Tuesday, July 11, 2006

ROM Sketch Date Part 2...

Posted by Arna:

Thought I'd try some fooling around with brush markers and a waterbrush. To avoid muddying the washes I used no more than two colours on each sketch.

This one's the first of the day... a good warm up. John noticed that this fellow had dragons for sleeves and his arms came right out of the dragons' mouths, but when I did this one I hadn't figured that out yet, so the sleeve shapes are kind of abstract. The little character at his feet reminds me of Bart Simpson:


You can see those dragons' mouths clearly in the photo I took afterwards. Funny how you can look at a thing and not really 'see' it:

Here's an earthenware horse about a foot and a half tall:

Here's the actual horse:

Here's an army! I found myself simplifying and juggling shapes, to define these horses and riders:

Horses and riders in earthenware. They're each about a foot tall:

15 comments:

Pat Pakula said...

i'm loving these sketches.

Jack Ruttan said...

They're all cute. Nice interpretations.

FelixSputnik said...

Ooh, lovely horse. This stuff really is gorgeous.
I think we didn't get around to the R.O.Mus. last time we were over, A mistake I plan to rectify next time...
How is the weather on the lake?

Talk soon...

Clive said...

Beauty. The washes work really well with the drawing. Ain't the ROM great.

Lubomir said...

Great stuff guys! It seems that the ROM bestowed you with good fortune. The riders are my favorite Arna, and John your drawings have a great feel to them. As I mentioned before, I find the variation of the strong dark line and the sensitive rendering great. Sorry I couldn't join you!

Mauricio said...

very, very good!!!

I like so much, the colors od the ten mounted soldiers are great.

My best!!

the doodlers said...

Pat, Jack, thanks a big bunch, guys!

Michael, So very nice of you to visit! The ROM was not open when you guys were here last.. it's still under reconstruction, but the Chinese and Roman wings are open since May (I think?). It's going to be really interesting to see how the new wings are for displaying exhibits. The construction is all angles and girders from the outside, very avante guard-ey, but I'm not sure how this will translate to people-friendly space inside. The weather is hot, humid and sunny this week but we had torrential monsoon rain last week so all the vegetation is spectacular. I just started a new storyboard, John's a busy boy with scripts, but we do try to get down to the water once in a while. When you come to T.O. next we must go walk on the boardwalk and have sushi at our favourite spot on Queen street!

Clive, Thanks! When you next visit from Vancouver you must meet us on the boardwalk with Michael and Sharon from London, and go for sushi. I wonder if that's possible..? Co-ordinated visits? Are you planning to come this summer at all?

Lubomir, For me it was a nice capper to my all too short break. Back at work now... hope we can organize another sketch outing soon.

Mauricio, Cheers! Thanks! As we said, love your moody collages.

Ryan Bullard said...

Wow, these are great. I love the single horse sketch, it's quite nice.

Thanks for posting on my blog. You definitely win the hero bisquit on that Dylan post. Hell. you win the whole box. I am amazingly jealous that you got to see Dylan live, especially at that point in his career. I was born way too late. Ballad of a Thin Man is an amazing song. He has a new album due out in August, if you're a fan of his newer stuff.

I don't think he did the windmill either, at least not fast. He had a habit of putting his arm above his head in footage I've seen from that tour. Drawing more arms would have made it slower in animation, I guess that was in my head.

Anyway, sorry for the long post and thanks again for stopping by my blog!

geenpool said...

damn...i wish i could lay a lovely wash down with half the skillz...sheesh...i'm really diggin' these sketches. Awesome schtuff.

Jez Hall said...

great drawings! Love the Family dog board too.

MikeS said...

Damn, seeing you great sketches and John's really makes me regret not meeting up with you both again.......

I love the 10 mounted soldiers sketch, nice, bold and detailed, but still not busy. Wonderful!

g-fifty said...

doodlers...you rock! great stuff! cool sketches!

justinpatrickparpan said...

Wow, these are beautiful. It seems like you have a passion for archeology? Any truth to that?

Jorge@jlacera.com said...

Nice studies, I love the loosness of them!

the doodlers said...

Hello Ryan, Thanks for the visit. Always happy to discuss Dylan. We'll keep an ear out for the new album. I really liked your sketch of him.

Gene, aw shucks n' thanks! I think that washes with brush marker are fun and pretty easy. Watercolour would be not so much, but really the brush markers are pretty staightforward and very portable.

Jez, much thanks. The recent stuff you are posting is inspired. Love the DOT stuff!

Mike, As we said, you were missed. We'll get together again soon. How's the holiday? Hope you are having a much deserved relaxing time.

Mr. Syberg-Olsen, swell of you to comment. We think that your work rocks too so, right-back-at-cha.

Mr. Parpan, Yes at one point I did want to become an archeaologist. Then an architect. Did neither, fell into animation instead. I still find looking at old things a great inspiration. I guess it is something of a passion. Your found dinosaurs in the hills really tweaked my interest!

Jorge, Thanks ~We get a warm fuzzy feeling reading your note. We'll stop by and visit your site again soon. :) Blogger seems to be down at the moment...urggh..