All this and Heaven too...

2010-04-09T17:26:00.006-04:00

This past Thursday was the day all of the Gr 10 students in the province took the Literacy test.

It is a test that all high school students must pass before they can graduate high school. My school's "numbers"- the pass rate- have been getting better but they are still below the Board and provincial average.

Here are a couple of drawings that I did while I was supervising the test.

Some students get really stressed about the whole thing but this young man seems to be pretty comfortable with the situation. I guess he figures that he'll do it next year instead.

This is a time lapse drawing of a girl with restless legs. The rest of her sayed pretty still but her legs were unable to find a place to be comfortable.

2010-04-04T19:07:00.001-04:00

I spent most of the day today at the ROM drawing. Here are a couple of the better ones.

2010-04-03T19:58:00.002-04:00

I bought a used Wacom drawing tablet and a copy of Corel Painter X on eBay and have started playing with them. It will take a while to get used to both the tablet and the tools in Painter. I am doing this completely intuitively- no manuals- and feeling my way through.

2010-03-21T11:05:00.007-04:00

I took the boys out to dinner last night as an end of March Break treat. We went to the local restaurant at the end of the street and while the boys were off doing their thing I did this drawing of a guy sitting at the bar enjoying his drink.

A "timelapse" drawing of one of the parents from James' hockey team waiting for practice to be done.

2010-03-17T20:36:00.005-04:00

Today was a good day in my house! I received in the mail my first purchase from Sports Artifacts, click on image to see it larger. Many thanks to Kevin Johnson for the quick shipping. You can see this one and the other programme that I purchased on my Flickr set.

Classic illustration combined with vintage hockey! Who could ask for anything more?

2010-02-26T13:41:00.003-05:00

oy is this cool!

The Daily Drop Cap is the blog of typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische.

I think that I might just start using this on a regular basis.

2010-02-23T18:59:00.000-05:00

The newest drawing from the most recent staff meeting.

2010-02-15T18:35:00.003-05:00

A drawing of my eldest son, James-aka the Hockey Star- watching TV on this Family Day holiday.

2010-02-13T15:04:00.006-05:00

Something from the ol' sketchbook- PD sesssion yesterday.

2010-02-09T13:22:00.003-05:00

A drawing from this morning's Career Fair.

2010-02-02T12:51:00.004-05:00

Here is a video from one of James' recent games. He out skates a Ted Reeve defender to score a nice goal. Unfortunately that was about the only highlight of the night for the team as they lost 4-1.
Thanks to Bill for posting the video to YouTube.

2010-01-20T10:07:00.001-05:00

Another day, another drawing of a student.

2010-01-19T09:39:00.003-05:00

Here is a drawing from yesterday's staff meeting.

For those keeping score, "But the reality is" 3, "At the end of the day" 1.

2010-01-18T10:03:00.003-05:00

A bunch of happy Kings after yet another win.

The team is playing with a lot of confidence after 2 wins this weekend, against the Flames on Saturday and Goulding Park last night. They are now tied for 3rd with the Blackhawks but sit only 4 points back of the 2nd place Flames.

2010-01-18T09:13:00.001-05:00

A preview of something that I am working on right now. We have the end of our semester coming up so I am going to be busy with marking so I don't know if I am going to get to finish this right away.

2010-01-17T13:05:00.001-05:00

An older drawing from back in the summer, from the AQ course that I took. Another drawing of Ray- I liked the sense of light in this.

2010-01-08T16:00:00.005-05:00

I am back and ready to post more work. Here is one of Jayson and his back pack from Digital Art in Rm 106. The paper appears to be a bit more textured and mottled then it is in real life.

2009-10-27T09:37:00.003-04:00

It would be VERY COOL to live on this street in Fergus Ontario.

2009-09-30T08:57:00.002-04:00

The hockey season has started and the Leaside Kings are flying out of the gate. 2 wins, both by shut outs, to start the new season has all of the kids, and the parents, very excited. They play two games this weekend, one is against one of the better teams in their divison, so it will be a good test for them.

2009-09-24T14:35:00.002-04:00

I was very sad to hear the news that Ismael Roldan has died.

I never met him but we became email friends and I always enjoyed talking about illustration and art with him.

The guy had talent and was happy to share any insights or practices that were successful for him.

