new web site!!!

I haven't been getting a lot of drawing done the past few days as I have been trying to get my new web site done before the holidays. And here it is!


www.jaretts.com



Big shout out to my good buddy Cory that gave me a hand with figuring out a bunch of the code, which is pretty foreign to me.

your song of the day after the jump!

let's go for a swing

"Let's Go For A Swing" ink and digital, 2010

Listen to the underrated early 90's band Scrawl play "Take a Swing" after the jump.

tiger cake

TIGER CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lazy Bonez

The Sketchaholic theme was "Lazy Bones". These two just wasted away playing their NES.

Layzie Bone and the rest of the "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony" after the jump.

practicing with tom waits

Tom Waits, blue col-erase pencil

A picture of Tom Waits I drew in my sketchbook using a photo reference I grabbed online, just practicing my portrait drawing.

Listen to a couple sad Tom Waits songs I've been playing the past few days after the jump, they both have sort of a blue feeling/theme which is fitting...

can I keep it?

"Can I Keep It?", Mixed Media, 2010

The Sketchaholic theme this week is "The Family Dog".

I guess this image can be viewed as how a post-apocalyptic 'nuclear family' may have gotten their family 'dog'.

Your post-apocalypse/dog themed song after the jump.

the girl from south tacoma way

Music is a huge influence on the stuff I make. I post a lot of hip hop on here, and know a lot about it as well but I listen to all genres. Last night while practicing my portraiture drawing I was listening to Neko Case, who I think is one of the best female vocalists of the past while. I was trying to pick my next subject to practice my portrait drawing on "so why not draw Ms. Case" I thought. So here she is....



















The Girl From South Tacoma Way, mixed media, 2010

I referenced a press photo for her. The wispy fox things are inspired by her album title "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood", one of the great albums of the 2000's in my opinion.

Continue reading to hear the new Jay-Z song. Just kidding! Two of my favorite Neko Case songs after the jump.

train ride

Here is another drawing of some C-Train folk. Spent the most time on the younger woman on the left. My drawing of her proportions could use some work, or perhaps be further exaggerated. Getting better at observational life drawing while trying to add my own twist on it is an on going task for me.

It can be tricky when someone is shifting around. Can also make it difficult when they're sitting relatively close to not be obviously starring at them, as was the case with the girl who was sitting in the group of seats diagonal to my own. Although a closer subject can also allow you to see more detail to render on your page, so I suppose it is a trade off.....if only everyone on the C-Train was sleeping or reading. I like the very quick, more gestural drawings I made with the other two, each of those were completed in under a minute.

























Your train related song after the jump

asleep on the train

Just some guy who fell asleep on the c-train this week who consequently fell victim to my sketchbook, his soul is now trapped within these opaque white pages.
























note: the word scratched above his head was actually "bank" but I thought that was sort of a wack name to use, "sank" is much better :)

RAC remix a stand out track from The Shins' album "Wincing the Night Away" after the jump.

nightmare decoy

This was made for a Sketchaholic contest. It was pretty rushed, and doesn't really work for me but I like the idea so I will probably try and revisit it later.
























Your song of the day after the jump

&ersand 2 finished piece

untitled, mixed media on canvas, 14" X 21", 2010
photos taken by my dad
Alright here it is! After teasing you with last weeks post, here's the real deal. Me and Sam Williams collaborated on this piece for &ampersand 2, which was a great success! Over 200 people came out to check out all the collaborative pieces, so big ups to all that came out and supported us. A thanks as well to Vicki who coordinated the show, and Karma Police who was our DJ for the evening. It was a bunch of fun filled with great music, friends, artists, and tequila shots. Lots of great work and talent was on display for sure. Our work was hung right inside the entrance of the Untitled Art Society Gallery, making it a nice introduction to the show I thought.



















When Sam and I first got brainstorming for our submission, I was drawing lots of bugs with pin up girls (more bug posts to come) and Sam was interested in portrait work, so this idea came together fairly easily. Sam created the girl, and I the insects. We tried to make it read as a woman wearing jewelery from further back and as you approached closer it became more apparent that it was a dead girl with bugs crawling on her. We were both happy with the end result, and I look forward to collaborating again in the future. What do you say Sam?

A couple more pics and your song after the jump...

mononoke

There is a Sketchaholic challenge this week set forth by Dice Tsutsumi. His description via Sketchaholic:

Dice was in charge of color scripts and lighting on Pixar's Toy Story 3! He also worked on "Ice Age", "Robots" and many more.

