Last Sunday of 2012

Here we are at the final Sunday of 2012. My final sketch of the year really has nothing to do with the season, but it was one that was drawn over the last week that I am rather happy with. May this past year brought you happiness and fulfillment in your life, and here is wishing the same in the future as we approach 2013.  Happy New Year to all! 

The eve before Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to the people that have found their way to my little spot on the internet. One more sleep before the big man makes his yearly trip.  

Student on iPhone lounging

I've been enjoying the morning coffee break sketch sessions at work over the last couple of weeks. There is a lot of subject matter around the college campus to choose from. The trick for me, however, is to find an area where I can sketch in obscurity. Being noticed by others while drawing in public places is not something I've ever been comfortable with. This quick sketch was of a a fella relaxing, perhaps after an exam, in our student lounge. He was likely playing games, listening to music or maybe texting a fellow classmate on his iPhone.

Happy 12/12/12

Ah another missed Sunday due to another hockey tournament out of town. My oldest boy was playing in Hudson Wisconsin this past weekend. They went 3 for 4 and won the Midget gold division. We tried to make it back to Thunder Bay Sunday night, but there was a snow storm in the Minneapolis region. Some areas received up to 16 inches of snow! Anyways, we got as far as Woodbury Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, which by the way is only 10 minutes from where we left. We stayed the night in Woodbury and made our way home Monday.

Well today marks the final year where we will witness the phenomenon where the day month and year is marked by a sequential number. This will not occur again in our lifetime. There are a lot of superstitions about these type of dates, and some people make a big deal about it. To me it's kinda neat to witness, but doesn't really go beyond that.

Here are three life sketches I've done over the last week.

Life sketch in college library

Before I started dedicating my first hour in the morning to sketching, I would spend my morning coffee break at work drawing. The coffee break sessions fell to the wayside, and for quite a few months I did very little sketching before getting back into it with the morning sessions. This past week I decided to add the morning coffee break drawing time back into my schedule and to dedicate it exclusively to real life sketches. To start off, I did this one of a young lady studying on her laptop in the college library. This should be a regular contribution to the blog along with any other work I feel the need to share.

Caricatures in progress and reason for a Wednesday post

I was out of town on the weekend attending a hockey tournament in Eagan Minnesota with my youngest son. He plays for the Thunder Bay Elks Royals Peewee A team. The team played extremely well and after 4 games they were able to claim first place besting the Edina Hornets 3 to 1 in the final.

I've been working on a few caricatures for a colleague at work. It is in the preliminary stages right now and I thought I would post my working sketches. Caricatures for me still take longer then I would like, which is due to my struggle with how far to exaggerate the facial features. I would like to be able to distort the features more but then I think it looses some of the likeness. Ah well, in time I may be able to win the internal struggle and thus increase my proficiency. 

I mentioned on an earlier post that I would post a picture of the caricature I did of the retired motorcycle instructor on the Vespa, so finally, here is the head cropped from the original picture I worked from and the head cropped from the finished caricature.

Female on Paddleboard

Last week I have been looking for photo reference on the web of people in kayaks for a caricature that I am doing for someone at work and I came across this picture of an attractive lady on a paddle board and could not resist sketching her.

Pig with gal on cinnamon grater

Without recalling if I've mentioned in my previous posts that I dedicate my first waking hour each weekday morning to sketching, I am admitting it now. With this in mind, I sometimes do not have an original idea to sketch, so I turn to illustrators that I have a real interest in. This week, I am posting a sketch I did during one of my morning sessions based on an original drawing by Heinrich Kley. Now there is nudity, but nothing that would suggest indecency, well not of the lady anyway - I believe she is sitting on a cinnamon grater. Maybe the pig would be considered indecent?  What Kley's thought process was for this sketch is likely only known to Mr. Kley himself. It was an intriguing drawing and one that was fun to duplicate.

Edweena Scissorhands

So we just passed Halloween, and even though I maybe a little late with my homage to this yearly festival, I thought I would add a sketch from this past week in keeping with the season. 

What do retired motorcycle instructors ride?

The answer to that of course is a Vespa!

Normally, I've made ever effort to post something every Sunday, but I was busy working on a caricature gig this past weekend and did not complete it until late last night. Haven't done one of these for a paying customer in quite some time. In the past, they have either been done as a pencil drawing or marker rendering, but I wanted to test drive my developing skills in photoshop painting. I'm waiting for approval from the victim... err... rather retiree to give me permission to post his picture so that anyone interested in knowing how close the likeness is will have something of reference. 