Follow the link and watch the slide show.

2009-09-20T13:08:00.001-04:00

Back at school. Time for more staff meetings and more drawings.

2009-07-17T20:56:00.003-04:00

Here is another drawing from my summer course. We're done next Thursday. It will be nice to be done.

This is Ray, a Transportation teacher from Orillia; Nice guy.

2009-07-17T14:51:00.002-04:00

This was a drawing from the other night when James was playing a lacrosse game in Lindsay. This is one of the people that were there to watch the game.

2009-07-10T20:43:00.001-04:00

Here is a drawing from the summer course that I am taking of a couple of people who are also in the class. Sometimes we spend a little too much time sitting around and talking. Some of the talk is good because there is a wealth of experience in any of these courses.

2009-07-08T18:23:00.005-04:00

Back when I did collage I was fascinated by the idea of layering images on top of each other to create textures. I was particularly fascinated by line images and those could be mathematical equations, technical diagrams and, the best ones were, sheet music.

On this image, which I created as a background for a promotional mailing, I even added a couple of leafs. This was pretty typical of the type of work that I used to like to do.

All of the elements were scanned and assembled in Photoshop.

2009-07-02T15:40:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was July 1st, HAPPY CANADA DAY, and in the hockey world that means the start of the free agency season.

My beloved Maple Leafs signed a couple of players that puts them firmly on the path to be bigger, meaner and more of an "in your face" team.

With hockey in mind I thought that I would present my choices for the 2 best hockey books. These are presented as 1 and 1A.

Hockey Showdown, Harry Sinden

What more could be said or written about the 1972 "Summit Series" between Canada and the USSR? But this book, which I bought back in the 70's was written by Harry Sinden who coached the Canadian team and is valuable for the insights that a real "insider" offers for what happened both on and off the ice.

The Game, Ken Dryden

If there was ever a thinking man's hockey player it would be Ken Dryden. The book is so well written and looks at fame, what makes a special player special and the joys of being on a team.

2009-06-30T17:55:00.003-04:00

New Misty pictures.

She is getting big, loosing the black on her face.

2009-06-30T08:38:00.008-04:00

School's out!

Alice Cooper sang "Schools Out" in 1972 and it is still played in schools on the last day. Heck, my 10 year old likes the song...which came out when I was 10 years old!

The last staff meeting was anti-climatic in terms of drawing because it was so short and I only had time to do one drawing.

2009-06-21T13:46:00.005-04:00

Bunny drawings!

We have a staff meeting tomorrow so I should have more drawings to post after that.

2009-06-12T07:39:00.003-04:00

We had a staff meeting on Monday, Kostas sat still for most of it.

2009-05-12T16:27:00.003-04:00

The new addition to the family! "Misty" is an 8 week old Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier.

2009-05-06T08:36:00.003-04:00

The school where I work is in, what is known as, a "Priority Neighbourhood". The students are described as "Urban Youth", or "At Risk Youth". Standardized provincial test scores in literacy and numeracy are below the Board average. There is a school wide initiative to raise these test scores.

One of the annual province wide tests is the Gr 10 Literacy test which happens in March. It is a requirement that all students pass this test in order to graduate high school. In some schools the pass rate is very high, close to 100%, whereas here at my school the rate is 64%. (The board average is 80% pass, 84% provincially.)

Teachers have to supervise the process and it is really easy to do because it is not the sort of test on which you can cheat. So basically it involves making sure that the process is done fairly according to the EQAO's instructions. It leaves me a lot of time to draw. I didn't get as many good drawings done in the time as I have in past years. This one is about the only "good" one that I did in the time the test was on.

2009-04-20T20:45:00.005-04:00

Staff meetings are always a good excuse to draw!

2009-04-19T20:44:00.014-04:00

Updates.... It has been a long time since I last posted anything and I have some new work to show.

One of the stages in a person's life, as a parent, is when your child is playing competitive sports, and try-outs are part and parcel of the whole experience. With try-outs you spend quite a bit of time watching, waiting as your kid goes through the practice and does their thing and hopefully makes the team.

Both of my boys are playing lacrosse right now- field- and are trying out for the box teams in their respective age groups.

