Life drawings revisited. . .

Posted by Arna. These are older than a year, done after work at Toonbox Studio.

TCAF 2011! Go! This weekend...

Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Pencil it In from Toronto Comic Arts Festival on Vimeo.

Director: Christopher Hutsul
Director of Photography: Vinit Borrison
Producer: Nick Sorbara
Executive Producer: Jacinte Faria
Editorial: Melanie Hider, Bijou Editorial
Score: “Background Noise (Don’t Become)” by Solvent, Courtesy Ghostly International
Sound Design: Vapor Music
Online Artist + Colourist: Hardave Grewal, RedLab
Graphic Novelists: Chester Brown, Michael Comeau, Steve Charles Manale, Vicki Nerino, Michael Cho, Michael DeForge, Seth, Fiona Smyth + Britt Wilson.

A Hard Citizen Production.

City Dwellers...

Black prismacolour on moleskine, by John van Bruggen.

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. ~~~~~

late night sillies

look out, he's...

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!

Time for music...

We spent last night greeting the start of 2007 with friends. There was music and some dancing. This is an unrelated sketch from 2006. Happy New Year all!

May the snow goblin be your friend...

Click here for the Flash version of this little greeting with northern lights... :)

See everyone in 2007!

Frieze...

Posted by Arna in celebration of the party season. Here's a flashdoodle of nudists with their dogs and some blue fruit. Not to say that this is how WE party... :)

Too many eyes...

I'm not sure if this guy is a plant or animal. Imagine coming upon a horde of these in the woods...

Have a lovely weekend, peoples!

Sunset, quick colour rough...

Approx. 10 minute sketch posted by Arna:

This was the scene through our front window tonight. Done with Photoshop Elements as the light faded, hurrying to catch the moment:

Variations on a cat theme...

Posted by Arna:

Images from morning warm-ups with our cats...

Flash girl...

Posted by Arna:

Playing with Flash using transparencies:

Unseasonably warm...

Posted by Arna:

The Way of the Dackel...

going squirrelly...

Posted by Arna:

A small mangy squirrel is eating our house. The little rodent comes back day after day and gnaws at the rotten window ledge on our decrepit back sunporch. The thing seems to want in. Winter's coming, so maybe it thinks it can make a nest or maybe it actually wants to hang out with our cats. It's really their sunporch. They spend most sunny days sleeping there.

Today I tried to make the squirrel go away by yelling and banging on the window. It's chewing its way into our house after all! I started to growl like an angry cat. I waved around a cardboard poster tube, trying to look ferocious. The squirrel just sat on the ledge staring back at me while I went nuts. But our cat Kiki lunged and grabbed me by the hair. Guess she had enough of my shenanigans.

If you look closely in the drawing you'll see the chew marks on our windowsill. We really have to stop this critter! Anyone have suggestions for getting rid of a pesky squirrel??

High hopes...

Posted by Arna.

Here's a kid waiting for something special. Maybe a letter from Grandma, or a decoder ring...

Two Heads On Red...

Posted by John:

Here's an actual phone doodle that ended up stuck to a card advertising a fitness centre.

Prismacolour portraits...

Posted by John.

This first one I drew in my parents living room in the summer of '79. The T-shirt is from the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, where I'd worked the previous year. The image on the shirt is by the Canadian artist Dennis Burton.

This second one I drew from a photograph my dad took of my friends and I as we were clowning around at my cousin's bridal shower. At the time, we had a 'punk' band called The Clumps. We were a true punk band in that only one of us -- and it wasn't me -- knew how to play an instrument. Can anyone recognize the painting behind me?

body worlds sketching...

Yesterday we spent the evening at the Ontario Science Centre where BODY WORLDS 2: 'The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies' is showing just until February 26th. It was Friday night, we got there at 8:30 and stayed till closing time, midnight. The place was fairly crowded but the crowds were rapt and somewhat quiet. We found a few places to draw and really just got warmed up when it was time to go. I wish that we'd gone once a week for the last month. With more practice I might discover a way of exploring the flayed figures and exposed structures of these bodies. The top three sketches are by Arna and the bottom three sketches are by John:

Body Worlds related posts:

NEW! February 24th, 06: Smook sketches!
Drazen Kozjan at Hypnotic Eye
Matt Jones