Remote Posting!

*UPDATE* February 25, 2009
I have updated this post with a better quality image!
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Hey there, people! Right now I'm posting from a remote location because my computer has sadly stopped working. However, I am waiting on a new Macbook Pro which I'm very excited about! But for now I don't have photoshop or the use of my own scanner.

So anyhow, this guy is not quite done because lack of scanner means I can't double-check my work in photoshop. Sometimes I find it useful to switch my picture into greyscale to check the values. This guy is a work in progress. His map is going to be all drawn in to be Paris and I was thinking that I should add some flowers to his shirt. Maybe some freckles?

Rocker Chic

By chance I found this amazing kid and snapped a photo of him. His legs are fantastic! He looks like a baby horse! The skinny leg and bunched-up fabric near the ankle scream "cartoon", so I thought I'd take a shot at it.



This is a rockstar/delinquent girl that I like to draw sometimes. She's bringin' back the 80's with a padded suit jacket that is way too big! And I kept the sticker on her hat because I've noticed that guys are doing that a lot these days... I don't get it, but I find it pretty funny!

Blackout Bonus!

So! For those who don't keep up-to-date with Toronto news, there is this big blackout going on. I am unaffected by it, but I figured it was a good enough reason to justify putting up some more stuff on a day that isn't Thursday! (In case you haven't noticed by now, I update every Thursday.)

On the subject of candid photos, I just finished the coloured version of my NYE partygurl, but first I thought I'd share the reference image I captured! Here it is in all its glory!



Check out all those great round shapes in there! So yeah, I saw this and knew I HAD to make it a cartoon. Here we have the finished picture:



So like, I didn't quite stick to how the girl looked exactly, but that's kind of the whole point. Too often people lock themselves in to the reference, and in turn they end up sacrificing the design! I think this one worked out pretty good, but you be the judge!

In case you were wondering, it was done on marker paper with Copic markers, those Staedtler pigment liner thingies and some Prismacolor pencil crayons.

Squish = Love

Dear Reader, I present to you my favorite photo of 2008.



John McCain is a REAL LIFE CARTOON! It's fantastic!!!

One of my favorite things to draw from are candid photos. On New Years I was taking some pictures of the crowd and came home with some awesome reference. The best stuff comes from drunken strangers who have no idea that they are in your photo. They make the nastiest/best ever faces! It's amazing!

This woman is one of them.



I did this up in my sketchbook and I plan to make it into a coloured drawing, probably in a mix of marker and pencil. I'm thinking the dress should be shiny and purple... I'll post that one for sure!



And then there is the subject of men and women's bodies. Skinny is only fun when the person is also lanky and awkward-looking. Models are generally boring for me. I do however like their poses. What I REALLY like is to take a strange-looking character and place them in one of those outrageous model poses like you find in Fashion Magazine. Model photos are nice and all, but SQUISH is KEY!!!

I ♥ Squish

AGO Funtimes

You know what's really great? Having an AGO membership!



Recently I went again with my sketchbook and pencil (you're not allowed to bring ink FYI!) and spent most of my time on the first floor. Especially in the Thomson Gallery. See, Ken Thomson was this crazy guy with a lot of money. SO much money that he could buy things like "Massacre of the Innocents" by Peter Paul Rubens and... LOTS of little Shakespeare busts! I find this gallery very fun. You've got to check out the skeleton room!

Anyhow, so I really like Rubens and they've got some anatomical sketches and stuff. So I drew some hands. Overhearing people's conversations about this stuff was really weird. 90% of people who looked at the drawings said "Oooh, look honey! It's the Da Vinci sketches!"... sorry people, Da Vinci was not the only guy who drew on... uhhh, paper!!?? Then this grey-haired couple came up to me and said "Ooh look, a student hard at work", which is where I said "I'm a student for life!" and he said "A student's delight! Oh, how nice!" then walked away... and I was like that's not what I said!!! The point I was trying to make is I'm not a student anymore, but I'm still... ahh, forget it!!!



You should check out the AGO, really! The new Gehry renovations are AMAZING! Especially the Galleria Italia. And if you have a chance, check out the drawing room. It's kind of hidden, but it's open to the public on wednesdays and fridays between 1-4pm I think. It's super!!!

Inaugural Posting!!!

Hi, everyone!

So, as a Christmas present for my boyfriend, I made up this illustration of this girl with a huge sword leaping through the air. As I was going I thought it would be interesting to scan each step to remember what it looked like at different stages.

I started off by making a list of things he was interested in. When I make someone a present I usually start this way to help generate ideas. Next, I did a bunch of poses to see what looked most interesting. I knew I wanted some kind of dramatic cape/material action going on...





I really like Heinrich Kley and Norman Rockwell, so I was looking at some of their stuff as I was coming up with the drawing. Disney's Mulan was also an influence too. And Street Fighter... you know that girl with the blue outfit and the large... ahem!

So I did the first version on a full page of my sketchbook. This is where I started to figure out which parts I was going to exaggerate, and what I wanted to leave more simple.




Then it was time to move on to illustration board with pencil. The important part here was to make sure I left no guesswork for myself when it came time to ink.




Ink: The world of no return! Actually, that's a lie because technically if you screw up bad you can just go over it in white ink, but still... you WILL feel like a failure!




Then I did my tonal! I did the lightest and darkest washes first to have tones to relate to, then did everything in between. At the end I decided that the background was a little bare, so that's when I put in the swirly cloud things. It reinforces the asian-ness and makes it really clear that she's jumping through the air.

And... that's how I did it!