Illuatration Friday - Clandestine

secret societies, monks and mystery

Illustration Friday - Voices

"The poet laureate of rock 'n' roll. The voice of the promise of the '60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock, who donned makeup in the '70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse, who emerged to 'find Jesus,' who was written off as a has-been by the end of the '80s, and who suddenly shifted gears and released some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late '90s. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan."

This is the ironic recorded introduction that is currently played at the beginning of Bob Dylan's live shows. I know a lot of people think he can't sing but I think he's a great singer and one of the greatest voices of our time. Also, I'm really enjoying listening to his Theme Time Radio Hour shows, they are hugely entertaining

Illustration Friday - Rambunctious

Rambunctious seems to apply best to animals and children. We've certainly had many problems over the years with rambunctious raccoons

Illustration Friday - Similar

I know a number of beer "snobs" or connoisseurs who strongly disagree but my unsophisticated palate finds that cheap beers taste very similar to premium brands

Illustration Friday - Balloon

the topic made me think of the old German pop hit by Nena

Illustration Friday - Opinion

In my opinion November is the dreariest month of the year but sometimes you can find a washed out, decaying, melancholy beauty in it as well. As Tom Waits has put it: "No shadow no stars, no moon no cars, November. it only believes in a pile of dead leaves and a moon that's the color of bone. No prayers for November to linger longer. stick your spoon in the wall, we'll slaughter them all, November has tied me to an old dead tree. get word to April to rescue me. November's cold chain made of wet boots and rain and shiny black ravens on chimney smoke lanes. November seems odd, you're my firing squad, November."

Illustration Friday - Pretend

When I was a little kid westerns were very popular on TV and in the movies and I loved to pretend to be a gunfighter in the old west

Illustration Friday - Wise

the mafia has always been fascinating, here are some wise guys from the 80's going to court

Illustration Friday - Vacant

Time Out Of Mind was a fantastic comeback album for Bob Dylan and the song Not Dark Yet is one of the greatest of his amazing career, I immediately thought of these lyrics when I saw the topic

Illustration Friday - Repair

Someone needs to repair the damage done by 8 years of the Bush administration. As a Canadian all I can do is hope that America gets it right this time and elects Barack Obama

Illustration Friday - Late

the topic immediately made me think of this famous character who is seriously late, the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland - and what exactly was he late for?

Illustration Friday - Strings

I hate it when guitar strings break

Illustration Friday - Sugary

this topic immediately made me think of the incomprehensibly popular masses of dough, grease and sugar known as donuts which made me think of the Tom Waits song 9th and Hennepin in which he says " and all the donuts round here have names that sound like prostitutes " and tried to think of suitable names that could apply to both but I could only come up with a few lame examples - Honey Delight or Chocolate Surprse, maybe Sweet Jelly. I'm sure many of you can come up with better ideas. This is another primitive attempt at digital illustration using Gimp

Illustration Friday - Packed

with a new computer I'm trying to learn how to use Gimp and do more digital stuff, this is a combination of an old sketch changed to black and white and combined with a photo of Vancouver

Illustration Friday - Clique

Back in high school I was terrified when menbers of the football player/athlete clique approached cause you never knew when they might decide it would be fun to terrorize a smaller, weaker student

Illustration Friday - Island

Beautiful British Columbia, 6 in X 9 in watercolour sketch

Illustration Friday - Clutter, Memories, Routine, Detach

Having had company in the house for the last month and a great vacation in British Columbia I figured I might as well incorporate the last 4 topics in one illustration. as the caption says for some 15 years my routine was to take the commuter train from my detached suburban home to downtown Toronto, my memories are mainly of tired, dejected commuters on the evening train

Illustration Friday - Sail

one of the most famous fictional sailors, Gilligan

Illustration Friday - Poof

I really drew a blank on this one, in the end the word seemed to call out for a bold splash of colour so this is what I came up with

Illustration Friday - Canned

a favourite food on the planet Xudar, in case you wondered what all those flying saucers are after

Illustration Friday - Enough

When facing a shot over water make sure you take enough club

Illustration Friday - Foggy

Emerging from the foggy Victorian London night after committing another horrible crime - Jack the Ripper

Illustration Friday - Sour

Sour tends to have a negative connotation but here are some sour things that I love

Illustration Friday - Fierce

The amazing Tiger Woods proved once again that he is a fierce competitor by winning the US Open while playing with a painful knee injury

Illustration Friday - Hoard

for the third year in a row Richard and Jackie had won the Ontario Chipmunk Society Hoarder Of The Year award, not only had they had the largest quantity of nuts stored for the winter they scored a perfect ten on the quality of their hoard

