Spring - Colour Study

Another one of my little colour experiments - 8 x 10, acrylic on canvas board. Spring has finally come to Niagara and in the wake of some very beautiful weather this wee painting happened. Larger format paintings are planned for the summer - just getting warmed up. More soon.

Garden Nymphe - Colour Study

Another small quickie - 11 x 11 inch, square format, acrylic. I'm still using the same basic pose as last time but now she is a garden nymphe, observing life from the undergrowth. She might be keeping an eye on the cat or watching the birds at the feeder. Either way, she's in the weed tangle at the unkempt end of the garden where the weeds and brambles are allowed to grow freely.

Faun Colour Study

Just a wee colour study this time - 8 x 10 inches, acrylic on board. This is a preliminary warm up for something a bit larger I'm hoping to get to shortly. More soon.

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Two Fauns

Okay, I warned you that there might be some more stone heads coming and I wasn't kidding. Here we have a small Rubenesque faun relaxing on just such a head and gazing out over the Arcadian landscape. Below her we've got a prancing faun making his way through the fields and below him we have an in-flight faerie drifting over the very same fields. All three of these characters exist in the same area at the same time, feeling the same breeze and the same sun, and are aware of each other, but all have agendas of their own and will not be influenced by the presence of these or the many other characters at play on this hillside at this time, such is the manner of these beings in this place. Thus the magic is cast over all. More soon, on these hills and many others.

Leap

While walking through  the neighbourhood the other evening, just as the sun was going down, I noticed a small flock of grackles at the top of a tall, leafless tree. They looked cold up there, huddled amid the twigs and branches. Seeing them up there with the naked tree standing out against the grey sky seemed to me to be a very Canadian scene. Not cozy or warm but cold and bleak - after winter but before spring. This put me in a nostalgic and introspective frame of mind. The kind of mood that, for me at least, will often spark an idea. It's all very spontaneous. You can't plan for this, but an idea came nevertheless and the sketches below are me attempting to work it out. A forest nymph leaping from one monumental stone head to another. I'm not sure why she is doing this, perhaps it's a game or maybe she is escaping from something unseen. At any rate, the last one is the closest to my original idea. The heads need to be bigger and she needs to be smaller.

I'm into stone heads at the moment, not sure why, but it's happening and there is no hiding from it. I'm sure it will pass, but until it does I will probably be drawing more of them - just so you know. But for now, more drawing required.

More soon.

Dwarf

Much of what I have been working on for the last year or so has been protected by NDA's which means I can't share any of it with you. This fellow was protected by just such a contract but the publisher is allowing me to post him. He is an Arctic Dwarf and will be part of an Arctic Myths field guide we are putting together. A lot of work has gone into the field guide and there is yet more to do but this is a little peek at what we've been up to. I was given permission to put up one or two more so stay tuned.

More soon.

Recent Pencil

This Faun turned up in a doodle session a little while ago. There's not a lot of drama here - she's meditating. I really hope I get to paint her one of these days. It's been a while since I've had a chance to do one for myself. I start getting a little twitchy if I don't occasionally get something of my own done.

Here are a few more ideas that are patiently waiting. First up is a friendly Giant. He couldn't wait to say good morning so he's coming in through the roof. After that is a wee gnome sculptor working on his masterpiece. I like the idea of the small artist and the big work. I think she will be bigger when I finally get to doing the final on this one. He should be no taller than her knee. I'm also thinking now that it might be cool if he were carving her from a living tree rather than a piece of stone like he is now. That way I could work some branches and leaf clusters into the design - could do some interesting things with cast shadows.

And finally we have a couple of adventurous girls visiting the cottage of a bird witch. I'm not sure what the story is going to be here. I'll have to think about it. I like the stairs though.

More soon. Travel in peace.  :)

Stooka

I'm still thinking about my Hunter and Waif story and who the villain might be. At the moment I'm considering  Stooka who is a northern witch/troll character I've come up with. She is menacing and ugly, doesn't bathe or laugh and is mean and cruel - but she has her reasons. Her look and personality are based on some of the Arctic Myth creatures I've been designing lately. I can't show you those because they are NDA protected but I like the way they're turning out and so I borrowed some of their characteristics for Stooka.

Stooka is of course a play on the word Stuka which as you probably know is the name of a dive bomber employed to devastating effect by the Luftwaffe during WW2. A dive bomber which was made even more terrifying by the siren attached underneath that caused it to howl and scream while diving. As if dropping a bomb on you wasn't bad enough. This siren idea lead me to consider my Stooka and how she might also use sound to make herself scarier. If she operated with a pack of wolves she could be howling with them or to them and she could become this loud scary thing that lives in the woods and steals children. The stealing of children is a repeating theme in Arctic Mythology, so why not borrow that too.

