people are so weird... all the other colours are weird too - but it's not polite to say that so I stick to bashing my own colour. (i just listened to a chris rock interview on CBC so i'm all about boldly making race-related statements for the next 5 minutes...)

shriners are a pretty good example of old-white-man-weirdness. apparently they do some good things - like using their excess money to build hospitals (especially burn units i think. kudos to them!) - but mostly i picture them drinking, practicing their parade maneuvers in secluded parking lots, and generally acting like they are 12.

eventually the shriners take their acts (miniature vehicles, fez hats, and sometimes poorly-done drag) on the road to various vegetable festivals around the county. my hometown festival, which honours the humble potato, actually had to put a cap on shriner participation in its parade because they were squeezing out the local acts! they are like cockroaches though - they come back stronger and harder and scarier.

i have never seen a "foreign" shriner...

(by the way, still learning about watercolour here. not totally happy with the results but at least this one isn't a total "fail"...)

steampunk dunny

maybe i've been under a rock but i only heard of the term "steampunk" about a week ago (via this cool friend). i'm using it loosely today to describe this little fella because he is a modern vinyl toy i painted to look like antique Delft Blue.

i purchased this Dunny when i was in New Orleans two years ago. i only bought it because the merchants were still doing very poorly then and i found myself in a neat store having a neat chat with the owner. i wanted to buy something as a show of support but i didn't want anything too large. the Dunnies were the right size but they were sold as "surprises" - so you didn't know which one you would get.

i never liked the one i got (lunch-bag-let-down!!!) but since it was my souvenir, i never threw it away.

so, realizing that Kidrobot wasn't beating down my door to design one of these toys*, i took it upon myself.

(* ...and they never will now because desecrating one of these is likely some kind of vinyl-toy-sacrilege!)

here's his bum...

and the side-view showing where arms once attached. i took them off to paint but couldn't get them back on - so now he's an amputee.

and lastly, "in situ" with a bunch of other precious junk.

whale tail - fail tale

normally i try to avoid passing judgement upon "gym-people" because a) i AM "gym-people", b) we're all just there attempting to keep our bodies in good-working-order and c) it's not really nice to be judgy (but so so fun, i must admit).

this lady though, and this shirt...

mockery had to be made. it was too ridiculous.

part of me wanted to ask her if she'd had some kind of horrible thong accident that morning. another part of me wanted to wrap a blanket around her and say "there, there". still another part just knew it would be fun to draw when i got home.

in real life the shirt was HOT PINK but it WAS that low cut.

her hair was a more natural colour but it DID look like it might be toxic to small children and pets.

she was maybe a bit younger than i made her look here.

the parts of her breasts that showed between the tank-top and "whale-tail" portion of the shirt were jiggly and glistening and wrinkly.

all in all - the shirt was very disturbing; both her choice to wear it and the fact that it was even designed in the first place. (seriously, it was definitely sportswear but it threatened wardrobe-malfunction at any moment!)

you could maybe, MAYBE pull this off if you were starring in Barbarella.

comic sans

no... not the font.

this is a sneak-peek of me trying my hand at comic-making, sans any real experience with story-telling.

that's the problem really. i've always wanted to make comics but i could never decide where to start story-wise. so i'm taking a seinfeld approach here and making my comic about "nothing". so far it doesn't even have a name.

i thought i'd be clever and call it a "meta-comic" - thinking i'd coined the term. wikipedia revealed the truth to me - that concept is already well-established.

i'm currently dealing with my second comic-problem; fear of finishing. i know i shouldn't be so precious about these things but i'm seriously nervous to attempt "inking" this... i have no idea what i'm doing... well, i probably have some idea... but i don't feel like i do... i guess that is why i'm posting this - to break the ice a bit...

morning-mark-making

this is door jam #5 (i think).

edel rodriguez's drawger page was open on my laptop and there was a photo of a large wall mural that looked like this. there was no mention of where the original was or who did it... but the arch form and the primary colours resonated with me.


and here is one of my recent art-experiment-fails that i kind of resurrected as something else.

originally i was trying to draw in my usual (tight, thin-lined) fashion on a different ground (some thick, textured fabriano paper) and it wasn't working out for me. i think i was going for too much detail. anyway, after the fail i just went for vague shapes with chalk pastel... which worked out a bit better and salvaged the experiment.

less talk, more draw

just looked back at my older posts and noticed i tend to jabber on. i'm going to attmept to say less about the images/sketches i post... but i can't guarantee that i will always be able to stay shut-up.

the experiments continue though i've not been very good at getting away from simple pencil drawing.

yesterday i said "goodbye" to my old-yellow-bike. gave it to a cousin who just moved to town...

i had that bike since i was 18 and was a little bit into mountain biking. it wasn't getting much use lately because there are two of us in the house and only one bike - so we tend to walk everywhere. we live in a very walkable city currently. soon though, we are moving to a more spread out city and we plan to buy TWO bikes when we get there. more road-style, less chunky-mountainy-style. soooooo i'm pretty excited about that up-coming consumer-adventure (will probably be drawing a lot of "dream-bikes") and it made it not-so-sad to say goodbye to the old yellow avenger. it's going to a good home where it will get more use.

any suggestions on good-value, city-commuter, not-too-fancy bicycles are welcome. holla' at me.

facebook

a quick sketch of a face off the internet.

i just found out that the life-drawing studio i signed up for has been cancelled due to low interest - so i'm bummed because i was really looking forward to getting out of my hobit-hole and meeting and drawing with other people.

i feel like i'm stumbling around as an image-maker right now. no clear direction where to go but wanting to go somewhere...

