the Marvel Superhero Hour

Lately, during the week, I've been trying to take a couple hours at the end of the night to paint up some small super-hero sketches. Some are done as commissions while others are done for fun. Here's a few from that batch, all of which were painted in gouache and ink on board. I've been doing most of my work in gouache lately, instead of using markers, and really enjoying having a painted final product that needs little pshop cleanup.

Please note, I'm not taking any new commission requests right now. Sorry if this looks like a tease -- I'm just too busy with other projects at the moment.

Village Voice

This is a cover for the Village Voice Spring Arts Guide I drew a few weeks ago. Obviously, its a tie in to the new Kick Ass movie that's coming out soon. I also drew a small spot featuring the same character for the interior article. I don't really know much about the movie, but it was fun to draw an action scene for a magazine cover.

Cartoon City

This is a new painting I completed earlier this week for an exhibition called Cartoon City, which opens at Harbourfront Center on April 9th. The show features a great line-up of Toronto area comic artists, each contributing a piece about their neighbourhoods. In my case, I did my best to capture a section of College Street, a few blocks from my studio. If you're in the Toronto area during April to June, feel free to check out the exhibition. And if you're in on April 9th, come by and attend the opening which will be from 6pm to 10pm.

This is probably one of the biggest and most complicated paintings I've attempted in years. It's about 30" x 10" in size, and was painted in gouache and ink. Usually, I complete most works in one or two sittings, but this one took about four nights to finish. As detailed as it seems, I painted it fairly loosely because of its size and I really enjoyed the opportunity to use larger brushes. Everything on this was hit with a #5 brush and up. While working on it, I also discovered I enjoyed utilizing a few techniques I rarely use: 1) scraping out white lines with an x-acto blade and 2) using low-tack painter's tape to lift off ink and create texture.