Blog
How to be an artist?
Jerry Saltz's book, "How to be an Artist" has been a great inspiration in Covid times. The first time I encountered the book, it was a recorded version read by the author. Mr. Saltz's voice is one of the best parts of the book as he brings his ideas to life. His...
Using Portrait Linen canvas for the first time!
I decided to try portrait linen after having spent many years using regular cotton with what I thought was a fairly smooth weave. I tried a double-primed Claessens fine linen. It was difficult to stretch, and I think that in the future, I will use unprimed linen and...
The way of graphite – drawing esthetic
In the course of teaching a drawing and art theory class this spring, I have been doing a lot of reading on drawing and philosophy of esthetic (my term) as I would describe the Wabi Sabi concept. I have come across a very interesting book on drawing by John Ruskin,...
Back to basics
Miscreant♪ Miscreant♪ After teaching a course in drawing and art theory this spring, I was eager to return to graphite as a main medium and also wanted to test out some drawing paper recommended by a local art store (Framemasters). While the picture is drawn with...
Time’s Arrow
1939 Maple Leaf This rare Maple Leaf truck was built in Canada in 1939 and symbolizes a focus on Canada’s National identity as Canada entered World War II. This truck was an US brand in all but name. The old garage in the background symbolizes the era of the gas...
Time and change
Time’s Arrow Series 1931 Chevy Truck in the Woods 1931 Chevrolet Truck This work aims to contrast the linear and machined image of the rusting wreck with the organic and lyrical movement of the trees and grasses. The truck is now...
A new direction in my work
Time’s Arrow Series Abandoned and ignored. The dry grasses create a camouflage suited perfectly to the hunting coyote. The machine gazes on harmless and silent, it too becoming landscape, a coral reef on the prairie, offering...
A new direction in my work
Time’s Arrow Series 1936 Dodge Fargo truck This beautiful Dodge Fargo truck (1936) has been cannibalized for parts and sits on the edge of the field, slowly sinking into the weeds. The patina of rust has replaced most of the...
A new direction in my work
International Harvester , 1939. Time’s Arrow Series International Harvester Truck, 1939 This truck, produced at the start of World War II, is from makers of farm equipment and other vehicles. The setting, the Big Muddy badlands of Southern Saskatchewan highlight the...
A new direction in my work
Time’s Arrow Series The McCormack binder. This part of the machine with long metal fingers, engaged in bundling and tying sheaves. Like sewing machines, these binders stitched the sheaves of grain together and replaced a great deal hand work and reduced the...
A new direction in my work
International Harvester Binder in the Grass Time’s Arrow Series The McCormack and the International Harvester Binders once cut and bundled the grain into sheaves as the first part of the harvest process. The parts are cast metal and machined gears still showing their...
A new direction in my work
1936 Dodge Fargo truck Time’s Arrow Series My works are not a sentimental journey into a past way of life on the Canadian prairie, but a visualization of the laws of entropy and our endless march towards change regardless of its value. We can lament the lost...
Small Villages in the Ariege and Aude Valleys
The counryside of the Midi-Pyrenees ranges from mountainous to rolling farmland. In the Middle the hills are uplifted limestone and have steep escarpements on one side and long treed slopes on the other. The varied topography is not easy to traverse. Narrow roads,...
The beauty of the Midi-Pyrenees
The Midi-Pyrenees is a study in greens. The earth colours of the villages provide a muted complement. It is difficult to tame the vibrant greens of the landscape.The bright red-orange poppys also accent the greens.
Painting In Cathar Country – Roman Ruins
This old aqueduct was built by the romans and is still in use today delivering water over the top and providing an internal hidden bridge over the river as well. The ruins have been repaired over time but remain largely intact. They are...
Musee Toulouse-Lautrec at Albi, France
The museum of Toulouse-Lautrec is at Albi, a city near Toulouse and holds a significant collection of his work, including his posters. The collection has several sketches, finished and unfinished works as well as concept pieces that show his...
