In this quick little painting in acrylic, I set out to paint a city sunset, without the sunset. I wanted to challenge myself to think more about positive and negative space, rather than than true colours and a black outline. In keeping with orange hues, it basically reduces the image to a series of layered silhouettes, while dropping the late evening-sun going down on the city vibe. And of course a romantic couple is the perfect subject to include in such a painting. This was based on a series of reference photos taken in Toronto.

Despite working in advertising, I tend to have a low tolerance for it. I can't really stand listening to the radio and almost always just completely tune-out during tv commercials. A few recent campaigns have been managing to bypass my security and dig their way into my likable list though. I can't seem to decide which I like better, the Old Spice "smell your man" tv commercials by Weiden + Kennedy, or the Ally banking commercial series featuring children being ripped off, by Bartle Bogle Hegarty Ltd.

The Old Spice commercials are just completely zany and unexpected, which works perfectly with the rapid delivery lines. Basically, a man's man guy is demonstrating to ladies that by getting their men to use Old Spice, their hopeless men will suddenly become like him. His romance novel qualities include having tickets for that special boring event, diamonds everywhere and yachting. Oh, and he's on a horse.


The Ally bank feature a series of children getting angry at being ripped off and tricked by the evil other banks, of which Ally is not. The best one is a kid playing getting to play with a toy truck for a few seconds, before it's taken away and replaced with a crappy cardboard version. All because he didn't read the fine print. The look on this kid's face is priceless.

While hanging around the ultra-touristy pier area in San Fran, I was treated to my first live dance crew performance. A group of about 6 or 7 guys from across the Bay Bridge in Oakland, materialized with a ghetto blaster and some pieces of cardboard and began to throw down some moves. A few had some skill and the others were fairly sub-par, but all were full of bravado and racial trash-talking. They didn't hesitate to start asking for donations of twenties from the crowd.

I snapped a series of photos on burst mode of some of the dancers, thinking it would make some interesting action shots. With a little layering and masking in Photoshop, it turned into a crazy multi-limbed bboy creature.