Illustration Friday - Punchline

I didn't have time to come up with anything new mainly because I was watching hours and hours of the US Open. This is an old watercolour of the great Tom Waits, copied from the back of the Nighthawks At The Diner album, at that time he was almost half a standup comedian act and half a singer songwriter, here's an example from a bootleg live recording of the era, complete with a few punchlines
"Good evening, under the circumcision it’s a real prophylactic experience to be with you here tonight. Real nice to be in the teeming, undulating metropolitan area, real nice, better than the town last night, Jeeze, it was so small the main drag was a transvestite - and the average age was deceased, if you know what I mean"

Illustration Friday - Forgotten

After opening the fourth bottle of champagne Max had completely forgotten whatever it was he was drinking to forget, copied from the amazing painting "Self Portrait with Champagne Glass" by the great German artist Max Beckmann

Illustration Friday - Baby

nothing more beautiful than a happy, smiling baby

Illustration Friday - Worry

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, and it takes a worried man with some new Sharpies and a few glasses of wine in him to draw a worried self portrait

Illustration Friday - Wide

Open Wide! A moment I'm sure everyone enjoys as much as I do.

Illustration Friday - Electricity

Electricity in its most spectacular form

Illustration Friday - Seed

I had a really hard time thinking of something for this topic so finally I just did this quick still life of a lemon and 2 plum tomatoes all of which have seeds and out of pure contrariness I also included a seedless navel orange

Illustration Friday - Wrinkles

unfortunately the first thing I thought of when I saw the topic Wrinkles was my reflection in the mirror. This is a somewhat distorted self portrait from a while back that emphasizes the wrinkles

Illustration Friday - Primitive

the drum is probably the most primitive musical instrument but in the right hands it can be used to produce very sophisticated music

Illustration Friday - Fail

"Some speak of the future,My love she speaks softly,She knows there's no success like failureAnd that failure's no success at all"

Lyrics from one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs, Love Minus Zero, No Limit. In the late 60's and early 70's I mainly drew with markers in a style heavily influenced by the psychedelic poster art of the time - among other things. Those drawings stayed on walls in Morocco and Vancouver and various other places or disappeared in transit. Periodically I revisit the style so I did this portrait of Dylan, trust me, he's in there somewhere. Not quite a success but not really a failure either

I converted the picture to black and white and this is the result, I almost like this better

Illustration Friday - Save

Having grown up in Canada this was the first image that came to mind for the topic Save. Living with the Toronto Maple Leafs as my home team for many years has diminished my interest in hockey substantially but I still enjoy the Stanley Cup playoffs

Illustration Friday - Homage

Homage to Vincent Van Gogh, perhaps the most famous visual artist of all time.

Illustration Friday - Pet Peeve

a current pet peeve of mine is how even good quality expensive coloured pencils break so often when I'm sharpening them

Illustration Friday - Heavy

The greatest Heavyweight champion of all time, Muhammad Ali

Illustration Friday - Garden

I loved the lilies and other flowers in the garden of our last home.We moved last summer before the flowers bloomed, this is based on a photo from the summer before

Illustration Friday - Leap

Leaping Lizards, it's time for Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday - Multiple

Joseph Beuys was one of the most interesting figures in the art world in the late 20th century. He helped to change the definition of what a visual artist is. Among his works were many objects called multiples, editions of the same object, many made of fat, lead, copper and felt. So here is a multiple portrait of Beuys with one of his multiples, the felt suit

Illustration Friday - Theory

Conspiracy Theories. There are many about the murders of Tupac and Biggie and based on the war of words that preceded the killings there was a woman involved. 3 oil pastel drawings combined digitally

Illustration Friday - Choose

We all have to choose between good and evil. Having just finished the Harry Potter series this seemed a logical choice for the subject. The Buddha and the witch are copied from wall paintings in monasteries in Bhutan

Illustration Friday - Blanket

one of my favourite old drawings is this quick pencil sketch I did of my then 5 year old daughter asleep in the early morning while we were on vacation. At the same time I wrote and illustrated a little children's book for her about a mouse and his various animal friends (how original was that?) and here they have spread out a blanket for a celebratory picnic and party. The mashup of the two seems to fit the topic. Frightening to think that my daughter is turning 30 this year.

Illustration Friday - Tales & Legends

A Knight's Tale is the only film with Heath Ledger I have seen, in light of his untimely death this seems appropriate for the topic

Illustration Friday - Plain

As plain as the nose on his face. Probably the most famous nose of all time. Pastel on plain white paper.

Illustration Friday - Stitch

Knitting in Naxos. A few months after we were married in 1975 my wife and I took an extended vacation. We rented a small apartment for a month on the beautiful Greek island of Naxos. At one end of the town was a rocky beach with a great view of the town and the harbour. I would do some sketching and painting while my wife read or knitted. I still have some of those old sketches so I've pasted together a pencil sketch of the town and one of her knitting and applied some other digital changes. Don't know what stitch she was using.

Illustration Friday 100 %

100 % True. No, really.