Waiting In the Hall Of the Coliseum

As I write this, I'm sitting in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, affectionately known as the NAC.  For all my life I'd heard about the NAC, and maybe it was just the kid I was when I first saw specials on the CBC that were filmed here, or concerts that were recorded here, or whatever, but this place always seemed to have a significant place in the cultural life of Canada.

You will hear a nightingale sing, seek me out then

Finally back to regular drawing, what a relief. Between the animation workshops, the new job, and helping Roomie out on the drywall, it's been hard to devote a lot of time to creative work. But things have calmed down, and I have a much clearer direction than I had before, which is always nice.

So the usual today, a page each of regular boxes, bendy boxes and blobs. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get a chance to take some pics of my big newsprint pad to show you the gesture studies I'm doing. It's a new way of thinking about poses for me, so I'm going to be concentrating on it a lot over the next couple of months. In any case, I'm drawing more and more as time goes by, which is where I want to be heading. I've got goals, and this is the only way I'm gonna get there. I don't have talent, so I've gotta get there through hard work instead.

Couple of performers you should be listening to:

• Adrien Reju
• Will Knox
• You Say Party, We Say Die
• The Redwood Plan
• Amelia Curran

Audio quality

Not a lot of art today, just two pages of boxes and one of increasingly disturbing blob creatures. I'm not really sure what it says about my subconscious that I'm tending toward more and more complex, mass-of-writhing-flesh creations, but there you go. I assume it's something about my mother.

In any case, I thought I'd pass on a couple of music podcast recommendations today. Like a lot of artists, I listen to music a lot, but I haven't exactly got a huge budget for CD's. So while I'm not all that morally opposed to downloading albums, it's really way too much of a hassle so I can't be bothered. Besides, how do I find out who the good artists even are? Not a lot of my current circle of friends are into the music I'm into, as far as I know, so I can't rely on them for recommendations.

So enter podcasts. Honestly, I'd been avoiding the whole podcast scene and iTunes in general up until about Christmas. It wasn't something I really wanted to deal with. But then my mother went and got me an iPod for Christmas, and you know how these things go. So I've recently gone looking about at a few random podcasts, and I came up with a couple of gems to share.

KEXP A radio station in Seattle, they've got a bunch of offerings. Most importantly, Music that Matters and the Song of the Day. I've downloaded a bunch of the shows, and found a lot of really amazing stuff that I wouldn't have otherwise. And you owe it to yourself to subscribe to Song of the Day and download the track by The Redwood Plan. It's wicked, really.

Acoustic Long Island They've got an audio and video podcast, the audio generally runs about a half hour, with an hour for the Open Mic nights. All acoustic and folk, which lends itself to not only great performances but great storytelling and banter in between songs, which I personally love. The Princess Peapod show from last October is really awesome, check that out.

TransAtlantic Acoustic Podcast A cool variety show hosted by Sam Salter in the UK and jill no jack in the US, again loads of lively banter and seriously good acoustic music. Pretty wide variety of styles, although not a lot of shows online. Still worth a listen at about a half hour a pop.

The Roadhouse Blues, blues, blues! I'm more of a folk and acoustic fan than a blues fan, but an hour a week of good, solid blues isn't something I'm gonna turn down. Lots of independent and small label stuff as well as bigger acts, and an intelligent host who knows his way around the business. Worth it every time.

The Perfect Beat For those days you really need your blood moving, three hours of solid dance beats from DJ Eros every Wednesday. Loads of variety, great textured mixes and energy galore, I love it!

So yeah, here's some art.

Much win

I was able to show my friend, who'd never seen Danny Kaye before, this classic:



I've done my good deed for the whole month!

Only one page today, a bit sketchier than usual. Fun stuff, hopefully I'll have more tomorrow.

Off day

This day's been a big bag of blah, honestly. Here, have a page of Preston Blair studies and a failed attempt at drawing a Blood Elf in a pimp hat and belly shirt.



Just so this post isn't totally full of fail, here's a great animated music video. So much going on here, it's amazing. Watch it!




Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

One week

Not really new art this time, but I realized that one of this week's Sketch Night pieces was based on the same Dean Yeagle sketch I worked from last week. So I thought I'd do a quick side-by-side.

That's a big difference for only one week. I wonder where I'll be a week from now?


I also want to share this great animation by Jackie Lay of Tom Waits' Eggs and Sausage. I loves me some Tom Waits, yum.

Eggs and Sausage from Jackie Lay on Vimeo.

Happy Canada Day!

Day 10-12 of head sketches. Some things are improving, some things are getting quite comfy, some things are MAKING ME WANT TO GNAW MY OWN FACE OFF.

But hey, that's art for you.

And for fun, what could be more Canadian than Stompin' Tom. And obligatory "Bryan Adams' nationality" jokes, of course.