Stalin

This is for an article discussing the Ukrainian Holodomor or holocaust which was initiated by Stalin's repressive collectivization policies in '32 and '33. Millions died and scholars today still debate Kremlin guilt when it is fairly clear they were responsible in many ways.

Alan Jarvis for the Literary Review

A picture of the flamboyant National Gallery curator Alan Jarvis who was instrumental in dragging Canada out of the past with bold aquisitions of contemporary art in the 50's.

Wajdi Mouawad

Canadian Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad for the Literary Review.

Theatre Rusticle poster

Here is a mock up of the new postcard/poster for Theatre Rusticle's next production Birnam Wood. Very autumny like outside right now.

Mao sketch in colour!

This is a piece for the Literary Review about the chap Lu Decheng, who defaced Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Square and then got tossed into the nightmare Gulag for years.
It seems everyone uses the standard Mao portrait to riff on and I wanted a different pose so I chose one of his smoking moments and gussied it up a bit.

St. Hugh!

I had to make an emergency retirement gift tonight for the Dean of Lincoln University in the UK. They are rather fond of their great local saint Hugh thus the mash up.

Tracey Hill films

Tracey Hill Films wanted a wee cartoon to be added to their logo.
Here is a version of the two of them on an old style camera crane!

More roughs

Some additional roughs here that may or may not get turned into something.

Stalin and Black sketches

Here are a pair of rough pencils of Conrad Black and Evil Uncle Joe.
I'll post the illos when they get painted for comparison.
Need to get the likeness' more on the money.

Funk out!

I couldn't resist throwing this crazy JibJab vid of me and the missus funking out on Soul Train!
Watch this!

Another Romanian dude

I just finished this one that I started in Romania of Grandpa Grig's vineyard pal.
A miniature ox this fellow, even with a fake leg he was hauling old trees out of the bush like a bulldozer.
A fantastic zombie face to boot!

Romanian farm

Here is a watercolour of one of the farms beside Coco's outside of Vaslui.
It was fantastic roaming around these farms just to see how everything works and of course it helped that it was a balmy summer afternoon.
Sketching near the pigpen would probably not be as much fun in February.

Blue Peter Rocks!

A fine turn out in the Yonge/Dundas square for our great pal Paul Humphrey and his band Blue Peter. It was a kickoff show for TIFF as the lads have music in the movie SUCK starring Malcolm McDowell, Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper!
A super open air concert experience for late summer '09.

Aretha Rotty

I had to make a picture for an article on respecting dogs and they asked for an Aretha with a circa '60's flavour. Who better than our our old fave Rosie the Rotty for this task.
She was a great old gal that Rosie.

Romanian sketchbook!

Well, Coco, Luca and myself successfully navigated Coco's homeland Romania without too many bruises or hangovers and lord knows we narrowly escaped a multitude of high speed traffic crashes...by inches. It is a place of great beauty and zany contradictions. Many things are better than ever with a standard of living that surprises. Gucci models stepping out of BMW's into dingy grey Soviet apartments while feral dogs nip at their heels. Shopping malls teeming with consumers dying to buy anything at all just so the neighbors will be certain they too are haves versus have-nots.

The repercussions of communism are many and the folks, as lovely as they are, are still gripped by demons. Everyone and their brother smokes and enjoys a shot of tzuica ( hooch) to keep the train on the tracks. Sausages are served with every meal and salads...well, maybe next year.

For every odd thing there were 15 great surprises and folks tripped over themselves to treat us like royalty, for this I will be forever grateful. Especially to my lovely wife and her family for showing me such a great time. Special thanks also to Nelutu, his wife and kids Andrei and Adelina for rocking Buzau with us (pronounced Booze-o).

In the spirit of all the fine cartoonists who feted me at the cartoonists society exhibit, I kept a sketchbook and endeavoured to draw all the people I met.
I didn't quite get there but tried hard and shall add a few more faces when I get the time.
The techniques and quality vary, but it is a good cross section of the great Romanians I met.
Noroc.

Coco in colour

I made a petite watercolour sketch of my lovely wife and hope it captures some of her majestic Vulcan beauty.

Lamont hates salad!

In this illustration for the Dogs in Canada magazine, the great Lamont is featured with his trademark "how dare you serve me this" expression.
Lamont don't do salad.

Ahh, summer

Well, here it is finally and judging by the randy looks on these two fibre consuming German shepherds, 2009 picnics will be lusty affairs.

Obama sings the blues

Just when it seemed the front page was free of auto news for a few days comes the discovery
of this exciting compilation record featuring the Prez and his mournful guitar!
Letting workers everywhere know that he shares their pain, he treats the listener to 12 tunes
of Auto industry shame and sorrow. A must have for those lonely nights (and days) when you're remembering all your pals at the old assembly plant.

Fred Flintstone imposter

I had to do a painting of this charming fellow who truly resembles Fred Flintstone.
He is a serious golfer, as was Fred, so it was a natural fit.

Workers in the belly!

This is from an article on doggy stomachs and what the little worker pro and pre-biotics are up to as they fortify the engine and keep Fido fit and happy.

DELTA PEST CONTROL

Had to make a Pest control dude for the nice folks at Delta Pest Control for their website. Here is a mock up of what the site may look like with the chap letting the bugs know what is coming.

Doug Tyrell

Some nice folks in BC wanted to get a caricature for their friend Doug Tyrell and honour him with an "all things Tyrell" day. Here he is in his kayak.

ROSS HAYBALL IN COLOUR

Here we have the gifted Canadian writer and bon vivant Ross Hayball who I had the pleasure of drawing on the weekend. A classic face on this dude.

Final caricatures for the DIC

Here are the final versions of the nice folks over at Dogs in Canada magazine.
The likenesses are pretty good though it is always tempting to brew up each one for hours and hours and I couldn't do it as the time was not there.
Hopefully look good on their website.

DOGS IN CANADA STAFF SKETCHES

I've been commissioned to draw the entire staff (13 people) of the Dog Magazine for their website profile page.
Here are the primitive first sketches, I hope to throw up finals when they are done to see if we can improve on any of them.