With the passing away of Jack Layton, it seems everyone suddenly has developed an orange crush. Perhaps it was the way he bridged the quintessential "everyman" persona with his work as underdog political leader that has connected with so many people...or perhaps it was the stache.

The Hammer isn't always pretty...or not really at all. But its years of decay and neglect as an aging industrial city do produce some interesting subjects to draw and paint.

Here's a view somewhere in downtown, done about five or six years ago. Painted with acrylic over a wax resist, along with xacto scratching, it takes on an interesting feel and texture, which seems to suit the grittiness of the area

Here's a recently completed, digitally layered sketch based on a photo background from Little Italy in NYC.  I thought the girl had an interesting sense of urban style, and drew up some quick line art. Then over the scanned ink drawing, there are some flat colours, texture, and some extra atmospheric colour. Without any specific intentions, I wasn't sure what would turn up at the end, but sometimes it's just more entertaining to not know when the end is or what the final results will be.

Happy hour sketching at Scallywags in Toronto, because it's five o'clock somewhere!