Illustration: Acrobat de la rue 02

 The last acrobat drawing in a while unless something weird happens. Didn't get much in the way of references this summer. There are a few acrobatic acts I would love to draw but unless I can get acrobats to perform for me I don't think I'll see any of that in the wild as the free shows get shorter and less acrobatic as the years go on. 

Drawn in procreate, I added some tone to the pants for not real reason but I like how it looks. The curly hair was fun. 

Illustration: pride dansers

 The boy is from this year, he was marching with the black and white drawing dancer I posted not long ago. The Drag on stilts was from last year. I have been unable to decide what to do with her. I started as a colour, then though maybe a loose watercolour but couldn't get into it then made a detailed outline and that is where it stands now. 

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: Hottie in Sunglasses

 

What else would I call this? This was from references of acrobats reshow this summer. I made it in Affinity Photo on iPad and desktop by saving the file I was drawing  with in Dropbox so I could open it on either and pick up where I left off. I worked really well and I can see me doing that with other work in the future. Though photo is still missing good colour blending options (Procreate has the same issue for me) it forces me to try other methods to get something I like. 

illustration: Gardiens du temp 01

 

The free show at the park near me this year for Montréal Complement Cirque was really fun and amazing this year. I was finally able to get reference photos for more drawings, though maybe not too many as I have been going to these things for a very long time I am not coming across acts I haven't seen  many times before. 

This one came out well I thought, the challenge is the pose of course as it's so twisted. I'll likely do more of him and at leaast one in colour. 

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: Model in profile

I have been itching paint something in colour again for a while in Krita. I finally got some time to over theist week or so. It took a longer time than normal to sketch it out... the fingers were a confusing mess but also what I thought made it more interesting. 

I did my current technique of a solid colour silohuette and then added blocks of colour for shading and highlights, getting more detailed each pass until it looked ready to blend the colours into more natural tones. This seems to make it go quicker, maybe because this approach lets me see problems before doing tons of details and having to redo them. 

The guy wasn't the best of people, to be honest, but he made a decent model. He knew what he was selling but made the mistake of thinking everyone was looking to buy it.