Yesterday was James' turn for tryout and I had report cards to finish. I can only do "bubbling" for so long before I want to do something else. I had brought my sketchbook with me and one of the other dads was checking his Blackberry while the tryout was on.

2009-02-13T10:26:00.003-05:00

Here is a drawing that I did at school a while ago. I am short on posts because the boys hockey have been taking up so much time.

2009-01-12T20:56:00.001-05:00

This is the first installment of a project that I have given myself. The project is to take letters of the alphabet and create a repeating pattern in such a way as to no longer be able to see the individual letter anymore.

2008-12-09T11:28:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of photos of James that were taken at a tournament where his hockey team was playing. They did well winning 2 of their 3 pool games before loosing 2-1 in overtime in the quarterfinal.

James scored twice in the four games and was named player of the game for his team during the first game against the Royals.

It’s back on the ice tonight for them with a practice and then 2 games, plus another practice, on the weekend.

2008-11-28T10:53:00.000-05:00

A drawing that I did in class of one of the two skeletons that the school has.

2008-11-27T10:20:00.003-05:00

More drawings from the Royal Winter Fair

2008-11-21T09:48:00.002-05:00

These are a couple of drawings from the last staff meeting.

2008-11-20T08:36:00.002-05:00

A week ago our school was in "lock down" after an "incident" happened in the school. It lasted for about 2 hours. I was in my Gr 10 special art class and they can only concentrate for so long before they got bored.

I asked Justine to sit still for a while and I drew her.

2008-11-19T14:59:00.001-05:00

Drawing from the Royal Winter Fair.

2008-11-18T14:02:00.002-05:00

This piece is one that started as a doodling type exercise, no preconceived idea of what it was going to look like and just making it up as I went along, and I liked it enough to finish it. Next step; ink it and make it digital.

2008-10-13T20:33:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of new drawings from school and my drawing class.

2008-10-06T14:25:00.001-04:00

Here is a cover from an old Toronto Star "Star Week" tv guide magazine in honour of the start of the NHL season, and the Leafs schedule. Maybe they should see if Borje Salming is available to play?

2008-09-26T14:48:00.002-04:00

A re-working of an existing piece. This was one that I always liked. The concept was conquering, or taming numbers, never really being a numbers guy and having a son who has struggled with math in the past, it was an idea that I could get!

I did the original art in Illustrator and it turned out well.

I used the "export" feature in Illustrator to export it to Photoshop and save the layers. I used a blur filter in the background to create a greater sense of depth.

2008-09-18T14:57:00.003-04:00

A cool fashion illustration from my collection, that dates from 1916. This was done by a man named Samuel Nelson Abbott and it appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.

2008-07-20T20:51:00.004-04:00

I am taking an AQ course this summer. It is a means to an end-higher pay. It is not as practical as I would have liked, we spend too much time sitting and talking and getting touchy feely about why we teach.

It has provided me with opportunities to draw. I will post some of the better ones.

2008-06-16T14:56:00.002-04:00

Here is one that is a little different- a drawing at school but done in the office.

We are in exams right now and I was doing a stand-by, being ready to help with what ever needs doing, and I was asked to stay right in the office so that they could "get" me right away. So I was sitting in the bad boy chairs outside of one of the VP's offices and I did this drawing of Darko as he worked away at his desk.

I am told that he has the real power in the school because he controls the money!

I gotta work on my printing though.

2008-06-14T14:54:00.007-04:00

This is a drawing that I did last night while James was lying on the couch watching TV.

I was trying to capture the sense of light that was coming in from the window above and behind. This would explain why I made my very blond son appear as if he has dark hair.

2008-06-09T09:33:00.005-04:00

Illustration Friday- Forgotten

This was used as an illustration for a financial services magazine piece about estate planning, and specifically planning a will.

The overall look of the piece was left up to me and I used as many personal images as I could.
So here is a breakdown of the "hidden meaning" to this piece-

The watch was my father's and my mother gave it to me after he died. You will see his name, Charles Colquhoun, appear in the first line of the text of the will.
The picture of the house is the house where I grew up- and sold after my mother died.
The picture of the man on the right is my grandfather.
The pin, in the shape of a thistle, was a present that my mother gave my wife.
The plate is part of a place setting that was my parents and is now mine because my brother and sister thought that I should have it to think of it as a wedding present from my mother- who died before my wife and I were married.

