Bigfoot

A wee portrait of Bigfoot - 8x10 acrylic - This is an updated version of a painting I posted last year.

I have been touching it up a bit and don't mind him as he is now but I think I might want to rework that hair just a little. He's looking just a little too Rod Stewart at the moment. What he needs are some stray leaves and other forest litter tangled in his mop to really give him that "living in the woods" look.

The Best Art Blog - Hans Bacher

Hans Bacher's blog may not be the "best" art blog out there but I'll bet it's close. Hans Bacher is an animation designer who has been working at the Disney Studio and other animation houses all over the world for the last 30 years or so.
If you are a fan of animation, book illustration, painting, drawing, design etc.... - this blog is a must.
He has loaded his blog with a ton of amazing and inspiring art, not to mention art criticism and analysis. Hans also has plenty of drawing tips and advice for improving your art, whatever field you may be interested in.
Here's a link to his blog     http://one1more2time3.wordpress.com/
Get over there and have a look . You won't be sorry.
The image above goes with a series of posts about trees in art and animation - how to paint them and why people paint them the way they do.

Arctic Characters

Two character illustrations from the Arctic Myths project I'm still working on. The colour work is all finished and now the ink drawings remain.
Here we have The Gravel Bank Ogress and the Big Bee Ogress. Big Bee is sporting a giant ulu which is an all purpose knife the Inuit use for skinning and scraping. We decided to make The Gravel Bank Ogress tall and spindly in order to give her a different look so that she stands out from the others. Also, I've illustrated her before and we wanted this one to be different. Quite often the same characters will turn up in different stories and from different regions and they should each look unique.

Dandelion 3

This is also an 8 x 10 acrylic study but this one is on a fresh canvas board rather than the old Masonite panels used on the other ones. I also wanted to change the palette a little on this one in order to keep it fresh. I decided to keep the subject matter simple and similar on these because my intention was to work the paint and not get hung up on the content of the pictures. I also thought it might be fun to create a little series.

Dandelion 2

Another small acrylic study. These were done fairly quickly - 3 or 4 hours tops. I'm planning some larger paintings for later on this summer and so this one and the others are just warm ups. This one is also 8 x 10 on Masonite panel.

Dandelion

Over this past weekend I had a chance to do a couple of small studies. These are 8 x 10 acrylic on Masonite panel. The panels are well used and have been painted on and gessoed over several times, giving them a lot of texture to paint on.

Sketchbook

Some recent sketchbook activity. Although these were not specifically done with my new faerie tale project in mind, they are certainly in the proper spirit.

Story Board - Faerie Tale

I'm now starting work on the Faerie Tale book that is going to be keeping me busy for the next 6 to 8 months. The first step in illustrating a book is to do a story board. This essentially means illustrating the whole story in thumbnail form. These drawings are 3 x 4 inches. This gives you a feel for the entire story and allows you to make critical decisions about the story telling while the art is still small and changes are easy to make. Above I have posted a few composition ideas and a couple of variations. There will be 21 or more paintings for this story as well as a few spot illustrations and they all need to be figured out, refined and then drawn out full scale and painted.  I will be charting my process through this journey here on the blog. This is the first step.

A month or 2 back I posted some witch and brownie designs that I did while the story was still coming together. I was inspired and wanted to jump in and get drawing. The witches and brownies have since been edited out of the tale but they were fun to draw and their sacrifice has strengthened the story. There's so much more to do - lots more drawing required  :)

The Cannibal Ogress

Here's another of the Trolls for the Arctic Myths Project I was recently working on and will be getting back to in a few weeks. She's big and mean. She eats people, smells bad and never cleans up. Watercolour on paper with a bit of gouache on the hammer head.

The Child Stealing Ogress

This is the first of eight Arctic Trolls I will be rendering in colour for the Arctic Myths project I'm currently working on. She is a nasty child stealer whom we have decided should have longs arms and short legs in an effort to make her appearance unique and also give her a cool silhouette. She has the usual Inuit tattoos on her arms and face and wears tokens of power around her neck. The problem I am going to have here is to make each of these eight characters different. One of the best ways I can think of is to start with the body shape as we've done here.

Life Drawing

Yesterday we went to a vendors fair just down the road in a nearby town for the day. We sold a couple of books and a few prints and generally had a good day out. For me it was a great opportunity to do some life drawing. I had my sketchbook with me and couldn't help noticing all the terrific poses the people around me were hitting while the were browsing.  We have recently returned to traditional life drawing - in a studio with a model - and I was very eager to maintain the drawing momentum with these would be models. Many of the drawings are of women and the simple reason for that is that many of the patrons at this show were women. This is of course fine with me because I find women much more fun and interesting to draw ;) You may have also noticed that many of the poses are seen from the back or side. This is because I like to remain discreet while drawing in public. It's just easier that way - no explanations or apologies.

Garden Pixie

 

I was able to find the time to paint the wee sketch I posted last week. That little doodle was very small and simple and there wasn't really a lot there to paint but I managed to fill in some details and add some grass and twigs and leaves - my usual solution to finishing a piece like this. The paper I used this time was 300 pound hot press which I have not used before, mainly because 140 pound hot press, my usual paper, is cheaper. But let me tell you, the 300 pound paper is a dream to work on.
Expensive yes, but it can take anything you can throw at it. No stretching or taping to a board. It will now be my paper of choice when the situation allows.

The End Of An Era

A lot is being said right now about the passing of Frank Frazetta, and rightly so.  My favourite piece so far is to be found here, by David Apatoff on his blog -  http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/

Arctic Myths - The Child Stealing Ogress

Some more development work for the Arctic Myths project I am currently on. Here we have the Child Stealing Ogress with her distinctive Inuit facial tattoos, crooked teeth and wild hair. The Inuit seem to have many stories of Nasty Critters wandering in from the Tundra to steal children and commit atrocities. I can imagine that living in the extreme climate and terrain of the frozen north would impel you to tell your kids just about anything to keep them close at hand. Getting lost up there is pretty much certain death.

Arctic Myths - Grizzly Bear Ogres

The Arctic Myths project that I have been waiting for, is starting. It looks like we will be dealing with Ogres in Arctic Myth. The first ones are Grizzly Bear Ogres which are actually Bear spirits in human form. They are grave robbers and corpse eaters - very nasty. I am continuously amazed at the density of the Inuit legends and stories. There are new beings, deities and creatures emerging all the time.
Neil Christopher, the project leader has interviewed many elders all over the Arctic in order to obtain these stories and it looks as though there are still many new ones to get.