Session No. 5

 

 

 

With Marie

Session #3 at Loisel's

 

 

My good friend Wayne, told me to work on my actual line, it's true that I have a tendency to fiddle too much sometime, Sweep, he says... SWEEP!  I'll show you sweeping.

Life Drawing with Regis Loisel

So I reached Montreal and I didnt loose any time to find a life drawing to join. Lucky me, it's with no other than the great Regis Loisel. I reached the studio not really sure of what to expect, I rang at the door, no answer, I stepped in...walk up the stairs... knock at the door... still no answer, but I was hearing the muffled sound of chit chat. I was just hoping to be at the right place, and not opening the door in a random family house somewhere. I pushed the door... and phew! It was the right place. People where scattered around waiting for the model to arrive. On the walls hundreds of frames hunged everywhere. I was intimidated. The caliber of the people is really high, and for a first timer, I wanted to make a good impression. It was out of question of having a bad session. The model soon arrived and started posing. Fortunately things went well and I was happy with my output. The pressure I put on myself helped me to stay focused. Below is a selection of what I consider the best of my session. 1min to 20min. Meet Veronique!

 

and AGAIN!!!

So... its this time of the year again, when I announce another international move. I'm heading back to Montreal. It's the only place on earth I dare call my hometown. It's also the main reason that kept me away from blogging lately, that and another thing I'm working on too... www.rhinopeacock.com but this is not ready to be publicized yet.

So Montreal here I come, It's been 8 years since I've left. Many must have changed, many things stayed still I'm sure. But It'll be exotic to me, I will discover it with fresh new eyes. I'm really eager to paint autumn, but also will try to paint in winter too. It will be a challenge to keep the water, finger and toes from freezing. Right now, what I'm craving the most, is a juicy smoked meat from Schwartz, which played a very important role in my artistic endeavor. Back then when I was working at Ubisoft, I used to walk from the office to the life drawing session on Ontario Street, and what kept me motivated?  Schwartz!!! Because I would stop on my way and get a snack. So to develop good habit tie it with a little reward. it's doesn't need to be big,

and over time... you may drop the little reward, because in the end the real value & reward is in the activity itself.

How to go to life drawing regularly for 2 years? Get a smoked meat on your way...

How to wake up early? I plunged into espresso & coffee making...

How to go the gym? I go get a massage after 3 sessions...

How to save money and pay bill on time?.... I haven't find anything yet....(i'm open to suggestions)

Anyway, Montreal, I missed you, and here I come!

I've been published!

I spent the last few month writing an article about the artists and their challenge in the videogame industry. The well known videogame developer portal, GAMASUTRA, has agreed to publish it.

I'd like to thanks, JiN for the exquisite cover art, Matt Jones for granting me the right of using some of his superb artworks.


Here it is!




http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/174375/the_great_catch_becoming_the_.php

Bat Dog

- Alfred, have you walked the dog?

The Tank

 

The Scout

 

Recent Sketch

Sherpa Old P.A.

Few weeks ago I posted an image of a goat on his peak and said that I would explain later.

The illustration has been done for a special beer that has been brewed specifically for my brother in law 40th birthday. Since my brother in law is actually a cool guy, it was a no brainer for me to join the fun and help. So I got the honor to create the label. Being a fan of Mucha... I wanted to try something :).

 

 

The Lost Fox: More Color keys

I've made some more iterations(digital) of my previous studies

The Lost Fox: Progress

So a bit of a context for these guys, I've been posting a few things about an idea I'm tenderly caressing from time to time. Its originally spawned as a game idea, but games being such a chore to ship, I decided to tone it down to a more accessible project. A children illustrated book sound like a good idea. It's about a Fox Cub who lost his way but with the help of a caring Butterfly will find his way back to his home.

Below I've done 3 small drawings, with colors. I will reiterate digitally with these. I'm trying hard not to settle down too quickly. I want to explore more color combinations.

Illustration WIP

Something I've been asked to work on. I will show the final stage a bit later, and explain the purpose :).