ch-ch-ch-changes

well... i wasn't really happy with the painting and even though it was a learning exercise/gift, i still wanted to get to a happier place with it. so i went back in and made some changes.i do like it more now though i still can't say i love it...

i went over to Salvation Army and found a frame to refurbish. not only is it more economical (only $3 for the frame instead of $20+), i think it has more character than the cheap one i would have otherwise bought at the art store.

i forgot to take a picture but originally the frame was greenish and the mat was dark green. i turned the mat over to show the white side and cut it a little bit bigger using the mat-cutter i have. i painted the frame black and switched the hanging-mechanism from horizontal to vertical and voila! better than new! plus, i have this funny picture of a baby fox now - it came in the frame. it needs a speech bubble but i'm not witty enough to come up with something hilarious.

and here is the final thing, ready to be gifted.

nest not empty

a little painting for some parents who's youngest (of 6) just left for university. they are feeling a little weirded-out by the "empty nest" but now they have a heart for each child instead of an egg to mind. they are all dolled up because they can go on to go on lots of dates again.

this is my first attempt with watercolours (since childhood). it was harder than i thougt it would be and of course things got muddy and heavy-handed... but i'll keep trying. eventually i'll land on something that works for me.

circle the wagons

this day is all about circular things.

door jam #3: 31 circles. one for every year of my life. done without tunes.

(side note: i have this "bracelet" - which is acutally a wrist-sized "O-ring" from a tractor. i started wearing it while working on my brother-in-law's farm one summer. that was 13 years ago and i have worn it everyday (24/7) since then - except for during my wedding ceremony (i guess i was trying to look pretty or something). anyway, it seems to be stretching out lately and falls off from time to time. it's probably only a matter of time until it breaks or i lose it... i'm not too sad to see the streak end. it's just one of those "huh" things that are kind of interesting... but maybe this "jam" is a bit of an homage... "the great black circle")

(another sidenote: door jam #2 exists but, although this blog is partly about getting over the fear of sucking boldly and publicly, the truth is - i'm afraid. #2 started fun but got frustrating and ultimately ended up too embarrassingly bad to post.)

here is a different shot of the t-shirt cowl i made yesterday, with a more appropriate shirt/collar pairing. i like it now.

oh nine!

happy 09.09.09 to you! here's a celebratory doodle.

(trying out my new Pitt Pens and white acrylic ink.)

and here is a recycled t-shirt necklace that i made right quick this morning.

i have seen this idea circulating around the internet and since i was about to get rid of this shirt i thought, "wok da heck!"

it's cute but realistically i don't think i'd wear something like this very often. it's a bit too fiddly and impractical and you'ld always be explaining it to people.

door jam #1

i tend to draw on a very small scale - partly due to not having much room for large-scale endeavors/storage...

today i rediscovered some large paper (leftover blueprints actually) i'd stashed behind a door and simultaneously realized i could tape said paper on to said door and do some big, messy, throw-away drawing.

so this the result of my 3-song-mark-making-door-jam-session.

the flowery shape was not planned, i just drew for the length of 3 songs.

it reminded me a lot of warm-up drawing exercises we did at school.

moving my whole arm and body was fun.

i'll try to do more of this.

freezer paper shirt

i've done some silk-screening before but this is my first attempt at a freezer-paper-stencil-shirt. i only needed to make one print so it was the perfect method. it was fun and easy and i would do it again. i won't post a "tutorial" here because they are abundent on the webs but i will offer these process shots.

the shirt is a gift for a friend named Don who is just about to defend his Master's thesis - and who earned the moniker "MastaDon" while posing with the mastodon statue at Mastodon Ridge.

original drawing and stencil prep:

ironing on the stencil:

inked in pink:

OK glitter-letters, time for your close-up:
the final product, modeled by A:

packaged with an optional "G Unit":

signed, sealed, and ready for delivery:
aftermath of the bi-products hanging on the door:
the happy recipient (note the curly hair):

extracurricular activities

a few illustrations done for friends recently...

straight-forward projects that didn't use much brainpower in the "conceptualizing" phase...

* * * * *

for a contest about re-conceptualizing "Farmer's Markets".

a friend put together an entry that centers around the idea of having neighbourhood produce parties - like a Tupperware party i guess...

i had to do this one pretty fast - no time for redrawing parts i didn't like or fancy colouring...

there is a lot about this drawing that i would have done differently but the friend liked it so that's good!

this one was a wedding present for Andrea & Marcus (obviously).

they put the details of their wedding online and just sent out these postcards invitations.

it isn't very often that i have to make my drawings look like actual, real-life people. i enjoyed the challenge and think there is a likeness!

love, me

i'm trying to try different things - well, not different from the general art-making crowd but different from my normal ways.

i like how the word "love" came out here but it seemed rather plain on it's own and i ended up adding a scanned texture on the computer (adding a computerized touch is almost impossible for me to resist these days) ... maybe next time i should start with a ground that is more textured on it's own... i have a lot of learn... but i'm so lazy...

real-life still-life

THURSDAY

I'm not a night-owl so when I'm out-and-about past 10pm it is nearly impossible for me to do anything when I get home. Hence, the first picture today is a shot of some earrings I made - and should have posted -yesterday. They are old chess pieces from a set that was already missing too many pieces to play anymore. Two pawns on one side and the king and queen on the other. I like how they kindof glow.

FRIDAY

Here is the first drawing/study of a still-life I will try to paint.

I recently realized there are several little groupings of interesting objects in my home that would make cute paintings. This group of thrift-store objects has been hanging out in the kitchen for over a week now... but it was only after I started drawing them today that Ace VanJeet pointed out a possible name for the work, "cock ring teaparty"*... so now I'm extra-inspired to complete the work.

*(I haven't drawn it yet but on the tin are 3 people having a tea-party.)