Skull side profile sketch

Had to do the side too!

Skull Sketch and Studies

This past week I decided to do a sketch of a human skull. I searched the internet for my subject and found one that looked as though it had been unearthed after an uncertain number of years, maybe even a hundred or so. Maybe it was discovered along with artifacts from a long lost city?

I also went back in my sketch book knowing I've studied the skull before and found two studies I did way back in 1996. The study of the front facing skull was even labelled. How studious of me.

A Week of Peter De Seve Inspired Sketches

 Here are a number of sketches over the last week that were inspired from some of Peter De Seve's work.

Rat in a Suit

So I missed posting yesterday, but I had good reason. It was Thanksgiving, and I was too busy eating at our family's Thanksgiving get together. Another reason was that I've been working on a full colour rendering, and I wasn't quite finished yet. This piece was inspired by Peter De Seve's "Suit Mouse Hires. It was painted entirely in Photoshop, and in case you haven't been following, this marks my first colour piece!

Strong Arm Photoshop Rendering

Lately I've been practising my rendering techniques in Photoshop. For the most part they have been basic blending techniques consisting of gradated blends from light grey to black and once I was comfortable with that I moved onto rendering spheres. When I felt comfortable with my rendered sphere, I decided to put what I've learned to something that was a little more challenging, so I found a black and white photo of a body builder posing and decided to just do the fore arm. I'm quite pleased with the overall result. 

Getting dressed for another season

It's hockey season! All three of my boys are back on the ice and practising for another exciting year of hockey in T-Bay. This sketch is from a while back depicting a player lacing up his skates before the big game. Most players will do their skates before putting on the shoulder pads, elbow pads and jersey (sweater for all us Canadians). Helmet and gloves would be last of course. I wonder if there has ever been a player to do his skates with his gloves on? I don't even think it is possible, but it would make for  an interesting challenge. 

Raking the leaves

Summer is over in my neck of the woods, and I thought I would do a quick cartoon sketch of a fella doing something that all Northwestern Ontario residents will be doing very shortly - raking leaves. 

Quick sketch of Santa

Thought I would add a second drawing this week. Drawn at just 3" tall, I whipped this sketch off in a matter of a couple of minutes. Only 105 days until he makes his annual visit.

Sarah Lippett Caricature

Here is another caricature. This one is of illustrator Sarah Lippett. She is one half of the CrayonLegs creative team. I'm not sure if it is good practice to show her picture here, so I will post a link to where you can view the photo I used for reference.

sketching cats and dogs

I'm not one to sketch a lot of pets, but I'm working on designing an illustration piece that involves either a cat or dog. I'm not sure what pet I want to use yet, maybe I'll abandon both and choose a gold fish instead. In the meantime, I decided to do quick sketches of our four legged friends. Here are a few attempts.

Teddy Bears and Cher

Spartan Warrior

This week was hard to pick out a sketch that I wanted to post and talk about. Coming to the conclusion that their wasn't anything, I was hoping today's sketch would change that. I decided I wanted to do a gladiator, or Spartan warrior. To come up with the look I wanted, I found  and used several photo references.  This drawing took me longer than I wanted. Sometimes while sketching, I just don't feel right about the form and I have to walk away for several minutes to clear my mind of the direction it wanted to go. Coming back to it with a fresh sense allows me to see it differently and in many cases I can get on track again. Although I'm not 100% convinced of the result, I am comfortable enough to post it as this week's contribution.

A year of Sketching!!!

One year ago today I dedicated myself to waking up one hour before work to draw in my sketch book. This was quite a feat for me because I was giving up an extra hour of sleep in order to reintroduce myself and sharpen my skills in drawing. Anybody who knows me knows how I love to sleep, so this really was going to be a challenge.

I actually started getting back into drawing in 2008 when I realized something had been missing in my life (The reason for this revelation is a bit lengthy to explain here, but I will say that my job displacement where I work had a lot to do with this). There is no way to explain the way I felt the moment I put pencil to paper and realized I was sketching once again. It was as if for the first time I truly knew that drawing was a part of me. The sketch I did that day was really nothing at all. People would be perplexed as to why the barely recognizable sketch would make me so happy, but it wasn't the end result of the sketch that I was happy about, it was the act of doing the sketch itself that made me happy, I would almost say euphoric.  I dedicated myself to sketching every morning while on break for about 20 minutes. I was consistently drawing on my breaks for the first year and a half, but in January 2010 I started to wane. By September of that same year, I was barely doing any kind of sketching and drawing. I could come up with several excuses for this, but for whatever reason it was a blip, and one that I really do not want to repeat.