The topic Dice has picked for people to draw is "your favorite childhood anime in your own style". I liked a lot of the artistic style seen in anime growing up, but was never able to find it on TV living in a household with only 5 basic channels. Despite a somewhat sheltered life when it comes to anime I am a really big Hayao Miyazaki fan. One of my favorite films of his is Princess Mononoke, which lead me to create my drawing below.
























Make sure to check out this movie if you haven't already and let me know how you liked it, you don't need to be big on anime to be a fan of Miyazaki.

Your anime themed song after the jump.

brand new piece unveiled!!!!

Sam Williams and I have been collaborating for the past few weeks on our contribution to the second &ampersand show, at the Untitled Art Society Main Gallery (which previously held the Sans Comic Sans show). This show features art created by 2 or more collaborating artists. Last week we had it printed and this afternoon we got together to sign and number the special edition prints. What makes them so special you're wondering??? Well, they're printed on canvas and there's only 3 of them.....in the whole world. We are also planning to do a regular limited edition run as well on fine art paper at next years Calgary Comic Expo.

To see the piece in person come by the Untitled Art Society Main Gallery on Thursday or Friday from 12-4PM OR come on Saturday between 7 and 11PM for the reception. The reception will have a bar, music, and the artists in attendance. For now you can check out Sam presenting our framed piece below.























See an image of the piece framed and without Sam after the jump.

another sketchbook filled

I have been drawing a ton this year, and this week I close the big yellow cover on my most recent sketchbook. It's a wrap! I started it on March 7th and this week the last page got filled up. Time to start a new one (although I still have my mini sketchpad and brown sketchbook on the go). The past few sketchbooks have been all about drawing people (lots of girls), bugs, and of course the usual tentacles and monsters. To showcase some of the sketchbook's pages I have chosen a few of my favorite observational drawings I did of people. Lots of these were done on the C-train and mall food court, and all the people are just random folk who happened to sit in my circumference of vision.


Hit the jump to take a look at the drawings

exhale solutions

I completed this painting last week on an old piece of wood. The words "Breathe In Problems, Exhale Solutions" comes from the Aesop Rock song "Bent Life", C-Rayz Walz spits the line though. Walz was referring to the problems of the city, which the cities pollution symbolized. I sort of tried to flip it into a trumpet player dealing with problems by blowing these problems out of their instrument.

I might end up hanging it above my office desk as my own version of a "hang in there, baby" poster. Some more detailed shots of the painting and the song "Bent Life" after the jump.

wall street cyclops revisited

Here's is the original pencil drawing I made for my "Wall Street State of Mind" post.

My finished submission didn't win the sketchaholic contest, but it did get a quick mention and a bit of screen time during the Nate Wragg live interview (Nate Wragg is a Pixar character designer, who designed some of the new characters in Toy Story 3 among other things). Also Austin Madison (animator on Ratatouille, Up) asked if he could post my submission on his blog. Of course I told him I would be honored, a big thanks to him for linking to my blog as well!

Both cool things, and while I realize it's not a huge deal it's enough to give me some more encouragement to keep on drawing. Your song after the jump....

helloyellowelepaint

elefaint in the yellow paint, 11" x 14" on canvas, acrylic and aerosol

A buddy of mine was in town last week and we got in some quality painting. Check out some of his stuff here, he's the one who writes "Asper". Above is one of the pieces I completed, I'm going to make a giant piece of this elephant character in the near future.

And if you liked this purple and yellow color combination then I know you will love another friend's blog, Plello. Make sure to check it out and his line of "Generic" clothing. Plus a big congrats to Plello for recently reaching their 500th post!

Your post related song after the jump.

iron hell

Here's a mash up of Iron Man and Hellboy. I did it in about 2 hours this afternoon as it was a half day at work due to Calgary's Stampede Parade. I also just realized I missed the submission deadline for the superhero mash up challenge on sketchaholic, so here is the one I made anyways.


























and your Iron Man themed song after the jump

wall street state of mind

Wall Street State Of Mind, Mixed Media, 2010

Here is my submission for a sketchaholic challenge with the topic "The Wall Street Cyclops". Nate Wragg (lead Character Designer on Toy Story 3,"Ratatouille") picked the subject and will be interviewed on Wednesday.

Like lots of people I often think wall street acts like it needs one more eye in order to be a cyclops. Even so I tried to not make my piece too preachy while still addressing my thoughts about wall street/ US economy as well as a bit of commentary on the housing crisis (that's the wall street brass bull/ piggy bank eating that families house). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and think I may make it into a print with a limited run.

So who do I call to make this the Wall Street Mascot?

Hear your post related song after the jump.

mr. toaster head

"The Infidelity of Mrs. Toaster", mixed media, 2010

Here's my next Sketchaholic submission. The theme was Mr. "blank" head, picked by Aaron Hartline ( "Toy Story 3", "Up", the "Ice Age Trilogy", "Horton Hears a Who" and "Robots").

