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...