Illustration: Fierté 2024 (1)

Pride was sort of a bust this year. The parade was cut in 2 by protestors which made it seem like it was only an hour long which made a huge part of the crowd leave early and not see the second half. On top of that the usual people coming late and just standing in front of those who have been there a coupe hours making it impossible to take photos or even see what is going really got to me. It's too bad, I might not go again. I like the march and I like to take photos of the dancing people for reference in drawings. There are not many chances for that. 

That said this was not from a great photos. he was off to the side and at first just walking with 2 other guys when he broke ahead and started dancing, twerking... getting the crowd going. He was also, like his pals covered in solid gold glitter paint which if know that I think explains the shading in this drawing. I wanted to use pen and ink, black and white only - no tones - like my older drawings on paper. It's an artistic challenge to simplify to two colours but since I use stipple to represent skin and this guy was ALL skin the cramping in my hand was constant! 

I am also including the sketch because I decided to not make a super detailed sketch as a guide for the inking but instead use it to see if I could keep the "aliveness" (is that a word?) of the pose by using something less rigid as a guide. 

Illustration: Street Acrobat on Saint Catherine MTL

I didn't get many reference photos this year from Montreal Complement Cirque, there wasn't a free show at the park near me and I didn't see many of the acts on St Denis. I did catch this guy near my house, the business group here in the village has been doing small shows up and down Saint Catherine most days and I happened to walk by while I had my camera with me. 

I decided to use Affinity Photo and do my old paint in greyscale then colourize technique. I like the look of it. I might do one more of him, maybe pen and ink maybe digital water colour which I have been playing with but not getting anywhere. 

illustration: Équilibre sur des blocs de bois

 

More indications that not being able to sleep can be productive. I was in the Boston over this past weekend and finished this as the planes kept me up all night in my parents old house. In Procreate and I used a strong outline again along with a shape behind the figure. I did that for a few of my older drawings and thought it might be time to revive that look. 

Illustration: homme assis dans le parc

 

Painted in Krita with a little work done in Affinity photo fr iPad while I was away this weekend. I was taking photos of a friend getting greeted by my dog in the park and saw this guy sitting at table and decided to draw him. I actually don't like the idea drawing him without permission even though he was in a public park and you don't see his face. It's completely legal but I would rather ask bit I am not comfortable doing that either!

I liked the idea of drawing a figure in more of a setting and him at a table seemed like good practice. Another thing I liked was, though he is pretty muscular his back was reflecting a lot of light so it wasn't deep shadows exaggerating his definition but looked much more relaxed. I also like yu can't see what he is doing and that sort of "mystery" intrigues me in a composition.