Recent Things

This post has many things!!


Bored to Death is back, I'm glad. I was doubled over during the pay phone sequence.

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I couldn't let the little boy on the bus go! I scribbled him an imaginary friend too.

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The ruffled-looking bird is imaginary, the ibis I drew at the Aquarium.

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If you absolutely have to make a bird movie, by all means, make it about owls and not penguins.
Yes, owls are pretty cool.
Are they cool enough to wield medieval weapons in battle? Yes.
Are they cool enough to withstand Zack Snyder's overuse of slo-mo (which is a parody of itself at this point and actually also much earlier)? Yes.
Are they cool enough to be subjected to both at the same time?
NO THEY FRIKKING ARE NOT.

Check out the owl movie if you want a hearty chuckle.

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Mostly done in comics club meet. The knight's not a character of mine, just another fandoodle (for "7 Soldiers of Victory" that I've mentioned somewhere along the way)

shy

soundbite

Finally something that isn't lifedrawing ;)



(This conclusion of a long, one-sided Q&A session between a little boy and his grandma that I happened to overhear was permanently inscribed on my mind -- to say nothing of the boy's forlorn face.)

Blim's all right

HIIII! It's your favourite lifedrawing nerd again! Today I tried Blim lifedrawing for the first time. It's a bit out of the way from North Van so I don't intend to make it a regular thing, but I've been curious about it ever since hearing about it, so I had to give it a go. It's like telling a gourmand about a crazy new restaurant.


Doesn't seem half bad for Downtowners who don't feel like making the trip to the (easily best value for money) Cap lifedrawing club. Especially if all Blim models are as experienced as the one tonight. He knew what he was doing, all angles and rotation.
Unfortunately I'm not doing justice to him here, because I was far from my usual form. I had a long day on the town beforehand, so this time I could only handle traveling with a smallish sketchbook: I felt sort of fenced in when lifedrawing in it, and could not let loose.

One woman's pros are another woman's cons, so rather consider the following a list of things to be aware of if you're thinking of going to Blim.

• $ 8-10 for a session of TWO (2) hours (I still find that easier to stomach than Basic Inquiry's fees!)
• You'll be drawing at tables
• Blim is a store, so there may be customers running in and out; the drawing space is at the back of the store though, and I found the foot traffic surprisingly easy to shut out even without my headphones
• The poses were 10-20 minutes, but the model was extremely open to suggestions from the "audience" so gesture sessions probably wouldn't be out of the question (though I felt too much the "new kid" to pipe up this time).
• Blim offers lifedrawing approximately once a week. Better check out their schedule at the start of every month!
• The only thing that bugged me was the lighting. (I had to use completely imaginary light sources in most of my drawings -- not my forte!) It was just regular store lighting, could have used some clear spotlights (or is it stagelights...? Anyway, you know what I mean). Again, I was a little too shy to mention it to them this time. Besides, Blim was a positive surprise overall, so I didn't mind too much.
  

Were you ever sponsored?

By the way, I was incredibly happy with SPARK, as expected! Saturday in particular. I'm grateful to all the presenters for sweet inspiration.
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I just want to make an inquiry, in case any other international students have figured out how to work this situation.
The facts: I have a work permit, a diploma, and I work full time and pay taxes in Canada (though said job is mostly unrelated to my education). But I am not a permanent resident.
That it might actually be more expensive for creative employers to hire me due to my lack of permanent residency is something I didn't realise until recently, because in my current retail job the brass doesn't have any extra expenses from employing me.

So I set about trying to obtain a permanent residency as soon as I can. There is one studio (that I know of - might be more?) that would actually be willing to sponsor its international workers for a BC "Provincial Nominee Program": basically you'd get a speedy treatment by promising to work in BC.
I was wondering -- if it so happens that you are an "international" who's had experience about this Nominee thing or sponsoring in general, I would really appreciate it if you let me know how you like(d) it. I'd appreciate even a brief answer! Thanks and good luck to you all :D

Spaaaaarrrrrk again & "Well-meaning maniacs"

...So, back in August I did cave in and buy an advance pass to SPARK 2010, but then they suddenly had to toss their whole schedule (no worries, they refunded me). The final schedule was confirmed barely a week ago, and this year, for once, I had the money and the time to register for every bit of it that I want! And you, hurry up and get your tickets. They have good stuff again, so SEE YOU AT SPAAAAARRKK absolutefully!!!

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*sigh* What, fanart again... Whatever.


A fandoodle for Terry Moore's excellent comic Echo. These three scenes are from the most recent trade paperback, "Collider".

Echo is Moore's flirtation with the superhero genre, but in an incredibly... MOORE manner. I can't even begin to describe right now what it's all about -- or I'll run at the mouth about it until people start chucking things at me. But I would recommend it. Rest assured it has all the grounded relationships, subtle humour and inspired draftsmanship of Moore's other works, peppered with a whole bunch of gripping action scenes and even gore.
I follow the comic only in paperbacks, NOT single issues, so please please no spoilers I BEG YOU!!

For some reason I felt these scenes made an interesting trio/summary/"poster" for the latest trade. I didn't redraw panels but posed it from scratch instead, recreating the scenes from memory.
The sketchiness is pretty much intentional, however I will probably make the first two scenes larger at some point because the linework becomes so "cross-hatchy" in an interwebs-optimised image.

Feedback welcome. Colours make you sick? Needs more contrast? Hard to read? Let me know. (Except about Dillon not looking like Dillon, that's something I've tried to fix and it still eludes me. He looks like the lovechild of Johnny Bravo and Tommy Monaghan here. Sure, I call it an improvement, but it's not exactly what I set out to do!)