Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Holidays, and tonight is all good

This will be FFWD tommorrow as part of the 'contents series'- a twelve week run of illustrations from various artists that I was asked to participate in in November. It was great, because I had total freedom to do whatever I wanted. This is what I ended up doing.

I will be going on my first holiday in over a year: to Tofino, to surf in the icy waters of the North Pacific with all my friends and drink beers. So don't expect to see or hear anything coherent out of me until the 4th or 5th day of 2010. Happy Christmasdays evvabody!

The Grapes of Seduction


These were some last minute Spots, appearing in FFWD, to accompany an article about which wines are most suitable for the purposes of seduction. Champagne and Chardonnay, apparently.

Shopping for a Fantasy


Here's the Mock up, and final, for a full page comic to be appearing in christmas issue of FFWD, on stands tommorrow. I was given a reader submitted story and told to turn it into a comic. The finished results are a bit risque, to say the least. Enjoy.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Stimulus Package







Here's the album art for Raymond May's new album, Stimulus Package.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Mixed Bag

Here's a bunch of different warm up drawings, and a doodle. I generally set out with the intent on doing something loose and easy often in an unfamiliar style, or with unfamiliar tools, just to get in the rhythm, before going on to whatever it is I'm supposed to be working on. I didn't spend more than an hour on any of these, the intent is to screw it up somehow, and usually I do, but these ones are all interesting in some way or another, I think. All of them accumulated over the past couple weeks.





Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Comic book test page

I need a quick and dirty way to get through a comic book. Messing around last night, I drew a few practice pages, trying out different things. There'll be some more messing around before I'm good to go.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Figurative drawing



I've been hiting up figurative drawing drop in sessions at the Harcourt House sporadically over the past six or seven months. Here's some from this afternoon's session. The model was excellent, my drawing was working. Here they are.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

It's Postcard Time.


Here's the front and back of my postcard, I just got back from the printers, where I had a hundred of these babies printed up. Next week you'll be able to find me lurking in the magazine racks of Hub, Milner, and Crapters, with a notebook, taking names. Then I will disseminate.

Also, My friend Frederick Kroetsch did a nice little piece on Steven Teeuwson, the creator and publisher of the fantastic little art Rag 'Notebook Magazine', in which I make an appearance. Check that out here. I think it's the canned music that really makes the piece shine: particularly the 'I survived breast cancer' music that beds in during the cover montage.

And Tonight Notebook Magazine will be holding a fundraising Gala tonight at the Arts Barns, so if you're not at Wyrdfest, go down there and bid on my painting. Or any of the work from over 75 local artists who have donated work on behalf of Notebook's noble cause. I'll be pooping back and forth between the two events.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Stuntman


The Rough for this was rejected a while back, but I still liked it. It got buried in a stack of paper, and the other day I found it and thought: why not try doing it up. So here we have it.
On a metaphorical level, though, I've been stuck in this spot for most of the fall. My toes are hanging over the edge, everybody's watching, and those wings are looking pretty pov. What did I get myself into?

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Study group

I was drawin' stuff at the library the other day. Among them this group of Asian girls studying.

Bastard Of Burden

Monday, November 2, 2009

Nihonwars1



A whole lotta different kinds of drawing going on at my end of business. This is an experiment.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Bring Your Rubber Pants


A Halloween themed piece for Drew Anderson and FFWD, in Calgary, out this week.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Notebook silent auction

Hey, Sorry for the big gap in posts. I've went all luddite there for a few weeks. This Piece, called 'Tanner stage IV', 1'x3', mixed media on plywood, will be up for auction on Nov 14, as part of a fundraiser for Notebook Magazine. Check out the details on Facebook. It sounds like a hoot, there'll be tons of work for sale, from many of the greatest artists ever to grace the pages of Notebook. If you got an extra ten or twenty grand kicking around, bring it along and bid on some work.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

53




53

Schnozz Dossier



Schnozz dossier

“Faster than a bolt of Lighting” is how Schnozz was referred to by witnesses who saw the little guy sprint up and down the henhouse all day long. “It’s amazing how fast that little dog can run!” said Jamal, 12, who couldn’t believe his eyes when Schnozz retrieved a tennis ball forty yards away and returned in under seven seconds.

 Local council members, unnerved by the dogs high rate of speed, have voted unanimously to pass a bylaw preventing animals from running so fast. “No animal should be travelling at such a velocity.” Said Councilman Gregory Hirscheim. Other council members noted the nearby presence of an elderly care facility, which could be damaged in the case of Schnozz or any other animal taking a wrong turn and colliding with the facility.

Schnazzes owner, Roger Flomb, disagrees with the resolution, and argues that there  is little chance of such a collision ever taking place, though he has no factual evidence to back up his claims.

