1576 - Guess This Bird

I'm not a bird-watcher.  All throughout my art career, I've always had trouble rendering birds.  If I go slowly and follow a good visual source, I can make a bird on paper.  But most birds are flighty, so I sometimes have to draw quickly.

I found a bird I thought was quite unique, so I drew it as fast as I could and filled in what details I could recall when the bird went away.  Can you guess the bird I drew?

Well, my wife, also a non-birder, takes one look at my sketchbook and announces, "It's a whiskeyjack."  Otherwise known as a grey jay, this bird spans all across North America and has an estimated population of at least 21.5 kajillion.  Somehow, I missed seeing them all except this one.  

 

1575 - Big Green Saviour

Here's a religious sketch from my sketchbook.  It's of a larger-than-life statue of Jesus Christ in the evening sun.  Since I used a green pencil, the sunniness doesn't quite come through.  

 

1574 - Skyline Car Sketch

The Skyline Car is the most recognizable car on The Canadian, Canadian Pacific Railway's flagship passenger train.  It's a double-decker car with a small lounge on the bottom and seating on the top under a large glassed-in bubble roof.  The views from the Skyline Car are spectacular!

 

1573 - Bar Car Sketch

The efficient bar car on board The Canadian, Canadian National's flagship passenger train.  The bar is well-stocked, but because it's on a train it's also really small.  From what I know, tall fat people like me would have a hard time staying employed as staff on a train since we're simply too big to be helpful.  

The bar car, though, has the most comfortable seats on the train.  I guess not many people sit there, although the bar is certainly popular and the bartenders are always busy.   

 

1572 - Lounge Car Sketch

Late October, my wife and I were thrilled to experience our dream vacation, travel by rail all the way across Canada.  The train is the Canadian National #1, the flagship of the passenger fleet, called "The Canadian".  If you have a Canadian ten dollar bill with picture of a train on the back, that's the one. 

 

The trip was amazing, and the CN staff were very friendly and most helpful at every stage of our journey.  It really was the trip of a lifetime!  Of course we took a lot of pictures, documenting Canada from east to west.  I'll probably post a few of the better ones as time goes by.  

 

However much we loved the train, it wasn't a great venue for visual art.  It's insular: you're cut off from the rest of the world as the train trundles along.  There's not much in the way of electronics or technology, either.   Riding the train is very much like going back in time.  My wife and I really enjoyed it.  But the one thing I didn't count on was that the train jolted around quite a bit as it ran, making fine-lined artwork difficult unless the train was stopped. 

 

I did make a few sketches along the way:

 

 

This is a view of the luxurious Lounge Car, which the is the final car on the train.  It has curved windows all around the back to allow for many interesting views of the scenery.  Comfy padded chairs make the Lounge an excellent place for passengers to congregate.




 

1571 - World Domination #2

Right after I bought it, my World Domination notebook fell into the wrong hands, just as I predicted.  Some master spy (with my wife's handwriting, looks like) sketched in Plan For World Domination #2.  

 

1570 - World Domination #1

I bought this book, "Plans For World Domination".  It's just a notebook with a fancy cover that I like a lot.  Things have been complicated lately, so I felt I needed a good portable notebook to keep track of events.  

I've decided to throw in a few actual plans for world domination, just in case this book falls into the wrong hands.  I'd like to give spies something to think about!  Below is Plan Number One:

 

1569 - Four Studies Of Tarkin

Now I have some studies of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars.  Since there are a lot of sources for this, I followed them fairly closely.  I didn't try to be creative.  I did try to be more careful with my line quality.  

Just like Marlon Brando, Peter Cushing also had a life cast made of his face.  It was this life cast that was used to create the computer-generated Tarkin in the Star Wars story Rogue One (2016).  Interestingly, the life cast was originally made for the comedy Top Secret (1984): Peter Cushing was part of an elaborate, surreal joke involving a magnifying glass and an oversized eyeball.  The cast survived in a warehouse and was used to re-create the fearsome Tarkin many years after Peter Cushing had passed away.  

Some of my all-time favourite Star Wars trivia: you only see Grand Moff Tarkin's feet once in Star Wars.  That's because the boots provided for Mr. Cushing were a couple sizes too small.  After enduring the boots for one day's shooting, Mr. Cushing stood firm that he would film the remainder of his scenes in his fuzzy bedroom slippers.  Does that make Tarkin less fearsome, or more so?  

Grand Moff Tarkin is the intellectual property of Disney.  

1565 - Three Studies On Jor-El

I've been making studies of Jor-El, Superman's father.  I need to gear up for a big science-fiction project I am wanting to attempt.  I am way out of practice for this kind of drawing, so the only way to get any better is to draw more and more.  

