September 4, 2021
August 30, 2021
August 27, 2021
Last week, we had the most delicious croissants, crêpes, and coffee from the food truck, Frenchie’s Bakery and Crêperie. You can find their truck parked on the sparkling shoreline of Huntsville inner harbour.
You don’t go to Muskoka to leave it, but while the food was on our plates we WERE IN PARIS!
We dedicate this drawing of the Café Bar du Brésil to the owners of Frenchie’s and their petit bébé.
The care and dedication of small business owners everywhere makes the human race glow from the inside out.
Drawn in Procreate with the Chalk Brush (under Calligraphy category).
August 25, 2021
Anita DM’d me on Instagram to ask if I could capture Toronto’s Allen Gardens, the place where she and her boyfriend, Scott, first got to know each other. Here’s to love!
I had the freedom to interpret the scene as I saw fit. This is my favourite kind of working relationship.
Tools: I drew this in the Procreate app. I used the Peppermint Brush in black (under the Sketching category) to draw the scene. After going through the entire roster of digital brushes, I thought this brush came closest to the boldness and assurance of a black pencil crayon or a Chinese/Butcher’s pencil. Next, I used the Wet Sponge brush (under the Water category) to paint the scene. The effect of this brush is a cross between a watercolour wash and the bloom of a Copic marker. Phone pics of some planters in Huntsville, Ontario served as the inspiration for the colour scheme of the flowers: red, magenta, orange and yellow. When the snow flies in a few months, this scene will remind me of the explosive beauty of Toronto’s summers.
August 15, 2021
Evolving demographics and more nuanced approach to data collection on the US Census form has revealed, for the first time, a drop in the non-Hispanic white population.
For many Americans of Northern European descent, this racial diversity is challenging their sense of the social order and their understanding of America.
Some responses (above) have been pretty raw and unfocused. Others are more organized. They are pushing back on demographic changes by intentionally setting up barriers to voting, including redrawing the electoral map (called racial gerrymandering).
To understanding the findings in the 2020 US Census, go to the source at the United States Census Bureau. You can also read this New York Times piece, or this article in The Wall Street Journal.
July 31, 2021
The 1955 murals by costume designer Marcel Vertès at the Café Carlyle in New York wrap the room like a diaphanous silk scarf.
To me, they are a mashup of Chagall, Schiaparelli and Moulin Rouge (1952, not 2001). I saw them come to life last night in the documentary, Always At The Carlyle.
Today’s drawing challenge: take Vertès’s meandering mid-century fashion illustrator lines and pastel splashes of paint and apply them to another subject.
I’m calling this one “Tea with Marcel.” Imagine Bobby Short at the piano in the background.
Tools: Procreate (brushes: 6B Pencil and Wet Sponge).
July 30, 2021
What? You didn’t hear the news?
Instagram’s 3-column scrolling gallery loved by illustrators, photographers and influencers alike is going away.
The very thing that makes Instagram unique — its square photo sharing feature (and filters) — is about to be wiped out and replaced by all video all the time.
But why? you ask.
Here’s why: Instagram (owned by Facebook) is being trounced by the video sharing app, TikTok, so it’s creating a clone to compete. Whenever Facebook is not winning it buys or copies the competition.
You can read this article here.
If you’re still thinking, “But wait … I like what differentiates Instagram from all the video-sharing apps, and so does everyone I know.”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg knows how you feel, and he doesn’t care.
Here’s the thing: none of what you or I learned in school or in online webinars about audience-first business models applies to Facebook.
Listening to us and serving us has never been a priority. Mark’s measurable objective is total domination (a la Caesar Augustus). Customer feedback doesn’t stand a chance in that headspace.
Caesar Augustus, Artist Unknown. Vatican Museums, Rome
And here is where I admit to slipping up. Despite everything I know about Instagram’s rotten record as an online partner, I got lazy and I let it do my work for me.
Instagram become my Louvre, the main line to my audience.
And as I was merrily posting to the Gram, I got lazy and stopped archiving my illustrations on my website, a property I own and control.
To my current and former students: yes, I know better, but I’m human like you.
It’s worth repeating: we are all renters on social media platforms, from Facebook to YouTube to Instagram, and even on the straight-laced and seemingly reasonable LinkedIn. Meaning, once you post to any of these platforms, you lose control and copyright over your content — not to mention your ability to organically reach your entire audience.
So now I’m playing catchup. I’m trying to recreate the Instagram gallery format on my WordPress site.
I’m comparing and contrasting WordPress gallery plugins like Modula and Envira and weeping because they don’t even come close to the gorgeous layouts in Aeolidia (a Shopify design service) or Cargo (not WordPress compatible) or even SquareSpace, all the next best thing to the Instagram format.
Here’s what I mean:
I know what I want and I can lay it out in PhotoShop, but uploading a jpeg showing a gallery images is no way to build your SEO.
So, it’s back to the drawing board.
How do all of you feel about Instagram going away? Are you as bummed as I am?
July 6, 2021
Process Porn:
I drew this landscape in the @Procreate app using the “Peppermint” pencil ✏️ (in the Brush Library under “Sketching”).
Paul Cézanne was my guide. His angled brushstrokes had a consistent rhythm. They look like the wind blew them all in the same direction.
I prefer Procreate’s pencil tools to it’s oil brushes (at least for now). The oil brushes look too slimy and feel uncontrollable. Also, I don’t like digital drawings to look digital.
The Peppermint pencil I used here looks like hard colouring with a Prismacolor pencil crayon or an oil pastel.
I’d say the layers in Procreate (and Photoshop) have taught me to think in terms of building up a canvas in steps — from dark to light.
I still prefer to draw with real paper, pencils and brushes, but I probably would not have taught myself how to build up a canvas this way using the old fashioned methods.
This is quicker and less expensive, and fun because you can play it back!
June 21, 2021
Sunday mornings.
Sometimes I flip through my sketchbook looking for drawings to colour.
Look, I found this butterfly!
Caran d’Ache soft watercolour pencils felt like the best way to add a hit of colour to her wings.
The colour melts into paint when you add water.
The rest of my day went well after this.