So there you have it- Gone but not "Forgotten".

2008-06-03T08:35:00.002-04:00

Here is a drawing of my "little man" from last night, done as we were sitting watching his older brother at his lacrosse practice.

2008-05-30T08:29:00.002-04:00

Illustration Friday-Baby

This was used as a magazine illustration for a story about test tube babies. The idea was to show the child coming out of a test tube like a genie coming out of the lamp. (Not my idea, I just draw them.)

It is gouache on paper.

2008-05-29T09:40:00.002-04:00

This was a fairly important piece for me and it seems like it was done so long ago.

It was the late spring 1990 and I had been asked by Dan Diamond to provide a drawing to show how I would approach doing the portraits of the "Honoured Members" of the Hockey Hall of Fame. I think that I had a weekend to do it and was a big fan of Mark Messier, and he was/ is an instantly recognizable face, so I chose to draw him. I used a cover of the now defunct "Inside Hockey" magazine as reference.

I guess it was good enough for them because I got the job-only to be replaced 4 years later. But, hey, it was fun while it lasted.

2008-05-28T10:33:00.003-04:00

Here is a drawing that I did yesterday of one of my students in my digital art class. They are hard at work, mostly, trying to get everything finished before the end of the semester, which is in less then 2 weeks.

2008-05-20T10:58:00.004-04:00

I may be guilty of only highlighting the accomplishments of my eldest son James and sometimes have overlooked my "little man", Stuart.

Both of the boys are playing field lacrosse for the Toronto Beaches club. This past weekend they both played in their respective provincial qualifier tournament and BOTH of their teams advanced to play in the "provincial tournament" next weekend in Kitchener.

Stuart's team was unstoppable for much of their season and actually recorded back to back shutouts.

These are pictures from Saturday games that were taken by one of the other parents.

2008-05-14T09:32:00.004-04:00

King James!

The hockey tryout season is now over and my son James is now a King. He tried out for, and made, the Leaside Kings minor peewee A team.

He was excited enough about having made the team that he wore his new Kings hat to school for 3 days in a row. I had been impressed enough by speaking to all of the guys organizing the team that I felt pretty comfortable with James being involved with them for the upcoming season.

This is a picture of him from last season when he was a Colt. (What a disaster that season was!) This season WILL be better then last year.

2008-05-14T08:51:00.001-04:00

Another drawing from my digital art class.

We are now in the homestretch until the end of the school year- let the panic begin!

2008-05-08T10:13:00.004-04:00

Menus- This is one of a series of airline menus that I have that dates back to the late 60's. This one is from the old Pan American airlines.

It is interesting to see what was served during the flight-
Hors d'oeuvre
Filet Mignon
Grilled tomato, parisienne potatoes and peas
Pastry and/or coffee and tea.

The most interesting part is that wine, beer and cigarettes (yes , they used to allow smoking on airplanes) went for only .25 cents!

2008-05-01T11:06:00.002-04:00

This is an old piece and one that I had always thought was one of my better pieces.
I don't remember the name of the art director, something that I used to be able do with most of the illustration jobs that I did, and I don't really remember the name of the magazine but the story was about repetitve strain injuries in the workplace.
The art director pretty much gave me a free reign to do what I liked and I came up with this. It is close to 12 years old but I can still look at it and like it.

2008-04-30T10:01:00.003-04:00

I am still too busy to post any new work but in the mean time you can enjoy this piece done by the one and only Haddon Sundblom titled "Indoor Barbecue".

The text that goes with the ad is great, "In this friendly, freedom-loving land of our...Beer Belongs- Enjoy it!"

Beer and Ale-America's beverages of moderation. Sponsored by the United States Brewers Foundation.

2008-04-24T09:35:00.005-04:00

I don't really have anything of any consequnce to post today as we have been so busy with hockey tryouts and lacrosse practices/games lately.

But I thought that I would post some of the things that I have in my files. I am definitely not a Leif Peng but I do have a few interesting pieces kicking around.

2008-04-14T09:33:00.003-04:00

A drawing out of, where else? Digital Art!

2008-04-08T09:50:00.004-04:00

Where it all began.

As most of you know I teach high school. How I got into teaching is a story in itself, but what I wanted to talk about was how I got into art, which is kind of where it all began.