There is explanation as to why it was last August that I made the commitment to sketching for at least one hour each morning. Again, it would take up more time and space, and I don't think it is necessary to explain it here right now. So with that, I would like to say Happy Anniversary to me, and to celebrate this achievement, here is my first two pieces I did back a year ago. The top sketch was done on August 15th and the bottom one was done the next morning on August 16th 2011.

A Quick Sketch of Someone Very Close to my Heart

I may be at risk for posting this sketch of my wife. Caricatures can be tricky at times as you are exaggerating on ones features, and maybe the features being exaggerated on are not the ones that the person being caricatured likes to have exposed. I love my wife's facial features. She looks as beautiful today as she did when I first met her. So if it does not meet her approval, I will apologise for my less than perfect attempt to caricature the one that still holds my heart prisoner after all these years.

Muscle Bound

Here we are in August already. This month marks my first full year back into sketching daily. Next week I'll post the first couple of drawings I did last year when I decided that I would commit one hour each morning to this endeavour.

In the meantime here is another study sketch of a grotesquely huge body builder.

A Few More Caricatures

I've still been on a caricature kick lately. The first one is a caricature of a gorgeous actress who has never lost her charm on me. She starred in a 70's sitcom, was married to a rocker, was a spokes person for Jenny Craig and of late is back doing a sitcom with 3 other well known actors . For me, she is considered one of the most attractive women in showbiz, even at 52. The next is of an actor who was famous along with several others back in the 80's. He was one of the Brat Pack crew and starred in a few John Hughes films. Personally, now he doesn't look anything like he did as a teenager back in the 80's. The last caricature is of yours truly. I figured I would attempt to put up a picture of myself in the profile. Well, even though it's not a photo or a self portrait, I do have it on good authority (my wife and 3 kids) that it does look like me.

Woman Slips

Found an interesting photo of a young woman who had slipped.  The picture which captured a moment in time was a good little exercise in trying to convey this awkward moment as she tries to maintain balance.

Viking Character Sketch

This past week I was looking at various viking character cartoons and decided to do a quick sketch of one myself.

A Local Politician

Once in awhile I get the bug to do a caricature. The efforts are not always satisfactory, but this one of a local MP, I thought, was done quite convincingly. There is one small mistake that I left in the sketch and never bothered to correct. Can you spot the oversight?

The Hockey Player

Maybe it's still too early to be on the subject of hockey being that we are approaching the dog days of summer, but I'm Canadian, and like any true Canadian, hockey is always on the mind.

I've played hockey all my life, and even though I only get out occasionally to play a game of shiny now and then, I must admit playing in a cool arena on a hot summer day is always a refreshing way to cool down, get some exercise, and spend a little time with the guys.

Relaxing in Leaves

This was a sketch of my son relaxing in the leaves. Although it was not meant to capture his likeness, I still am rather uneasy with the result.

I ponder whether one should always post drawings that are considered their best, or is it therapeutic to post from time to time sketches that don't always meet with ones own approval. I don't necessarily like this attempt, but in the end I think I can take something away from this sketch session.

Happy Canada Day!

It's Canada's 145th birthday today and what is more Canadian than Beer and Beaver? Well maybe there is a lot of things that could be considered more Canadian.

Happy Canada Day!

The King

Last night I watched the Elvis Aloha from Hawaii on You Tube. It  inspired me to do a quick sketch of the King. It's hard to believe that 35 years have gone since his untimely passing.

The Voyageur

If you have ever been to Thunder Bay, you likely know of one of our unique gems - Fort William Historical Park. It is an exact replica of a 19th century fur trading post, which was operated by the now defunct North West Company. The fort is considered a natural living museum located on the banks of the Kaministiquia River, where historical interpreters play out the roles of the people who would have inhabited the fort at the time. One of many prominent characters that would be seen around the fort was the voyageur sometimes distinguishable by the red sash they would wear around their waist. For the most part they were French Canadians who would be hired to man canoes for transporting the companies trading goods and supplies between posts.

I love going to the fort, although I do not go as often as I should. The park offers an abundance of material for drawing, painting, and photography for that matter.

Gunslinger sketch

Nothing original this week

This week was spent studying the styles of illustrators I like. The big man with the little dog is another sketch referenced from Peter De Seve. The second sketch of Red Riding Hood was referenced from Jonny Duddle.