Vivienne sketches

My granddaughter is a pure delight to watch and to draw. Sadly I don't do that enough. The other evening we visited, this time with sketchbook. First sketch she was asleep and I was so focused on her head (fascinated by what must be going on in there I guess) that I failed to take into account her tiny hands which I ended up drawing in after. So much for good composition! The second was a quick sketch when she woke and before we left. She is absolutely attentive to everything around her, which I know is not unusual but fascinating to watch never the less. Family commented that I made her look like an old man but to me I think that I caught that gaze of wonder. Must do this much more often.

Sometimes we just gotta play!

I have a ton of work from both school and studio, and yet sometimes it is just fun to play. So still in my robe this morning I decided to sketch out a doodle of a house, throw it into photoshop and see what happened. The result: this year's Halloween card. Enjoy and have a great Hallowe'en wherever you frighteningly be!

Bad Day Drawing Technique

This comes from an email I wrote to a student of mine in first semester who's greatest difficulty is not knowing where and how to start a drawing. There are many approaches and this is but one, but it is one I have used with students for many years now. I use it myself in varying degrees, especially on those days when I hardly want to draw or just don't feel up to it. I call this Bad Day Drawing Technique.

Beginners are often overwhelmed by the complexity of what they face in the figure or anatomy. Even with eyes wide open, the mind shuts them to true observation and what essentially happens is that one is no longer observing or truly seeing, rather just looking.

If this is the case I suggest you follow these steps:

1 - take a moment to look and absorb what you are looking at.

There is no race or rush to hit the paper. I would rather see 20 sec of observation and 10 of drawing during a gesture than 30 sec of scribbling while madly dashing off in all directions hoping to hit something of which you have no idea what it is.

2 - get a feel for the gesture and reduce it to as few lines as possible.

Gesture is the feeling of the flow of the pose, the impression it gives of the attitude it projects. Start at the feet and grow it upwards or outwards. Don't just think of what it is doing statically: ie standing, sitting, laying down, rather of the feeling it projects / the emotion however subtle: fear, defiance, sadness, etc...emotions we call 'attitude'

3- mark or break down the proportions

Proportions are just relationships. Whether they are shape, or length or forms, they are just comparisons of one part to another to the whole. But you have to ask the questions to get the answers. In the beginning it may seem to pause your drawing, but it is necessary. If you were traveling through unknown terrain you would pause to ask yourself which way to go otherwise you would rush off in wrong directions. Same thing for drawing. you must stop and ask. No questions asked, no answers given, and the drawing is simply the visual answers to the questions you pose.

4- position the boxes

this requires a few things:

-that you are aware of the proportions of the boxes in the way they relate to the the parts they represent. If you are not aware or care it won't be right.

-you are aware of which way the planes (surfaces) are directed.

-you can actually draw and keep the proportions of the boxes consistent as they move through space.

5- Sketch in the skeleton

- if there is little time note first the places where the skeleton influence the surface (landmarks and joints). This of course requires a good understanding of the skeleton, attained only through repeated drawing studies.

6 - Pull the skin over the skeleton.

I suggest you work on each stage until you are confident with that one before moving to the next.

My experience has shown that this works. With dedication and perseverance I have seen some initially very weak students progress to high levels.

It's up to you.

Nanaimo Poster

Nanaimo B.C. has been the home of an exceptional childrens' book festival for over 20 years. I've been privileged to be a part of it many times and have numerous fond memories of those visits. When Robin Muller approached me to be part of a poster to celebrate the festival I was both pleased and apprehensive. The poster will be comprised of small images that represent what the festival has meant to us as presenters. With so many memories of children's laughter, festival hospitality, beautiful B.C. scenery and the chance to meet so many of Canada's top authors and illustrators, the task seemed daunting.

In the end I chose to represent a child buried in a book placed against the evening sky with a B.C. ferry and distant island glowing in in the setting sun's light. The place would be one of the original organizers of the festival, book store owner Thora Howell's lovely house and property on Protection Island. At the end of the Festival, Thora and friends would throw a lovely dinner for all the organizers and participants of the day's festival, and often we would sit and eat and talk as the sun set casting it's glow across the Georgia Straits against Gabriola Island. Just as often a ferry would pass by, glowing in the sun too. Just as a book takes you away, so does a ferry and for me it was in the end the perfect combination of what the festival was about and the memories it carried long afterward.

I'm happy to say this painting along with the others will auctioned next year to help fund future festivals.


Note: due to timing and space limitations the image is not longer part of the poster.

Bone Room Study

Visited the 'Bone Rooms' at the University of Guelph yesterday to do some studies. Who would have thought a beaver could look this good.

First drawing of my new granddaughter

This evening was my first chance to draw my new granddaughter. A wonderful experience.

Tonight's figure drawing

Joined the group over in Eden Mills for some drawing tonight. Took a pad of Borden & Ridley's bleedproof 14 x 17 inch paper for pens with a couple of 7B pencils. This was the last of three drawings for the night. Feels good to be drawing, only wish it had been looser.

Arm studies continued

This summer I will be giving two anatomy workshops at Seneca. The 7 week will be a master class in human anatomy with the focus on sequential movements. Here are some studies in preparation.




For more info on the courses: http://sca.senecac.on.ca/portal/aac_workshops/ .