I was always interested in art and drawing. My mother, who also did art, was supportive of us, as kids drawing. I remember her playing "art" type games with us on rainy days when there was nothing to do. Games like, she would draw a line on a piece of paper and then we would have to make it into something. (I still do this game with my high school students and I think that it is an excellent creativity exercise.)

And I was a day dreamer, doodler kind of kid. My notebooks would be covered in drawings that I would do while I was at school.

But if there was one moment, one moment that made me say that art was what I wanted to do, it would have been a Saturday afternoon, at home, flipping the channels on the TV and coming across "The Hecklers", a film that was produced by the National Film Board and it showcased the art of political cartooning here in Canada. I don't know what it was about that movie but it grabbed me and I decided that afternoon that art was what I was going to do.

My favourite artist, in that group of very talented artists, was Duncan Macpherson who worked for the Toronto Star for over 35 years.

I really admired his drawing ability. What can I say, the man could draw!

The other thing that blows me away, having worked in the industry for a long time, is the amount of work that he produced. But also that he pumped it out and that much he did day after day, and managed to maintain a very high standard of quality.

Then when I was working at Central Technical School, here in Toronto, I had the pleasure of working with his son, Ian Macpherson. I never got to meet the man himself as he died in 1993 but it was special for me to meet Ian, and also Ian's mother, and tell them what an influence Duncan's work had on me.

Here are a couple of samples of his work.

2008-04-07T20:30:00.002-04:00

This is a drawing that I had posted over at Von Glitschka's "Three Thumbs Up" gallery and I thought that I would post it here.

Like I said, it was intended as a caricature but I am wondering if it didn't end up as a not very well done portrait.

2008-04-03T10:57:00.002-04:00

This is a drawing that I did while I was supervising the recent province wide English test. All Gr 10 students is Ontario write the test on the same day and it is a requirement of graduation that you pass the test. The group that I was watching were Gr 11 students doing it for a second time.

Close to 3 hours of watching kids struggle. Our school's "success rate" is not very good.

2008-04-02T09:31:00.002-04:00

More memories of Leaf playoff appearances. This cover is from the week of April 5-12, 1975.

2008-04-01T11:07:00.005-04:00

Goin’ old school, old hockey school that is, here with a cover of the Toronto Star’s “Starweek” tv listings from the week of April 6-13, 1974 heralding the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Leafs inclusion in said tournament, featuring a picture of goalie Doug Favell.

How times have changed. This season the Leafs will be sitting on the Stanley Cup sidelines for a club record third straight season. And depending on what happens over the course of the off season, and next season of course, they may well be watching next spring too.

2008-03-26T09:36:00.003-04:00

And now for something completely different- caricatures.
I really only dabble with them but I do enjoy doing them-especially when they turn out well.

2008-03-21T13:12:00.001-04:00

A completely impractical machine.

2008-03-16T08:18:00.005-04:00

Hockey cards.

This is a piece inspired by a love of old hockey cards and the simple innocence of loving the game as a kid.

It is a work in progress but my idea is to create "facsimilie" versions of "classic" hockey cards from a small, western Canadian hockey league. I am still trying to solve a couple of conceptual issues but I am quite excited by what I have done so far.

It is done completely in Illustrator (+pen and ink)

2008-03-13T15:17:00.006-04:00

Osgoode Hall is the provincial court house here in Toronto and actually being in court to watch the "theatre" is an interesting way to spend a morning.
Here is a page from being there on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I only got the one page done as the court adjourned, what seemed, shortly after I got there. But it was funny because I thought that I was being pretty inconspicuous, just sort of blending in to the background. But two of the attorneys made a comment as everyone was walking out after the adjournment that I was the "picture drawer". I said that I was and they asked if they could see what I had done. I guess you should never underestimate how peoples attention will be drawn, pardon the pun, to a drawing.

2008-03-11T17:24:00.002-04:00

This is a piece that has been in the works for a long time. I had the idea almost a whole year ago and drew in up and then thought, "I should do this some day". And with having the time this week I finally got around to doing it.

2008-03-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

Last drawing before the break! Then to do some real work. This is a drawing from my digital art class.

2008-03-06T09:23:00.002-05:00

Here is a drawing that I did yesterday at school. The class that I had was completely unfocused and rather then waste my breath yellin' at them I just let them fool around. The time will come when they have to "pay the piper".