These studies aren't all that bad, though.  I've been using Marlon Brando as an inspiration.  I find Mr. Brando to be one of the most fascinating actors the Hollywood studios have ever produced.  He had a tough life, but a very rich one, and was full of insight.  He also was compulsive about recording himself, so there exist hundreds of hours of tapes that form his autobiography.  Apart from his films, Mr. Brando also had life-casts made of his face and he allowed himself to be laser-scanned by Electronic Arts.  There are quite a number of easy visual references to the man.

Of course I'm not trying to copy them, but Marlon Brando did make a terrific Jor-El and I would like to capture some of that essence for my own project. 

The character of Jor-El is the intellectual property of DC Comics Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment.  

1560 - Vial Artwork

"Wow, that's really, really vial," my wife said medicatively. 

 

1559 - A Small Bat

Just a small piece of batty clip-art, drawn quickly.  

 

1554 - Bad News Bears: Unfinished Art

Injustice prompted me to draw a political cartoon. 

Illness postponed it past the date where it could have been relevant.  

I suppose I could still finish this work and make my point, but by the time I did that, nobody would care, not even the person against whom the injustice applied.  The artwork is decent, though.  The fact that the people in the artwork are bears I think is funny (and relevant to our neighborhood, where bears keep hunting our garbage cans, swimming in our hot tubs,  and playing with our lawn ornaments).  

It took me a few hours to get the likeness on the big bear correct.  He's a news editor chewing out his cub reporter, so now they are the Bad News Bears.  

 

1548 - Happy Baby Sketch

A quick ink design for a happy baby.  The forehead was large enough to hold the JSVB watermark. 

1547 - Two Stethoscopes

A sketch of two stethoscopes.  I haven't drawn anything for a very long time, so I feel I am rusty.

1527 - Jor-El's Final Day On The Job

See, this is funny if you realize that Jor-El, Superman's father, is giving the weather report for the planet Krypton just before it falls into its own sun.  Jor-El would totally do this since he's the head of the Krypton Science Council, the body that governs the entire planet.  He was also the only one to warn against the wobbly orbit of Krypton, at least in some of the comic books anyways.  In desperation, he rebels by sending his son Kal-El on a spaceship to Earth just before Krypton is incinerated, and Kal-El becomes Superman.  

Funny!

When I drew yesterday's illustration of the black side of Krypton being destroyed along with the white, I had intended Samu-El Jack-Zon (name courtesy of my friend Earl who is wise in all things related to The Man Of Steel) to be watching television, and Marlon Brando with his utterly dispassionate performance from the 1979 Superman movie would signal the end of civilization.  I couldn't figure out how to stage that, so I split up the two ideas.  I just worked this one out as a sort of sketch since ironically it's so hot out right now I'm thinking our own planet is falling into the sun.  I am sleeping days and working nights, or trying to. 




 

1521 - It's Canada Day, Baby

My wife suggested that I draw a baby for Canada Day.

1510 - "Trudy"

It used to be easier in conversation to tell Prime Minister Trudeau apart from his father, also Prime Minister Trudeau.  After all, both at the time of their election were forward-thinking, youthful, and dynamic leaders with tons of personal charisma.  But then Trudeau Elder got wrapped up in the National Energy Program, where Ottawa dictated to Western Canada exactly how to collect and sell their energy resources to the rest of the nation.  The NEP divided Canada and brought down the ruling Liberal political party at the time.

So that's an easy way to tell Trudeau Elder apart from Trudeau Younger, since our current Prime Minister Trudeau has so far created national consensus regarding sharing energy resources fairl-

Oh.  Whoops!

Well, another way to tell the Prime Ministers Trudeau apart is to call ours "Trudy".  

At first I was trying for a far more South Park style of Trudy - I had wanted to call this JSVB entry "Cartoony Trudy" - but I settled for more of a caricature.  What could I possibly need with this artwork, do you think? 




 

1503 - Pepperland Jeff Sketch

In order to complete my vision of me in Pepperland from the movie "Yellow Submarine (1968), I needed a quick model of myself.  This is that sketch plus a pose to show me giving a good kick.  

1495 - World Hamster Day 2018

Today is World Hamster Day, an anniversary of the day when hamsters were first domesticated.  Unfortunately, this particular day hasn't been the happiest.  

1459 - Drills IV

Another page of drills, combining the hatching techniques I tried previously.  Exciting?  That's up to you.

The text on the right was some scribbling for a recipe to make a great hamburger.  Unless you have your own grinder, you'll need a butcher to grind together brisket, chuck, and short rib meat.  You mix the patties with breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, onion, and oil seasoned with garlic and rosemary.  You add the condiments you like but make certain you infuse the mayonnaise with truffle and basil.  Sounds pretty good!