Another Self-Portrait

I bought Ashley Wood's 'Swallow' book the other day. Some fantastic art in it, particularly the painted work.

The biggest thing I noticed was that the painters never just use 'flesh colour' when painting a person, there's always flecks of greens and reds and purples and blues in the skin to make it look realistic.

So I started another self-portrait using some of these techniques.

Rogers - The Worst Company Ever

I've had a pretty colourful history when it comes to Rogers. From the six times my appointment to get 'basic cable' installed was rescheduled, to the crappy and unreliable internet service, and of course my wireless adventures with their nearly-retarded-or-at-least-kinda-slow customer service representatives. Every time I've dealt with them it's been a nightmare. Click the following links for my full, horrific story:

Rogers - The Worst Company Ever: Part 1
Rogers - The Worst Company Ever: Part 2

-Brett

MTV Canada Animation - Part 1

So I got an email from MTV Canada (I didn't know there was any such thing either) asking me to submit some animation to be put on the air. No payment, but I get my name and website address on while it's being shown.

Not happy with a lot of what I currently have on my reel, I've decided to spend the two weeks until the deadline creating a brand new animated short about a monster rampaging through a city, and the angry unemployed citizen who brings him down. Here's a first look at the angery citizen.

Here's the monster so far, with a teeny, tiny citizen on top of his head to give you an idea of scale.

-b

New Website

So thebrett.com as we know it will be gone by the end of January. Right now I have too many online sites to maintain for myself, and I want to streamline a bit. Also, I want thebrett.com to be all about the artwork. So for things like links, bio and news, you can visit the blog here. Chances are it would have been updated more frequently anyways.

That design had a good run, and I really enjoyed it, but in the end it was just too much of a pain in the ass to update, and the design for the new site is cleaner, slicker and really puts the attention on what's important.

-b

Toronto Sketch Jam

I went to the Toronto Sketch Jam last night. Basically a bunch of artists get together and draw for several hours while shooting the shit. Good times. There's a lot of really talented artists who attend. For anyone interested, it's usually the second Monday of each month or so and is held at the Firkin near Church & Wellesly.

Mostly I did some sketches for a script my rep sent me, so I can't show them just yet, but here are some of the other ones I'm most happy with.

I'm going to try and get into sketching a lot more. I've been really lazy about it lately. There's a lifedrawing session every Thursday downtown that's apparently pretty good. I'm thinking that, and also going to Sunday Subway Sketch Group again.

Anyways, bye for now.

-b

Favourite Artists - Part 1

Here are some artists I really dig, all of whom are much, much better than me.

Enjoy.


Ashley Wood
www.ashleywoodartist.com

This guy is the most imaginative artist, in my opinion, working in illustration today. Not only artistically, but also on the business end of things aswell. What he does is pretty close to where I'd like to be some day. Selling prints, working on personal projects, selecting outside projects that interest me (instead of taking them all because I need to eat).

I got to meet Ashley in San Diego at Comic-Con. We got to chat for about 15 minutes. He passed my card along to the folks at IDW and he signed my poster (I know, fanboy). Really cool guy, and getting my art accepted to his Swallow art magazine is definitely goal of mine.


Jon Foster
www.jonfoster.com

I don't really know much about Jon Foster, other than the fact that he's in his mid-thirties and that makes me feel A LOT better about how good he is. If he was like 20 years old I'd have to break my own wrists.

His art is primarily featured at the conceptart.org forums along with a ton of really talented pros.


Scott Thigpen
www.sthig.com

I've chatted with Scott a few times through email, and he's a really cool guy. He's another artist whose career is at a point I'd like to be at one day. He seems to have a lot of loyal clients who keep coming back to him, does quite a bit of magazine work and just seems to do pretty well for himself. Drawing for a living is definitely what I want to do, and it's artists like Scott that make it seem possible.


Celia Calle
www.celiacalle.com

Though gender has nothing at all to do with artistic talent, it is a bit more rare to see a female artist of Celia's callibre, or at least one as well known as she is. She is absolutely phenomenal. The perspective and linework in her illustrations are unlike anything I've ever seen.

Self Portrait - A Little Too Real

Over the last few years I've done several self-portraits. The first ones were always muscley, uber-attractive drawings that really looked nothing like me. Lately I've been trying a more honest approach. You know, more skinny and unkempt ... like the real deal.

I may have overshot it with this one though, since I appear just completely morose, like I haven't slept in nine days.

It's not finished yet, but here's what I have so far. Sketched and scanned, now painting in Photoshop CS.

Far be it from me not to conform to the Blogger craze...

So I've got a blog now. Why you ask? Pretty much the same reason I bought an ipod ... because everyone else was doing it.