San Francisco #3

Still in SF, I attended a life drawing on thursday, it was great with a costumed model.




Saturday, I walked and found myself neat Civic Center, the day was nice but super windy.
I want to add the golden details on the dome, with gouache, but don't have any at the moment.

Then I sat at Grand Cafe, on Geary, I sketched while drinking Hendrick's Gin and eating oysters.

 

What happened in SF wont stay in SF

I was sitting in San Francisco, one of my favorite city (#2 after Tokyo, but don't tell SF), at Sushi Boat, a sushi restaurant on Geary, Eating my favorite food, Sashimi, (from Edo AKA Tokyo, don't tell SF), drinking Sake...and I got in the mood. I wanted to paint. Groovy music was softly blasting, Lalo Shiffrinesque, It was like living in Bullit or Dirty Harry. My head was wobbling, It was time for a new cornerstone. I asked the waiter to change place, ordered another Sake, then unfold my arsenal. I started sketching, with one thing in mind "no corrections".(undo is the worst thing ever... after Hitler) What if we could undo Hitler.... then undo would be #1 on my list. Anyway, I kept sketching and started painting. For the first time in my life, I was in total communion with watercolors. We didn't argue, at least not very much. I gave her room, she rewarded me, I kept going. In the end I was left with one of the best experience on-site painting I've ever had.

PS:Jin, if you are reading this... I wish you were here.

Lost Fox: Africa

Still exploring ideas for the Butterfly and the Fox story. What if at some he was exploring some part of Africa. I don't want to explore the postcard Africa, with golden skies and girafe silhouette in the savanah. Africa is vast... and I want to explore some other typical aspect, like these akward looking trees, the baobab. This variety kinda look like a giant Daikon.

Defeated

Still on my sketching spree, I want to  make this year a record, I've slowed down in 2011.
For this one I wanted to go simple with value, complexity in shapes and a dramatic effect. No matter how I scan it, and fix it, the original is so much better to look at. With all the subtleties in colors gradient,

Lost Lagoon - Final

I've done some more research & studies, and tried to really nail down the gesture of the girls. I'm kinda satisfied on how they turned out. I guess I find myself at one of these cornerstone again.

WiP - Lost Lagoon

A quick rough for an idea I'm exploring. I'll do a tight pencil drawing next. For the final painting, i feel the cliff on the left side should be warmer, I also want to leave the white of the paper for the skin tone, so they really stand out against the waterfall, and increase the overall sunlight effect.

Japanese Garden(wip)

This morning, I realized someone stole my electric charger for my scooter, I was f*cking pissed off.

To whoever it was, I'm pretty sure you are not reading my blog, but I pity your morally bankrupt state of mind. OK :) I am no longer angry...

Anyway... the rest of the day went without a hitch. Even more I would say, I was quite inspired. So I wanted to try some good old photoshop.  I kept a step by step progress, because I was constantly spamming Jin's inbox with updates. This is still WiP, I may finish it, or not. I feel the stones are not thematically integrated. I'll have to fix that. Feel like random shapes... badly designed.

The Golf Player

If you l.o.v.e. James Bond you surely know where I got my inspiration. That character always elude me no matters how many time Iwatch it. I would like to redesign the whole shapes, I'm often way too conventional and I could use a bit of excentricity. Skew things a bit, get a stronger statement. Yeah, lets focus on that.

Crash!

A bit of fun today, the quotes along side with this could be...

"I didn't meant to interrupt m'am, but do you know where I can get a monkey wrench? It's a national security matter"

The real deal here, is... I wanted to test some grass, twigs and flowers work... so I started with the setup. The foreground would need to be opaque and I wanted to try gouache, I really struggle with gouache and I wasn't sure of my success. But by the time I was done with the setup(all transparent Watercolor), I couldn't proceed by fear of ruining it. I liked it too much the way it was, but still I gave few gouache brush stroke and kinda ruined the foreground. So I stopped before making it worse. Lesson learned here... ALWAYS follow your instinct.