While Mr. Toaster was hard at work earning that bread, Mrs. Toaster was at home buttering someone else's bun. What made it worse is Mr. Toaster had beef with the "other man". Damn he wasn't perfect but you don't get a toaster back like that.

Here's a song Mr. Toaster can relate to courtesy of Ghostface.

little 'zilla

This is my take on Godzilla which I drew with my sharpie. I then added in some colors digitally, as well as some other touch ups. I created him for one of the contests/challenges being held at Sketchaholic. These contests are a great way to keep you actively drawing and creating art while at the same time providing you with a deadline and subject matter, both of which help to develop your skills as an artist.

Derek Thompson ("Wall-E", "John Carter of Mars", "Cars 2") picked the Godzilla theme and will be interviewed tomorrow afternoon, which will be streaming live on Sketchaholic. My buddy Sam made a really bad ass Godzilla as well, that you should make sure to check out here (and if you still haven't made your way over to Sam's blog act like you need to know).

Drawing Godzilla also had me remembering the "Take Me to Your Leader" album that MF DOOM released under the Godzilla monster alias "King Geedorah" (he's the three headed one, and one of the last monsters you would ever want to mess with). I wonder if he'll ever revisit the monster theme. Also does anybody remember The Monsta Island Czars?

"The Final Hour" video from King Geedorah and "featuring" MF DOOM below ("APB the 3 headed with the fancy crown/ Last seen headed towards a city in shanty town")

King Geedorah feat. MF DOOM - The Final Hour

dusty starks

I always have my sketch book with me and don't mind if I have the chance to sit a game out and draw instead. Video game players are pretty good subjects to draw as they're fixated on one focal point, and their movements are pretty minimal. Here's a quick picture I did of a buddy playing Xbox a week or so back.

Look how hard he's concentrating on losing EA NHL 2010 :)

anteater

Not much ready to post right now, but here's an ant eater I drew and scanned not too long ago.

sasquatch!

It's been a while since my last post, this is partly due to me going to Washington at the end of May/ beginning of June for this years Sasquatch! music festival. Another great Sasquatch! packed with a ton of great artists. I have heard it is the best looking music festival, and with "The Gorge" as a backdrop it's not hard to see why.

The highlight performances for me in no particular order were Massive Attack (mind blowing!), The National, Patrick Watson, She & Him, Brother Ali, Band of Horses, LCD Sound System (they turned the party out!), The Heavy....too many to name. I can't wait until next years line up is released.

Below are some pictures from above mentioned artists.

Thomas

I went to my friend Aaron's cabin to spend part of the long weekend this May long. I had a relaxing time and managed to get some drawing done out there as well.

Here are a couple quick sketches of my friend Tom. The first is of him playing barrel of monkeys, the second is Tom playing cards and has a better likeness to him, being the one done after a bit of warming up. Both of them could use a bit of cleaning up maybe looking at the lines now. This is one of the first life observation drawings I have done in my brown sketchbook, though I have been drawing people a whole bunch in my large white sketchbook, as well as my smaller more inconspicuous white sketchbook. I think since December I have been drawing people from life regularly, whether it be sketch club at lunch, or on the C-Train riding to and from work. I have been meaning to upload some of those sketches as well, but for now here is Thomas. Perhaps this will be the first in a series of friend sketches....

raccoon

Just a raccoon I drew the other night, gave him a bigger, more squashed face to make it a bit more stylized.

girls girls girls

3 new drawings of girls from my brown sketchbook. I've been drawing lots of girls over the past while. These are all done using a photo reference. The top one is my favorite here I think. I may try messing with these drawings in photoshop later.

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

All of his stuff was super imaginative and always bad ass. I don't know nearly enough about all his work as I should but I know enough to realize what a huge impact he made in the sci-fi and fantasy art world, and what a loss it is to lose him.

RIP Frank Frazetta
1928-2010

new brown sketchbook

I hit up the annual sale at the Mona Lisa art supplies store on 17th ave last weekend. Between the Mona Lisa sale, Comic Expo, Free Comic Book Day, and The Mission Skate Warehouse sale I spent quite a bit of money in April. Hopefully I stockpiled enough stuff to last me a little while.

Among my purchases at Mona Lisa were a few brown paper sketchbooks and a black and white colour erase pencil. Here are my first couple drawings from them as well as me playing with color in photoshop with one of the sketches. I like the look of these drawings once they've been scanned so expect to see a bunch more brown paper sketches. They have a nice warm feeling and some nice natural texture as well.

in memory of guru

Last month on April 19th a hip hop legend passed away, Keith Elam better known as Guru of hip hop group Gang Starr. I won't write up a bio here of Guru or Gang Starr, but if you are hip hop fan chances are your favorite rapper has been influenced by them. Definitely check out their discography if you are not familiar.