2008-03-01T09:22:00.004-05:00

A break from art and hockey to post a couple of images of James playing basketball for his school's team. Both karen and I were pleased that he decided to try out, and make, the team. We both think that playing lots of differnet sports is only going to make you better at all sports.

The season consisted of a one day tournament where they played three games. They lost all three but James enjoyed it enough that he wants to play next year. And that, ultimately, is the main thing.

2008-02-29T10:31:00.002-05:00

One more post to keep the streak alive.

I was thinking about character such as J Jonah Jameson or Perry White when I was drawing this guy, athough he doesn't seem to be as "intense" as the two aforementioned gentlemen. That is probably because he has already had his coffee.

2008-02-28T12:09:00.003-05:00

One more drawing in the ongoing attempt to keep posting regularly.

This one that I did at school and just started with a blank piece of paper.

2008-02-27T08:38:00.004-05:00

I am trying to keep up with a drawing a day to post here.

Here is one that I did during my digital art class yesterday. This is a good class for me to draw because the students are almost completely zoned out in front of the monitors and they sit there motionless just asking to be drawn.

I really like the way that the hair of the guy on the left turned out. He had that teenage bed head thing going and I think that you get that sense from the drawing.

2008-02-22T15:57:00.004-05:00

Another nuggett from the archives. I was cleaning up this morning and I came across this old piece and thought that I would share.

Here is a detail of one of the krugerrands. The idea was to make them look like they were real coins sitting on the surface of the image.

2008-02-21T21:01:00.003-05:00

Another drawing from school. It is good when the kids are working and concentrating on what they are doing and I have time to draw.

This was inspired by the wonderfully talented Chris Whal, who updates his sketch blog every day.

2008-02-12T09:50:00.001-05:00

This might become the "Let me brag about my son's hockey exploits" blog instead of me showing my artwork. But this weekend was a big one for James and his team. The team, the Toronto Colts, Atom A, won their first game of the season (long over due) and James contributed in a huge way to the win with a hat trick. (1 short handed, 1 even strength and 1 empty net) His mother was there to see the win and his big game. We celebrated by going out for dinner and ice cream.

He enjoys playing and it gives him something which can make him feel good about himself.

And, yeah, I have to admit that I really enjoy watching him play.

2008-01-21T20:42:00.000-05:00

Here is a nice picture of my wife and my youngest son at a school skating trip. The time of the trip coincided with my wife being able to come and one of the teachers from Stuart's school took this picture.

2007-11-23T16:39:00.000-05:00

This is a drawing that I did in class as a demonstration of the type of thing that I wanted for the "Old Masters" assignment in my drawing and painting class. The assignment is for the students to find and draw 10 drawings from realistic figuartive works of art. These pieces tend to be from the sort of artists that are known as "Old Masters".

It is a very traditional, old school way of learning to draw.

This is a figure that is actually a background sort of guy in the Waterhouse painting "Penelope and the Suitors". I thought that the drawing turned out very well. I was quite happy with it.

2007-11-22T18:49:00.000-05:00

I have to talk about the big weekend that James had in his hockey games. He played two games and had a hot hand scoring 5 points in the two games- 2 goals, 3 assists. The team still hasn't won but hopefully he is getting noticed by some of the other coaches and can move up the food chain for next year.

You can catch the highlights from the game last Saturday against the Leaside Flames, James' old team, here and here where he scored twice and got one assist in a 6- 3 loss.

I have to admit that watching his assist, seeing him fly down the ice, which I thought was his best play of the game, always brings a smile to my face.

2007-11-14T15:39:00.001-05:00

This is a drawing that I did at our recent Parents Night. As you could probably guess, I wasn't that busy- I think that I only had 7 or 8 parents over the course of the evening. It is from Vermeer's "Head of a girl".

I had always thought that the painting was entitled "Girl with the pearl ear ring", but the movie was called that.

Look out drawing class- old masters assignment is coming!

2007-11-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

So here are a selection of drawings from having spent the day at the Royal Winter Fair.

Ya' gotta like a good cow drawing. This was done in conte on newsprint.

More cows! These were done with pencil crayon on manila paper. I liked the loose line quality in the one on the left.