 


Superexcressence



Superexcressence


Friday, September 11, 2009

Swaziland

Swaziland

Swazilands Nocturnal gardens run the long stretch through the wastes of Mardmar,  from Huksa to al Mamar. There one can indulge in a rich tapestry of frozen delicious treats, manufactured by the locals Roomba tribe using secret recipies, kept alive since the last ice age, when sugar beetles were still common in the limestone carverns that feed the river Mudgema.  Do not tempt the locals with offerings of cola or they will become unhealthily aroused, and it can get dangerous.

Pembina



Pembina

If you feel as though your child is not experiencing the same quality of life standards as you did when you were young, you are not alone. Children’s playrooms are not so childlike anymore. Edible toys are made with  fluoride based tap water, and this has affected the nutritional value signifigantly. and is the proven source of increased irritability among children aged 2- 9. To blame are lax labour standards in Taiwan, where most edible toys are produced, as well as increased occurrences of bovine spongiform encephalitis amongst animals used in the rendering process of manufacturing. Call your representative now and let them know that your child deserves better. 

Schnargarden


Schnargarden

The Cracker Jack company has finally formally announced it’s much belated rebranding as a global distributer in corn ethanol based fertilizer and environmentally friendly herbicides and pesticides.  In 1999 Merle Lancaster, then CEO, made the brash decision to purchase 520,000 hectares of arable land in central Swaziland.  After several years of bitter land disputes that were eventually settled with the assistance of Mossad, The Cracker Jack company had soon tripled Swazilands GDP,  and within the jurisdiction of  Huhka unemployment had dropped to an astonishing -11%. Surprisingly, All Swazi employees are happily paid in Cracker Jacks, which is functional as a legal tender as far west as the Congo, and even in certain regions of Chad, where Cracker Jacks can be traded for cigarettes, irish spring, orange soda, and light artillery. 

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Blurble


Blurble

Gearing up to world war II, the Japanese emperor had hired a Canadian private and jazz music aficionado to train the royal Kyoto marching bands.  After pearl harbour, Private Alan Greenspan (coincidence) was never heard from until sent aboard the American Frigate Glorinado with instructions to assassinate everybody on board. Private Greenspan was armed only with his oboe and possessed by the firm belief that he could kill by playing the correct combination of chords. Suffice to say. 

Monday, August 31, 2009

Leaper

Notebook #10 is out!



Notebook #10 

That's right, it's out, and my work is both on the front and back cover, and inside, amongst Edmonton's finest visual art, poetry and short stories.  Show Steven Teeuwsen and the local art community some support by picking up a copy at any of Edmonton's finer magazine vendors.
Here's a link to the Notebook site, but there isn't much there to ogle at. You gotta pick up a copy for that.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Doodling

I was just letting my pencil wander. This is what came out.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Vue cover!

Here's my Vue cover. It's for a story by Fawnda Mithrush, featured in this weeks Vue, their annual Fringe issue.

So far everything has been working out, note for note, according to my evil master plan. It's always been in the back of my mind. If I can get the cover of Vue Weekly, then it's official: my career as an illustrator has begun. Special thanks to Pete, Vue's art director, for giving me the opportunity, and for doing a beautiful job on the headers. He made it look way better than I thought it could.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

I Accidentally the whole Cover!

The Media gatekeepers over at FFWD were brazen enough to hire a yahoo such as myself to do the illustration for the cover, and the cover story. Titled "Mass Exodus", it was written by Julia Bevin and Anthea Black, the article discusses what is needed to build the Calgary Arts community, and the revolving door of artists who leave and return to Calgary once or more throughout their careers. Straight off the bat, I only had a rough description of the subject. I was asked to emphasize the themes of building, community, and people leaving. So I got to work Sketching, and sent them this:


You know, making it, I was thinking: Fuck yeah, they're building a giant red cow, but that guy is stealing bricks as he exodizes off to some other city. This is going to be the most awesome illustration ever! But no, the idea was rejected. The cow was too cheesy, the image was too busy, and it didn't quite fit with the story. In hindsight, they were right, and I was wrong. So I sent them a bunch more sketches, and they ultimatelysettled on this one:
So I cleaned it up a bit, and gave them the Rough draft:
They seemed happy with it, so I got busy with the Ball point pen, on a sheet of 11x17 bond paper, and whipped out this:
All coloured up, it came out like this. Fiddling with the colours ends up taking alot longer than you think it should.

I erased some of the bushes, lassooed the cloud and slid it over, and got this:
This is what it looks like, all said nd done, on newstands throughout Calgary:
And as an added bonus I threw in a drawing for the inside (beats me as to whether they ran it or not, I can't find it at the FFWD website):