Exploring the Midi-Pyrenees – Caves
Painting in the Midi-Pyrenees – Caves. The limestone composition of the mountains means that faulting from tectonic shifting and the action of water creates caves of various sizes and types. Many of these caves have been...
Exploring the countryside – Cathar Castle Ruins
Painting in the Midi-Pyrenees – The Cathar Castles. We have been to a number of Cathar Castle sites since the beginning of May. This has included the Montsegur, Puivert, Roquefixade, Foix,and Puilaurens. Montsegur...
Finding Art Supplies in Carcassonne France
Painting in the Midi-Pyrenees – Art supplies. This area has few art supply stores and the choice has been going to Toulouse or to Carcassonne. So far I have explored the art store in Carcassonne, Vaissiere Peintures. I managed to purchase a collapsible, light-weight...
Painting in Southern France – Walking Trails
Painting in the Midi-Pyrenees – The trails. This area around Chalebre and Lavalenet are favoured by cyclists and hikers. The number of trails available for every hiker's taste is enormous. So far we have hiked a few that have offered unique...
The Landscape of the Midi-Pyrenees
Painting in the Midi-Pyrenees – The landscape. The area I have explored so far, mainly from Foix in the west to Carcassonne in the East and down to Quillan and beyond in the south east. The landscape moves from rolling hills with small villages and...
Painting Landscapes in Southern France
Panting Landscapes in Southern France, the Midi-Pyrenees to be exact is a study in greens. The spring colours are still on the hills and fields. The mountains are always present, layering into a blue haze in the distance. I have not been...
La Garde du Jardin – Painting in Southern France
This painting is the first since arriving in the Midi -Pyrenees. The goose, actually gander, in question has been making sure that we understand his territory and do not encroach. The guard capacity of geese is legendary and something I have...
Wild Flowers of the Midi-Pyrenees, 2018
Spring in the South of France is full of wild flowers in the foothills of the Pyrenees. I would be happy to learn the names of the various flowers and have so far only identified the spotted orchid.
Painting in the Midi Pyrenees
The countryside is lush and beautiful. In the part of the midi-Pyrenees I am in, the landscapes range from pastoral to forested to dramatic escarpment where the remains of castles are located. It is early May, so a bit cool and rainy. No plein air painting for now. It...
Acrylic Painting – Watercolour effects without the headache
My experiment with learning Acrylic Paint technique continues. I love the watercolour look that can be obtained without the problem of colour lifting. The glaze wash allows mixing colours and increasing intensities of colour that I have never...
The Experiment Continues -Glazing with Acrylic Paint
The next acrylic painting was easier. The real difficulty I am finding is with mixing the colour I want. This used to be much easier in oils. Regardless, I am starting to like acrylic and like the effects you get with glazing transparent colours.
Re-Acquainting with Acrylic Paint
Acrylic Paints were something I tried many years ago and did not prefer over oils, but oils are not packable items for air travel. I decided to move to acrylic paint. They have taken some getting used to. This is my first attempt with acrylics - I...
Paint smart ideas- painting with acrylics
As a newbie in the Acrylic Paint department, I have been struggling with the quick dry feature of acrylic paint. I think I have a great solution - "sandwich bags". It is easy to mix too much paint when you are glazing colours. You mix your colour and then...
Packing Acrylic Paints When Traveling Abroad
Packing art supplies for a trip overseas has always been a matter of trial and error. In the past, I took a small travel watercolour kit and a hardcover sketchbook. Other packable items included erasers, pencils (mechanical with extra leads), sharpeners, limited brush...
Painting in Cathar Country
This summer, I will be living and painting in Cathar Country. Right now, I am trying to figure out how and what to pack for both plein air and studio painting. I have decided to work with Acrylics rather than water colour or pencil crayon. They have such versatility...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – 5
One of the things that has been painful to learn was that the comic font that is standard with windows and Photoshop is not, I repeat, “not” a comic font. This is because of the way the capital “I” presents as a capital “I” whether in the middle of a word or at...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – redux, Part 11
Using Sculpey for Character Development. For another animal character, I used sculpey for part of the modelling process. As this character was a rabbit and had long ears, clay did not work well for modelling that part of the head. The scupley, on the other hand was...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – redux, Part 10
Using clay to model characters can be very useful for a number of reasons. I have been working on an animal character in my new book and wanted to have a more expressive face to show emotion on a more human level. As one of the characters is a cat, the eyes are...
