Some trees

It is a grey and rainy day (in Vancouver?!) and I should go outside. And instead of doing the things I should (should should should) I drew this road going through the trees. It is from a photo by Matt Emmett. It turns out I have done at least one other drawing from one of his photos. The damnable website pinterest often makes it difficult to figure out where photos came from, what they are exactly and so on.

Working backwards, almost a month ago I did a drawing of an abandoned Japanese train track. I have been teaching at Langara, and it is just one class but it seems to use up all my time.

Going further back in time, after the Dark Mega-j drawing in the previous post, I was inspired to do a couple more in that vein. Just this week I was pondering Halloween and thought maybe a return to Mega-j might be in order. Maybe a beaten to crap Dark Mega-j.

Sketchbook Down

That sketchbook took an unusual amount of time to finish. From July 2018 to September 2019. But it was a pretty turbulent period, so I guess that is not surprising.

My traditional final sketchbook drawing self portrait. I should press harder with my pencil crayons, as the actual drawing is a lot lighter than this pumped up scan.

One of my last drawings in the sketchbook was this ridiculous Dark Knight Returns Mega-j. But it seemed relevant.

Drawing Things

As I try to get myself rolling on my next comic projects, I look for stuff to draw, so I am in drawing mode. I always enjoy drawing rickety, run down, overgrown buildings, and found a few photos to draw from.

I was having a shower listening to some old ska, and thought hey I should draw some of those Jamaican ska pioneers. It turns out that the internet is reluctant to share pictures of them!

In Between Days

After getting three comics together for VanCAF, I am left feeling very Between Projects. So I was looking for something to draw and came across a photo of Joseph and Eva Beuys. That led me to other photos of old artists and writers. Some great faces out there. Like most of these drawings I do from photos, all of these were done straight to ink, so if they come out a little off, so be it.

Drawing Drought

I have finally been drawing this week, after one of my worst dry spells in a long long time. Now if I could just get going on some comic drawing.

I started teaching a class, Drawing for Comics, and I usually do some drawing myself as the class is drawing. So I did this quick little comic in pencil while I had them doing the same.

Sunflower

This ink wash drawing was done from a photo (maybe from pinterest?). I started it in the class and then went back and took my time to do it up right.

Ink Wash

This is a drawing I did to try to capture something I saw.

The Kid Forest

I found a set of creepy Halloween costumes from the first half of the 1900s, over at my go-to spot Vintage Everyday.

Old Time Halloween

Old Time Halloween 2

A scene from Victorian England, from a photo (probably pinterest again).

Victorian Alley Life

Last week there was an article being shared everywhere about scientists laying out how completely screwed we are regarding the climate. UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That. The same day I read that I happened to start reading a comic that was about post-apocalyptic scavengers, Land of the Sons by Gipi. And also the same day I started reading a book about post-apocalyptic scavengers, Borne by Jeff VanderMeer. So that inspired me to draw a forest fire.

Forest Fire

And other climate change enhanced disasters, like Typhoon Mangkhut.

Typhoon Mangkhut Aftermath

Hot August Smoke

We seemed to go right from hot sweaty weather to heavy smoke from all the forest fires. This is the state of summer in this era I guess. Oops am I getting dark right out of the gate? Well then appropriately, I drew this after writing a letter when I was tired and crabby.

Tired Letter

And this, looking at the state of the smoke the other day.
Smoke Times

I have been a bit in the doldrums, not getting anywhere with comics. To mellow out, I draw stuff from the internet and listen to podcasts. This cowgirl was probably from Vintage Everyday, an old faded photo which is why I made it greenish.

Cowgirl

Also from Vintage Everyday, some World War 2 Greek freedom fighters. Gotta keep those Nazis away.

Greek Nazi Fighters

Greek Nazi Fighters 2

And some early 20th century women with wavey hairstyles.

Women 03

I was listening to a WTF podcast with Peter Fonda as the guest, so I thought I would draw some Easy Riders, from Film Grab.

Easy Rider

Some people doing the tango. I think this was from pinterest, though I find I have less luck finding things to draw there. There is something just base level annoying about it.

Tango

A swiss cabin on the side of a mountain, from Cabin Porn. I love when they have a cabin situated in some kind of big landscape.

Swiss Cabin

I often find myself looking at google street view for something interesting to draw. But then I just end up wandering around Malta or whatever. Here was a nice highway work scene from California. Probably I just wanted to draw all those pylons.

highway_work

Listening to an Ultraculture podcast about Jack Parsons, so I decided to draw him and some of the other characters around him. I’m curious how that Strange Angel show is, haven’t seen it yet.

Jack Parsons and Friends

Finishing a Sketchbook

I finally finished a sketchbook. Those last few pages always seem to take forever. I did my traditional self-portrait as the last drawing in the book. I had to do it from a photo, as we don’t seem to have any mirrors in our place that are convenient to draw in front of.

End of Sketchbook Self Portrait

Here are a few of the last drawings I did in that sketchbook. From a photo by Enzo de Martino “Hard Times”.

Hard Times

Some old time-y women from studio portrait photos, found on Vintage Everyday.

Portrait Ladies

And a couple of drawings of cats. I have this project I am trying to figure out, featuring the cats that Manien and I watch from our balcony. One sketch, one ink test that I decided to colour.

Cats Sketch

Cats

The Big Slow Re-watch

I drew some comics about stuff that happened when Jesse was visiting last month.

Jesse - Walking Tour

Jesse - Christmas

Jesse - Wildlife

Jesse - the Gambler

At some point in May, Manien and I had the idea to re-watch Twin Peaks. We were recalling how pleasant it was watching the Return last year, only having one episode per week. The modern love of “binge watching” often turns shows into a bit of a blur. The weekly schedule gave us more time to savour it. So we decided to re-watch, but only one episode per week, meaning it will take the better part of year to get through everything. It also finally gave us inspiration to make a chalk board on the side of a shelving unit.

Twin Peaks - the Big Slow Re-watch

Twin Peaks - Laura and Donna

I was looking for something to draw and came across a still from a movie called Wonderwall. I have never seen it, but it seems like something I would have come across before!

Wonderwall

I continue to be fascinated by different enviro houses. These cool looking earth houses are in Dietikon, Switzerland.

Earth House