If you're in town through December and January, be sure to check out a solo show of my paintings and sketches at Lock Street Brewing Co. in historic Port Dalhousie. With a launch night of Dec 29 (8pm-11pm), the collection features paintings and sketches of familiar hometown icons such as General Motors, the drydocks, Cloth Co, Facer St., portraits & more.

There's a cool initiative that's been happening for a few years called InkTober. I'm not sure why I've only just heard about it, but basically for the month of October, artists from the world over, contribute drawings trying to produce a drawing day.

I haven't really kept up with the pace, but here's a brush pen sketch of Buffalo from this month. I'm always intrigued by Buffalo driving through it, seeing it's different areas. The revitalized downtown with arena and ballpark, the waterfront, the faded Rust Belt factories, the dense urban decay and the older spires and deco buildings that remind me of Gotham.

As I was doing some drawing and gazing out the window at the masses of tree branches weighed down by snow, and the blanket of white, I was reminded how quickly seasons change. Flip a page or two in my sketchbook back, and I was just sketching this late autumn scene of the house across the street.

It seems easier to remember three months back when the weather was warmer and the days longer, rather than going forward three months. Skip ahead through winter and spring is here again but I guess the rewind button is just more alluring.

My last post got me interested in looking back through some sketchbooks for drawings I've done while travelling. I came across an interesting mix of locations and styles and subjects, though there aren't as many travel sketches as I'd like. I blame the delicate balance of actually finding the time on a trip to sit down and draw something decent and having the option of snapping a photo to work on something later. Sketches are usually better, but just not always possible. Everytime I flip through Craig Thompson's European travel diary Carnet De Voyage it reassures me it's worth the time though. Here are from top left: airport sketch, NYC transit sketch, Cuban pianist, San Fran lookout, Times Square, beach study, Mykonos, Cuba resort, Havana window

Here's an old painting of a downtown storefront that has changed a bunch of times since. I'm glad I got it done when I did, since it's still been my favourite look. Something about a hand scrawled sign on the aged building of the halal meat shop struck me as little forlorn.

It's actually a very small 8x10 painting, done in oil in a couple of hours. I enjoy the sketchy quality of it, as something I always struggle with on larger canvasses is to keep the brushwork and colour spontaneous and not get hooked in on details.

As we find ourselves well into Awards season, the usual debates continue to heat up about which director deserves which trophy, and whose boring artsy flick is overrated, who got snubbed and so on. The biggest debate usually ends up being about how well a host fared, and the recounting of previous poor selections to the job. No stranger to hosting gigs, British comedian Ricky Gervais managed a three-peat at the Golden Globes, with his sometimes offensive, sometimes more offensive, yet always quaintly humorous jabs. Strange that for a creator of several successful BBC shows (including The Office), movie actor, comedian and producer, one of his most memorable roles has been hosting awards shows. I like to think it was his ability to not hesitate to put his foot in his mouth whenever the situation called for that really sealed the deal, and cemented his all-time classic host status. Gervais is funny because he has no fear.

This portrait of Ricky is done in pencil with some digital colours. It started out as a sketch trying to capture his smile which tends to be more of a grimace really, and since I thought it was going in the right direction, I polished it off with a bit of shading and texture.

Here's some sketching from an afternoon at Starbucks. I was surprised to see the diversity and also the actual amount of people lounging around in a coffee shop during the middle of the day, at a spot nowhere near a university or pedestrians. And especially surprising was that it seems Starbucks is luring the senior population over from Tim Horton's. Must have something to do with the comfy chairs. My only complaint is that at five dollars a beverage, somebody should really be doing my sketching for me so I can relax more.

As a connoisseur of brush pen sketching, I got overly excited after stumbling across a little blog by artist Davis Chino. Brush Pen Paris features his sketches from a trip in Paris, soaking up the cafe culture. Everything has just such a great European feel, like an animated film vibe, of say, Ratatouille.

The drawings of interesting character studies are quite vibrant and loose, both keys to working with brush pens. Davis also has another more current site with other sketches, Brush Pen Breakfast.

 Really great artistic work is going on all around the world, and if you're lucky enough, you stumble across it. Just be nice to the internet gods! Recently, some great sketches by Ukraine based illustrator Artem Krepkij happened to catch my eye, and I've been checking his blog regularly ever since.

His illustrations are just a wild mixture of distorted perspective and elongated figures along with feverish pencil scratches and thrown in colour bursts. The great freshness and looseness in the drawings is something that can't be faked, you've either got it our you don't. Some of my favourites are his straight-up sketch book series which focus mainly on pencil portraits, but even his published work maintains his unique emotional style.

Here's a recent sketch of a couple of cool cats who look ready to throw down some old school beats. I was feeling a bit of a street graffiti vibe, so I layered it up with a bunch of digital textures. Collaging strange things together in photoshop and just seeing what flows out of it never grows old. Even though there is an undo button, happy accidents still happen.

Here's a recent quick sketch I did that I thought was worth scanning and adding a bit of colour. It was sort of at the good stage when the brush pen is just starting to run out of ink which adds extra line texture. Having just read Seth's early graphic novel It's a Good Life, which is coloured all in greys, I was in the mood to do something similar. Plus, working on a toned background, is like doing something in pastel with the chance to throw in some weight heightening.

Spring weather is always sure to draw everybody out from their winter hiding places and into the streets for some shopping, dining and fun. Crowds can be both exciting and a drag to work on, depending on how you look at it. On one hand, they are filled with all sorts of unique characters, locations and props, in a randomized pattern which can make for tremendous compositions. On the other hand, crowds can take a while to complete, and can bog an artist down in details, which can really ruin an overall picture. This is a watercolour and ink drawing of a scene on Queen Street in Toronto.

Here's a sketchbook spread from last year. I find I'm attracted to sketching mostly real things like buildings and people more and more...it seems easy that way. Less thought more drawing. Sometimes it's worthwhile to inject some random out of the brain doodles into the creative routine, just to make sure the noggin is still working. Good ideas often ensue.

If you're looking for some retro-inspired brush work sketches, check out the work of Toronto cartoonist Michael Cho. He throws down some serious two tone gouache and ink works with some really well planned out interplay between light and darks. His style looks great with comic book characters and action heroes, and also brings to mind illustrations for paperback novels in the 50's. His best work includes more detailed renderings of Toronto's back alleys, to be published as a collection in an upcoming book from D+Q later this year.

As 2012 rolls in and a New Year dawns, millions of people around the world can be happy for many things. Among them, is the sudden lack of surplus in evil dictators, thanks in large part to a healthy thinning out in the Middle East through most of 2011. It just wasn't a good year to be a vicious, undeserving, ruling jerk, as we said good-bye to some longtime heavyweights including Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and North Korea's Kim Jong-il. As we cast their repressive memories into the sky, here's to a new year, and new possibilities across the globe.

The key to avoiding winter blues and lack of sun, aside from using a SAD lamp, I find, is just curling up with a good book and falling asleep. The long winter's nap! If you're lucky you can dream your way through the entire winter. Bears are pretty bright with the whole hibernation thing. Which brings to mind one of my favourite Christmas books, The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas. Classic!

Here's a quick sketch out the window in Ottawa during a break from the hockey pool draft.

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!

Whenever the really hot summer weather in Ontario hits, and the humidty has you practically drinking your own sweat, it brings to mind tropical climates which deal with the relentless humidity year round.
 But then, at least they get crazy ten minute rains several times a day to break up the heat and nice oceans to swim in aren't bad either. Here's a quick sketch of a typical Cuban farm house which, frightening to many, doesn't even have air conditioning.