Hip hop has been a huge part of my life for a long time so I felt compelled to make a tribute piece in Guru's memory, and here it is.





















And here's the song I took part of the text from, one of my favorite Gang Starr tracks.



GURU R.I.P.

calgary comic expo re cap

I can't let a week go by without writing something about the Calgary Comic Expo that took place last weekend, so I better do it now.

I was able to get some art signed by some amazing comic book artists while meeting them, Camilla d'erico, Pia Guerra (Y:The Last Man, my favorite comic), and Eric Powell (The Goon). Saw some celebrities, caught Brent Spiner taking some digs at Nimoy's retirement, and was pushed out of the way by Nimoy's body guards as they escorted him to his room.

The workshops were of course very constructive. I attended the independent comic panel, the character animation panel, the concept design panel, and the traditional painting panel, all of which I took something valuable away from.

The highlight for me was getting to talk to Marcelo Vignali and Iain McCaig, both really cool guys. Each of them asked to take a look at my sketchbook, which I appreciated as I don't know if I would have been able to muster up the courage to ask them on my own (it can be intimidating talking to these pros, though they couldn't have been more approachable). The advice they gave to me was invaluable, and just the opportunity to be able to talk to them one on one was not only pricelsess but highly motivational and inspirational. I am both blown away by their willingness to help and impressed by their positive outlook on life which comes through with every gesture they make when emphasizing a point, great stuff. I'm going to make sure if they are there next year that I will be prepared to show them my growth as an artist.

This could easily turn from a quick recap to a five page rambling summary so I will end it by saying the Comic Expo was a great success and made even better by taking it all in with some great friends. Can't wait for next year, when I hope to have more of a presence at the Comic Expo, just wish Calgary could have two a year.


































































Above: Marcelo Vignali looking at my sketchbook and allowing me the chance to tap into his wealth of knowledge. Iain McCaig showing me and buddy Sam his sketchbook along with some great advice. After talking to both it was easy to see why they made it to the top of the pack and remained there. I also chilled with R2D2 for a minute.

Big thanks to Ashley and Tobias for taking the photos used here.

post sans comic sans post

Thanks to everyone who, despite the blizzard, came out to Sans Comic Sans to make it a success. Over 175 people made it out to Untitled Art Society on Saturday night, which is pretty cool. All the artist's pieces were crazy!

Above are some more process shots for my painting as well as some photos from the event, curator Vicki Chau made the Sans Comic Sans image.

Here are my process steps:

1. First I did my drawing it was actually one from my sketchbook I did not originally do specifically for this event, but was one I wanted to expand on so this was the perfect opportunity.

2. I then did a color study on the computer to help me determine more of the direction it would take.

3. Painted in my background, added in some texture.

4. Used a projector to transfer my drawing onto my canvas.

5. Started painting.

6. Final outline and touch ups.

latest painting: sans the comic sans

During the month of April I have been working on a painting for a show going on at The Untitled Art Society, called Sans Comic Sans.

Straight from the facebook event page here is its description:

"Sans Comic Sans is an exhibtion that showcases comic-inspired work by 20+ artists, challenging the stereotypes of comic book art. Taking the conventions of the comic medium, they deconstruct the idea of what a comic is and play with narrative, colour, panels and text. The artists come from a diverse range of practices, whether they are printmakers or photographers, painters or designers, they all come together to show their love for the sequential art form. There's definitely nothing "Comic Sans" about this show."
- Vicki Chau, Barewalls Coordinator

It was my friend Zoë, who is also in the show, who suggested I not make my initial drawing a print as that has been seen lots in relation to comic book characters. I agreed and instead chose to paint it, it is also my largest acrylic painting I have done so far (4' x 3').

Sans Comic Sans conveniently coincides with the Calgary Comic Expo, so I should be spending the weekend with lots of capes, artists, and friends, as well as spending a lot of my weekend....spending a lot....

Below are some process images for my contribution to Sans Comic Sans following the event info. I will leave the final image of my painting for my post-show write up. That way I can squeeze another post out of this event as well as encourage you to come on down and check it out. See you there!

SANS COMIC SANS

Thursday, April 22, 2010 @ 12 - 4PM
Friday, April 23, 2010 @ 12 - 4PM

RECEPTION PARTY: Saturday, April 24, 2010 @ 7-11PM

Untitled Art Society
Fourth Floor, 319 - 10 Ave SW
Use back alley entrance