This was my favorite drawing from the day. I didn't get to spend as long as I would have liked there because James had an early hockey game so I left about the same time as the kids.

2007-11-07T22:11:00.000-05:00

This Friday I am taking my Gr 11 and 12 drawing class to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair for a day of drawing . I will post my efforts once I have had a chance to scan them.

Here is a drawing that I did on one of the trips.

2007-10-19T08:36:00.000-04:00

A new drawing done at school. Ashley was so into what she was doing that she wasn't aware of me drawing her.

2007-09-28T10:33:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday-The Blues

After an extended summer break I am finally getting around to posting an image for your enjoyment.

Who better to play the Blues then Big Daddy Blue, and his back up band, The Ultramarines.

Thanks for looking.

2007-06-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

2 down, 2 to go

Here is a process view of my on going project that was originally concieved as a birthday card for my wife.

It is intended to be a a 4 panel piece. I still have not worked out what is going to happen with the other 2 panels yet. I have several ideas.

I am having a lot of fun with it. So much that I am thinking that I want to get back in the illustration game and see if I can get some work. The extra money would be nice but I do enjoy doing the work.

2007-06-13T08:45:00.000-04:00

This isn't art related, or even family related, but I thought I had to post this.

I just found out recently that a former student of mine had fulfilled his dream of playing college hockey on a scholarship in the US.

This is Harry (Harrison) Taylor. I had him in my Gr 1o illustration class back in 2002-2003. He took the class more because he thought that it might be interesting rather then he wanted to pursue art as a possible career. He was playing a high level of hockey and was always interested in talking about hockey in general, which I was always more then interested in doing as well. He always said that his dream was to play NCAA hockey as opposed to going the OHL route.

A really nice guy, good student. I was really glad for him when I found out that he was playing for Dartmouth College. Harry disproves the adage that nice guys finish last

He promised me that when he made the NHL that he autograph his hockey card for me!

2007-06-09T09:38:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday; SUIT

Here is my offering for this weeks IF.

He is wearing a suit, although he is not wearing a tie.

2007-06-09T09:31:00.000-04:00

The BIG boy.

Here is a picture of my eldest son, James who will be 10 in November, who has just started playing lacrosse this spring. He seems to quite enjoying it and his coach said that James is the most improved player on the team.

I like it because it is an hour of running around. I am not a big fan of kids sitting around watching TV. It makes for hectic living for the parents but both my wife and I think that it is more then worth it.

2007-06-06T14:47:00.000-04:00

Back in the days...

This is a piece that I spent a phenominal amount of time working on. This is from back in the days when I wanted to be a painter and worked quite hard at learning as much as I could from some of the great painters in the past.

This piece was by the French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. He had an excpetional abiltity to paint flesh.

My version of it was quite big. The years have not been particularly kind to it as it is showing a lot of cracking already. This, I think, is from me using too much cobalt drier when I was painting it.

My favorite part of the whole thing is the purple drapery wrapped around the woman.

2007-06-04T17:42:00.001-04:00

Birthday Card

Here is a piece that I am currently working on. It’s a new thing for me, this faux-retro look and I am quite enjoying it.

This is one panel of what is going to be a four-panel birthday card for my wife. Her birthday is June 24th so I still have some time before it is “due”

2007-05-06T10:37:00.000-04:00

Here is an old piece that I was looking at when I was looking for something to post last week on Illustration Friday. Hope you like it.

2007-05-06T10:31:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday; Neighbor

Here is my post for "Neighbor". This is a fairly old piece and I really just "found it" again the other day as I was cleaning up and thought that it would be good for this week.

It is painted in oil on illustration board.

2007-04-30T17:43:00.000-04:00

I have not posted anything to Illustration Friday in so long. I guess that I should “Remember” to do it more often.

Here is my submission for “Remember”.

I like to collect old stuff, letters, photographs, ephemera, and this piece made extensive use of my “old stuff”.

My idea was to put these pieces together and create an imaginary story about a person and where she came from and the people she left behind.

2007-04-27T13:01:00.000-04:00

This is a first...I am posting something while I am at school.

These are sketchbook "doodles" that I was quite "into" for a while. I was thinking about people like Peter Max when I was doing them.

Black marker. No preconception of what it was going to look like when I started.