Kayak Issue #37: Loudmouths

This issue is one of the reasons I have not posted so much lately. I have been wrapped up in the production of Issue 37 of Kayak: Canada's HIstory Magazine for Kids. I'm quite proud of this one it has many great articles/stories and illustrations concerning passionate Canadian activists who helped shape our country. The Issue has dropped in the mail today but will not hit newsstands until the 12th of September. So if you don't already have a subscription for your kids or yourself get one HERE!

This Issue Deals with a variety of outspoken Canadians (Tommy Douglas, Adelaide Hoodless, René Lévesque) we also have articles on Stompin' Tom" Connors, Stories about the Regin Riot and a comic about the beginnings of Greenpeace.

The artists in this issue are Scott Chantler, Mathieu Beaulieu, Thadeus Maximus, Keith Milne and the cover and comic art was done by Alex Diochon. I even got to contribute a bit to this issue, but I'll post about that at a later time. In the meantime feel free to check out the work of all these great artists.

Beaker Sketches

These are the initial two sketches I did of Beaker, The first I thought was too much it would have been fun but I wanted the more classic nervous look he has whenever he stand beside Dr. Bunsen Honeydew during one of their insane experiments. Well that caps it off for the process. As I mentioned before no more secrecy, it leaves me with too little material to post until I'm done then I have to do blog post after blog post in a condensed span of time. Thanks for checking in I will post some more arts and crafts stuff soon.

Beaker: Painting Process

So here is my painting process.

I primed a board and sketched the image onto it freehand from a sketch I had done prior. I will post my sketch variations in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a shot of the sketch before I applied the blue wash. So then I applied a blue wash I'm not sure how much influence it actually had over the painting as the oils have a high level of opacity. I did it none the less.




I then started to knock in the background colours.




I then blocked in the main Beacker colours and then started to work in the various light to dark contrasts.






All of this was done in my basement and in my kitchen between the hours of 9PM and 12AM. As I mentioned previously I will post the original sketches soon. If anyone has any specific questions about my process please leave a comment. Constructive criticism is also welcome.

Beaker

Well, here he is.

About one and a half months late, but here he is.

As I have mentioned before some frinds requested a couple of months ago, that I do a painting of the Muppet Beaker following the creation of my Gonzo in a flight suit painting. I have documented the process and will post the progression in the next couple of days. This was a real blast to work on. I paid special attention to the eyes in this painting making sure the pupil's do not reflect light, but that the ping-pong ball eyes give enough sense of roundness. I think it was quite successful.

This is something I attempted with Gonzo and was also successful with, but with practice comes improvement, and I think the sense of depth and lighting are superior in this painting. Going back to the eyes of both Muppets, I made a point of not adding highlights to the pupils of the eyes as that denotes that there is a wet reflective surface. What I find interesting as with the actual puppets themselves, even though they have essentially dead eyes they still feel full of energy and life.

I've often found it strange that even though they are in fact puppets, that I never think of them as puppets. Beaker is Beaker and Gonzo is Gonzo (Real life characters to me.) I thought for a while that this phenomena was due to the fusion of puppeteering and television. The ability to always crop the puppeteers out of the scene, but just watch kids or even the adult actors interact with the Muppets live. You will notice the suspension of disbelief with all of them. Even directly confronted with the puppeteer controlling the Muppet.

Although there are many things I tried to do with this painting concerning lighting and painting techniques. I regret not doing a proper colour comp. This I think slowed me down considerably in my decision making process during the actual execution of this painting. What I am very happy about is the green background and the vignette. The green is as close as I could get to the actual colour of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and the vignette gives a dark and slightly ominous feeling, like the Dr. is about to unleash some horribly useful invention upon Beaker.

I can not folks who suggest I paint Beaker enough for their idea to do this painting. This painting proved to be a very rewarding and pleasurable experience. Thanks to the both of you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I can now focus back on finishing my mini Peter Pan paintings and then get back on track with my Folk Fest series and other things.

Until next post,
Stay Golden Pony Boys and Girls

Beaker Update

OK, done, but I'll not show him to you until the people who requested that I him has seen the final piece in person. Hey, hey, hey! none of that. Practice you patience people. You'e acting as though I have posted nothing of artistic value on the blog for more than a month . . . yeah uhh, I'll get this up for guys as soon as possible.

Beaker Finished!

This post will be a bit lack luster because I don't have a photo of the painting yet. But I wanted to put you all at ease and let yu know I am still alive. There have been vacations and fringe festivals and all sorts of musical summertime activities keeping me from blogging. But in a couple of days, rest assured I will post some photos of the final Beaker painting and some process photos too.

Stay golden Pony boys and girls.

Pan Tuba

Just another sketch from the Nintendo DS this is one of the first ones, so it is rougher looking than my rough looking digital paintings that don't look quite so rough. What I love about using the nintendo DS is the ability to work with colour so easily. A lot of these are done during the winter when I bus to work instead of biking and it is quite hard to get the old water colours out on the autobus. Thanks for looking. I assure you my commission is 98% done I have to let it do some drying and lay some final touches then I will post some of my process.

Stay golden Pony Boys and Girls!