I'm also still messing with Waif and what she might look like. And - I've been chatting with Michel Rodrigue, a French graphic novel writer and artist about possibly collaborating on a project concerning witches and forests and faeries and things. We've pitched it to Lombard in Belgium. They're big. They do Tin Tin and a ton of other things. They're sort of interested but these things take time and a lot of horsing around. Anyway, what I'm getting at is I feel a graphic novel coming on, kind of like a cold only a lot more work. I don't know exactly when or how but it's coming. I'm just giving you a heads-up in case things start getting weird around here. Or should I say weirder?

More weirdness for you soon.

TGIF   :)

More Hunter and Waif

A bit more thinking about Hunter and Waif. These two just won't leave me alone. They're in my head now, my imagination. And the thinking was primarily about Waif, not so much Hunter. I'm trying out different looks for her. I can't quite seem to nail her down. Should she have big doe eyes or not ? What kind of hat, cap or toque ? Maybe a hood. Scarf or no scarf ? Suitcase, duffel bag or satchel ? For some reason I need to figure this out.

There is a story brewing. I can feel it, and heaven help me, I'm actually considering a graphic novel - ugh ! I haven't drawn a page of comics in many years but I'm feeling inspired. A lot of things have to fall into place first and there is much to do, but I'm thinking about it. Also, in case you're wondering, you don't usually see their feet because they are in the snow. This is a winter story.

These two characters won't be enough though. We need a mean-ass villain to get in the way and really mess things up for Hunter and Waif. A witch would be perfect. A Northern Snow Witch with no scruples and really bad timing, or really good timing depending on your point of view. I have some ideas for her too but that will be the next post.

So much to do now.

More soon.

Revisiting Hunter and Waif

Hunter and Waif is a theme I posted on a month or two back. I've been doing a lot of character design lately for clients, but not much for myself and so I thought I might come back to H and W because I kind of like them and think they might be interesting characters to work with if I can nail them down. When I'm working up my own ideas like this I usually start to get story ideas while I'm drawing. That was the case here. They went from being interesting shapes that I wanted to experiment with, to a couple of characters with back history and motivation.

I began to imagine a story in the far north like say the Yukon or Siberia. Waif has escaped from an orphanage or perhaps she was taken by a witch from the orphanage and later escapes. In any case she is wandering alone in a winter forest world when she is found/rescued by the hunter. Now they are together and he must try to save her but his range is limited and so he will have to hand her over to the next hunter and then the next and so on and so forth until the final hunter will be able to deliver her to safety. Maybe she would rather stay with Hunter, or perhaps she would like to become a hunter herself. These are merely the opening thoughts/ideas for a possible story but I'm curious about them and so I will continue to investigate.

I was pretty happy with the design for Hunter. He is a big simple shape and doesn't say too much but I found the Waif character a little harder to simplify properly. I couldn't quite decide how I wanted her to look. Is she happy and upbeat, not yet tainted by captivity or depressed and lonely ? Is she glad that Hunter has rescued her or does she still feel like a prisoner ? I need to have answers for these questions before I can finalize her design. Still working on her, and of course the story ideas keep coming.

More soon. I know the posting has been a little sparse lately but so much of what I'm doing these days is protected by NDA's that there isn't really much left over that I can share. I still occasionally find a few minutes to get into my sketchbook, and that is what we have here this time.

Peace   :)

Witch Market

I have finally decided after much prompting to get out of my comfy little chair and do a sketch/art book. The theme of this book will be "character design" because I love designing characters and much of the work I've been doing recently has been oriented in this direction. Last year I was lucky enough to have been involved in several animation projects where I was doing character design and I am definitely interested in more of the same. So with that in mind I have made a list of possible concepts for the book to use as design spring boards. The Witch Market is the first of these. What I am showing today is the rough work which will hopefully get me to a final drawing. These are still pretty rough and will require some streamlining and simplifying, or perhaps more to the point "designing". But that is what this process is all about - working your ideas and distilling them down to their most simple and clear incarnation. I still tend to get a little pencily. I could and should be more more graphic and direct. Lots to do !

Meanwhile I am still working on the stop-motion film concerning Arctic Mythology that I was working on before the holidays, but it is all top secret and I'm not allowed to share any of that work yet. I will be sharing the pencil work I'm doing for my new book however. This will be an on going project with many updates so stay tuned.

More soon.

Happy New Year

Not sure where I found this. I think it might be Roald Dahl. Sums it up pretty well I think.

Best wishes to all for the new year.

Happy Holidays

A travelling witch observed over the Gwelf region several years ago on her way to a holiday gathering and enjoying some seasonal cheer. There was no time to create a new card this year, as much as I wanted to, so I hope this one from a couple of years back will do.

Best wishes for this holiday season to one and all.

Much more coming in the new year.

Dwarves

I've been thinking about dwarves lately. The Hobbit is due out in a few weeks and like many, I'm quite looking forward to it. Naturally I'm a little concerned about what is going to happen to the story, but I'm not too concerned about how the film will look. The design, from what little I've glimpsed on line, looks terrific.

Anyway, fingers crossed for the story and get in line when it hits theaters.

More soon.   :)

Faun and Stone Gnome Head

Just a quickie this time.

sold.

More soon.   :)