brush drawings...

Posted by John:

Two Smokeless Patrons...

Posted by John:
More from the same day as 'Grange Park', below. Two patrons at SMOKELESS JOE'S bar, deep in conversation.

Grange Park sketching...

Posted by Arna:
Here’s a quick sketch in a small Moleskine, using a Pigma brush and coloured in Photoshop. We meant to visit The AGO for the Emily Carr exhibit, but the gallery was closed Tuesday due to ongoing construction, so we wandered over to Grange Park.

Kensington market walls...

Posted by John and Arna:
Saturday we visited The Beguiling bookstore for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. Had a nice chat with the talented Michael Cho and picked up tickets for Scott McCloud who spoke at OISE on Sunday night. Good weekend all round...

Saturday was also JANE JACOBS DAY in Toronto ( see Nick Sung's post on Jane Jacobs here) and we did our own walk from the Annex to Kensington Market and along Nassau Street which is full of funky cafes, music stores and a cool Tshirt shop called Hardboiled.

At the back of a store on the corner of Nassau and Augusta, we found this wall covered with collaged posters 'n graffiti that made fine photo material. John took these shots.

PSP_Go

Posted by John:

PonyTailBack

Posted by John:

LittleMonsters_Red3Eyes

Posted by Arna:

Here's a small fishy doodle to entertain you while we're busy with work n' stuff...

Clicking the image takes you to our Flickr page. Once you're there, click 'all sizes' to go to the larger version of the image.

This little character is inspired by the movie THE HOST, a wonderful Korean film that builds a monster movie story by focusing on a family, and especially the disaffected son, who has lost his way. We follow the family's struggle to rescue the son's young daughter, after she is taken by the monster. The story carries themes of the terrible pollution our species has brought to this planet, and the destructive undermining influence of the American presence on Korean culture. There are allusions to the nerve-wracking SARS health scare we in Toronto are so familiar with, and great portrayals of the sort of groupthink fear that drives people to adopt ridiculous and totally pointless measures in times of crisis. Don't miss this film! It's funny, and terrifying. A great one to see in the theatre...the music echoes like the score from a Miyazaki film. The juggernaut motion of the monster; sometimes awkward, sometimes acrobatic (nothing like this little creature in the sketch above), keeps you on the edge of your seat.

We'll give it five 'doodler squiggles' or 'squidlers', a word that suits this film. ~~~~~

SunsetTunnelMountainTrail

Posted by Arna.

Just came back from Banff where I was lucky to spend 4 days in the fresh air, and experience an amazing story conference. Got my head clear and came back to Toronto to finish a board that is keeping me very busy for the next three weeks. I'll post more about the conference in the next days.

Thanks to Warren Leonhardt who encouraged me to go. Thanks to Chad Kerychuk and Ken Bautista who put the conference together.

Big thanks to speakers Ronnie Del Carmen, Kris Pearn, Josh Staub, and George P. Georgeadis for your energy, insight and inspiration.

This photo was taken on the way up Tunnel Mountain Trail. I am now walking hills in our neighbourhood to get in better shape so the next time I'll make it to the top of that trail!

QuickSketchClayPortraitFun

Posted by Arna. To see more views of this piece, please click the photo and that will take you to our Flickr. Once there, please click 'all sizes' on the photo to see the larger version.

late night sillies

look out, he's...

CentralTechJan_07_2

Posted by Arna:

This model had an athletic and angular frame that inspired this rough treatment. You can see more views of the piece on our Flickr site. Please click the image above and once you're there, click 'all sizes' to view a larger version of the image.

Dino-Fight-At-The-ROM

John took this picture last spring/summer. The Royal Ontario Museum (or ROM as it's known to most Torontonians) is undergoing a bit of a transformation. The reno is called 'The Crystal' but I don't know how crystalline it will be when it's finished, since the skin appears to be white aluminum siding.

This shot shows the old ROM and a skeleton of the new wing in sharp contrast. I wanted the old part to look the way I remember it so gave it a dirt layer. Then I added the dinosaurs fighting in the window as a tribute to the great dinosaur hall. I spent many childhood afternoons standing under the Tyrannosaurus Rex that loomed over the centre of the room, hoping to catch it moving just a little... :)

Broken Glass

posted by Arna:

We stumbled on this (Well, not actually! It's a figure of speech...thanks Clive :)) when walking in our neighbourhood last summer. Michelle says it looks like a fish, and I agree:

4 legged house...

posted by Arna:

An idea for a structure I would build of transparent material, with lights inside so it glows a bit. It could walk like Howl's Moving Castle. I'd set it in a city square or a farmer's field and then watch where it goes!

As seen on Queen West...

These storefront pix were taken by JVB just before Christmas. Clicking one of these thumbnails will take you to our Flickr page. Once there, click 'all sizes' for a larger view.