Thursday, December 11, 2008

Get Your Box On...!




This was done as an illustration on card stock for someone who is both a) a boxer and b) a fan of Thomas Hobbes. I call it "Boxing Leviathan."

Thursday, August 14, 2008

In the Park...





A couple of days ago I spent a few hours in the local park observing the kids, the waiting parents, and nature... These are some sketches from that day. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Standing into the Future...


Here is an image from a while ago that I made in response to one of my favourite Leonard Cohen albums, Ten New Songs. I remember wanting to reflect the experience of being timeless and saturated in imagery that I regularly feel when I listen to Leonard's songs (without of course outright copying his images). I love this picture - but it was when I showed it to my good friend (and great writer) Paul Harvey that it took on an even greater symbolic and perhaps even spiritual significance for me. Paul's prose poem, I feel, takes this simple drawing of a man holding a rose and a book to another level and makes it come alive in a new and amazing way. Over the years, we've contemplated making a book of drawings and writings just like this but have not found the time to do it yet... for now, therefore, the posting of this image with its corresponding writeup serves as its first instance of publishing. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll get around to publishing that book after all :)

Only a corpse, only a statue, could maintain this pose
for more than a moment without falling. He leans
forever away from the rose, his book caught gently in
his hand like a naked phallus. The pages will not wilt
like human limbs as time passes, but his eyes are
closed to this subtle comfort. Like a blind man, he
reads his shoulder blade with his left cheek, seeking
some braille reminder that he is flesh.

But he has not died. His flesh, one feels, would be as
effective under the sheets as a nineteen year old, and
the flesh is better drawn. God has never drawn so
precisely as this artist, for flesh is a less precise
instrument than the pen. In the drawing, muscles are
precipices, creases in the skin are canyons in the
page. It is perilous to peer over the edge of the
page, for fear of plummeting.

The thorn against his buttock does not scratch him.
Only mortal flesh is prone to wounds. Can he
understand the rose if he is immune to tearing?
Ignorant of the rose's threat, he is a danger to any
whom he might thrust the rose. His lover may be prone
to the rose's sting.

No one will take the rose from his hand, or relieve
him of his blank book. This is the irony of his
immortality. His loneliness is as everlasting as his
flesh. The artist has been more cruel than a rose's
thorn. This man will remain naked and alone forever,
waiting to fall, waiting to feel.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Long Weekend...


It's the long weekend...and here I am up to my neck in mundane stuff, deadlines for some not-so-interesting work, and other not-so-fun tasks, when by all accounts I should be out in the woods or something, in a canoe, enjoying the last month of our Canadian summer... ah well, some long weekends are better than others. Hope yours is more exciting than mine!! :)

Monday, July 28, 2008

From the Archives...



I've been away the past few days (moving apartments here in MTL) and haven't had a chance to draw anything new, so I thought it might be fun to post two sketches from the archives so to speak... that is, from the huge store of drawings/sketches on my computer (13 gigs and counting). Sometimes I scan drawings like these in because I have them in mind for "finished" illustrations; other times I just scan them in cos I like them and want to "immortalize" them by putting them on my computer. This is in itself an interesting impulse: why should we feel that somehow an artwork is MORE enduring because it can be reproduced digitally, especially since the process of scanning something into a computer of course renders a real object less real. But that's exactly what makes that object more flexible and therefore capable of - theoretically at least (barring a system crash) - being reproduced forever... Personally, I've never been big on carrying around a portfolio full of precious one-offs. But I digress... (sorry; this is bound to happen in this blog! You get something for everyone - those that like to read and those that like to look :) Speaking of looking: These 2 sketches are very different in tone and feel (also different media used: brush vs. ball point pen) but I equally like looking at them for different reasons. Hope you do too!

Thursday, July 24, 2008


I like this one because a) it's a rare instance when I use scratch-like dots and dashes around the figure... which I think works in this case to accentuate the crustiness of this ol' man, and b) the word balloon is literally crowding into his face. I like that too - works with the awkward physicality of this old man... who is kinda frail yet also tough, like a dry old tree trunk rising out of the black mess of ink that is the ground...





Hi - welcome to my blog! One of the main functions of this blog is to showcase my new sketches. I will post new sketches and drawings as often as I can, so please check back often...

Lately, I've been reading the excellent book Masters of American Comics (Yale University Press, 2005). It's the catalogue to an exhibit of the same name put on by the Hammer Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2005... I remember reading about the exhibit in a magazine a few years ago, but somehow never got around to looking through the book itself (I live too far to see the actual exhibit!). It's a great blend of art and essays about art - John Carlin's comprehensive "Art History of Twentieth-Century American Comic Strips and Books" is particularly impressive. Anyway, I've been newly inspired by this dip into Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman and others to sketch a few comic-y stuff myself... enjoy!