Studies of Ed from today

Had Ed CZ over today for some studies of arm rotations. We all have good days and some not so good. Today I struggled with proportion, losing sight of relationships. These were the best of many frustrations. Too many weeks with no intense drawing has its toll. My intention is now to work back through the skin, through the muscles to the bone. I will post as I go.

More Lion skull studies

pencil, ink, conte and watercolour on ingres

Montreal MFA & Bone Room Guelph

I was in Montreal this weekend with regrettably little time to draw outside rough sketches of the architecture in Old Montreal during an early morning walk. Got a few minutes before closing in the Beaux Arts and had a moment to sketch this dragon from a painting by an Italian artist from the 17th century. I loved the way he made the belly feel as awful as that of a fat lizard or fish, and how he made the dragon's head different from what I'd seen before. Never got around to seeing my favorite Rodin before closing.



Today I spend a few hours a the Bone Rooms at the Vet College here in Guelph doing studies of a massive lion skull. I was amazed at the size of this animal's temporalis; his biting muscle. Absolutely huge. And I was equally surprised by the relatively small size of the brain. Pure hunter with only one way of thinking: the hunt. Hate to be the prey.

Tofino sketch

One of my favorite places in Canada is Tofino. I came across this sketch this evening and thought I would post it.

dragon from Dino

after that last entry today I started wondering what a dragon based on one of the dinos would look like. After a few minutes with photoshop this is what I came up with. It's pretty messy but fun anyway.

Dinos a the ROM

Fascinating in the way so much is similar to what we see now, and only a few million years apart. Wish I could be there for weeks, first study drawing what I see, then playing with it. Don't know why bones fascinate me so much?

conte on 18x24" newsprint

Armour at the ROM

My first semester students along with their other instructor Todd Sullivan and I spent the afternoon at the Royal Ontario Museum. It started with Dino's but for me ended at the armour display. Fun just drawing those elaborate cans men wrapped themselves in to do battle or just look tough. Can't help but think of the incredible skill of the craftsmen. Also can't help but see the similarities to the dryer pipes in my basement!

figure studies with a soccer ball

On the Opinicon Road

I was visiting Smiths Falls this week and on the way home from friends who live on the Rideau Canal at beautiful Chaffey's Locks I stopped to sketch a quick watercolour of an island I've passed before. Not satisfied with the results I played with it in Photoshop and volia: not what I saw but how it felt.

Things I think you need for animation.

I'm putting this entry into both my book and art blog because I get asked this often and I think it is important. I met a young lady, one of the winners of the Toronto Library Book Mark Awards last week. She wrote to me regarding what is needed to get in to animation. Her goal is Sheridan, and although I no longer teach there I think this applies to any other college or animation school.

My letter:

Dear Edith,

Thank you for your email. It was a pleasure to meet you at the awards ceremony. Congratulations once again.

In regard to your question about entry to Sheridan (or any other college) and to particular courses you need in high school for entry your guidance (if they are still called that) people at school would know that best. As to what would be valuable for animation I strongly suggest you get as much good drawing in as possible. Many schools offer a lot of digital studies, but since computer programs change so rapidly it is not the program that matters but the principles of good art behind them: design, observation, basic drawing skills with pencil and conte, and colour studies.

I suggest you do things such as watch your favorite animated shows in b/w without any colour or sound. Watch how they use design to keep your eye in the picture and not off to the fridge or phone. Learn to draw what you see as much as what you imagine. Learn structure through skeletons. Draw from life and not from pictures. Go to the ROM or any museum and draw animals. Go to the zoo or a farm and draw them live. Or draw your pet. Go to the AGO and discover how artists 'animated' their work through time and how they keep your attention in the picture. Draw boxes spinning through space. Learn perspective. Sculpt. Paint real and abstract: all realism is based on abstract principles, and all abstraction is based on reality.

That should give you lots to do while getting the requisite courses together. I think you would be a prime candidate if you can do it all. And oh yes, read books - to fill your head with ideas and see the world through other eyes.

Finally- learn to write a good letter. You will need it.

Good luck and keep in touch.

Werner

Dear Readers: correct me if I am wrong or if you have other suggestions.

Group of 7 day

After a very poor showing of snow this winter we finally got a bit of a blast of white stuff, enough to make the trees outside my window look like a painting from the Group of 7. It's somewhat fitting in that I am reading a fascinating little book "A Painter's Country", the autobiography of A.Y. Jackson. Jackson was one of the founders of the Group and though I knew his paintings I confess I knew little about him as a painter or simply person. I highly recommend this book if you can find it or get it from a library (my copy is a used paperback from the '60's); it is one I can hardly put down.


And so to wake up this morning and see the pines and spruces outside my window as were they painted by A.Y. or his colleagues makes me feel like I fell into and woke inside the book. A very pleasant feeling indeed.

Tofino Long Beach 06 / 10

With the games on in Vancouver, my thoughts go a bit further out the coast to the other side of Vancouver Island, to Tofino and Long Beach. I've been fortunate to get out there many times over the years, the last being 06 when I did this sketch of a sunlit log on Long Beach. I wasn't satisfied with it and it remained in a pile of papers until today when after an email from a friend out on the island I came across it again. With nothing to lose except perhaps the memory I threw paint all over it trying to get the feeling of the day when the sky would break open and shafts of sunlight would hit parts of the beach. So what started on the beach in 06 got finished in snowy Guelph in 10. Not bad. I've been slower. (so now I want to get back out there!)