Shawne Arzab
Of all the artists I know well, this artist is both talented and funny. She is also self-effacing and does not appreciate the truly stunning nature of her work. At least, she doen't let on. While she works in papier-mâché for her sculpture work, her...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – redux, Part 9
As I am at the polishing stage of my manuscript, I have started the process of engaging a model to play the role of one of the main characters in my second graphic novel. In this case, a pre-adolescent child. I have been very fortunate to find a 12 year old who is...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – redux, Part 8
I some ways I feel very lucky to be both writer and artist on my graphic novel projects. When writing I see the scenes in my mind and the movement of the characters in my mental visualization of the environment they occupy. I make notes along with the dialogue of the...
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 8
I made a few charts with Irojiten pencil crayons to see how they would perform in transparency and coverage. I used Arches rag paper this time, a hot press with a modest amount of tooth. I was very mad at this paper last summer as I started a large...
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 7
I decided to experiment with using only Irojiten pencil crayons as I said in my last blog. I was, at the same time, experimenting with some other papers and chose the Canson white 123 lb. acid-free paper. The paper is a bit of a blue-white and has little...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – redux, Part 7
Where to ideas come from? I don’t know about you but I get my ideas for writing from visual images that make an impression on me or images that come to mind seemingly for no reason. For my first graphic novel, I had an image of a man in a desert with...
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 6
6. More on the Irojiten pencil crayon This crayon is great. It sharpens well and so far, no breakage. The blending results with the various crayons have different and some very welcome effects. I was surprised that some colours, when laid in, were more resistant to an...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – 6
Welcome to the world of self-publishing. Before moving on to my next novel, which is by the way, in first written draft and soon to be storyboarded (happy days - I can draw compulsively again), I wish to speak a little to my quest for...
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 5
In my last blog I said I would speak more about this type of pencil crayon once I had a chance to try them out. I purchased two of the colour dictionaries: Volumes 1-3 and Volumes 4-5. I plan on getting the last three volumes soon. I have found these...
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 4
No, you don’t just use a black pencil crayon. Oh wait! Actually you do, but not alone. Bear with me. Black is a very flat colour and if you use a plain black crayon or as one artist proposed in a book (using India ink), you will get stunningly limp, flat...
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 3
Because pencil crayons come in a range of colours and you can have several blues or greens for example, you may want to have a good way to zero in on the best colour match. Looking at the pencil crayon lead or the paint on the wooden shell will not help....
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 2
Not all pencil crayons are created equal. Sometimes the very colour you love the most comes in a substandard crayon that will not stand the test of time. As the Romans stated so eloguently, Vita Brevis, Ars Longa !! (that is, life is short but Art lasts)....
The Art of Pencil Crayon Painting 1
Pencil crayons are a wonderful medium for making art. With quality crayons, lightfast pigments, acid free paper and archival framing, your art works will stand the test of time. It is a medium that invites experimentation. If you engage in testing the...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – 4
Part 4 The art of brushwork for those living Graphic Novelly. Computer graphic programs have added convenience by automating some steps in drawing and colouring that allow the artist to get on with the story. Some tricks that give you backgrounds, floors...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – 3
Part 3 Using Sketchbook Pro and Adobe Photoshop CS6. There is so much to learn about using these programs at a professional level, but it is easy to get started with the basics and add on skills as you go. When I am doing my graphic novel work, I start...
Two years of living Graphic Novelly – 2
Part 2 Using live models and getting your drawing chops up to speed. I wish I could pretend that I knew a lot of this stuff all along, but alas, (reference steep learning curve mentioned earlier). I ended up quite early on deciding to use live models for...