sketchbook 04/29/11

Been busy trying to producing enough new work for an upcoming art show, so I haven't had enough time to sketch in my book. However here are some spreads. The one drawn at the Rex, a local blues and jazz bar was particularly fun to do.

sketchbook 03/28/11

One of the benefits of sketching people in public and letting them know you're sketching them is meeting them...getting to know hem a bit. Megan was today's subject of my Starbucks' hotseat image. She was a real trooper and didn't move all that much because she was studying for her LSAT's ;). I also found out that she and her husband just moved to Toronto and have been here for only 2 months… not the most glamorous time to move to Toronto, but Megan and husband welcome to Toronto. It gets better in the summer, I swear.

sketchbook 03/26/11

sketchbook 03/20/11

I have to apologize to Leilani. I drew her quite a few days ago and I promised I would upload to my blog that night after work. It totally slipped my mind until today when I made another promise to another customer I sketched below. Sorry Leilani, but here it is.


Here's the hot seat customer I sketched today. Cheryl is her name. A project manager by day and an aspiring writer by night, or in this case afternoon (bad father joke, but I like 'em a lot). She said my drawing made her look angry. I'd like to think of her expression as intense concentration... a look that she bares while writing the next Canadian classic.
Cheryl if you need an illustrator for any of your stories, give me a shout!

I've also noticed that I tend to get a likeliness with some, but others, I miss the mark entirely. Don't know why that is, but it was in this case. Nailed Leilani but Cheryl was a difficult model to capture accurately on paper. The quest continues.

Globe and Mail illustration

Well I finally have my first paying gig as an illustrator/artist. It was a last minute call for an image of a wedding cake that would go with an article about William and Kate's possible wedding cakes. It appears in The Globe and Mail, Canada's national paper, no less! I'm pretty stoked about it, but what really frustrated me was the missing credit in the print edition. However, my name appears in in the online version after my contact spoke to the online editor. So here is a capture of the online version (with the credit)

A special thanks to Michael Barker for passing my name to the people who needed this image.

Here's a link to the live article. I'm cake #7

sketchbook 03/16/11

3x3 apples

Just finished my 2 sets of 3x3 apples. My original intention after finishing the larger piece was to do these guys to hang at the Starbucks where I work.

When I finished the blue piece I was apprehensive about the numbering system I used and I still am. Any thoughts on that from the blogosphere?

sketchbook 03/10/11

Sam, a Starbucks customer and good sport for posing twice for me during my Starbucks breaks... thanks, Sam.

sketchbook 02/11/11

Playing around with some type.

An apple, or two, a day…

I've been working with acrylic paints lately and I have found it to be quite the challenge. A few factors inspired me to start this project: I was sick at the turn of the new year and I had a lot of apples in my fridge. The large scale painting I was/am working on has really discouraged me with acrylics and I needed something to bolster my confidence with this new medium. So I thought painting something everyday that had a clear starting and ending point on a smaller scale would help with my mindset.

So that's how the Apple a Day project came to be. After completing all 31 apple paintings, I assembled them to resemble the month of January 2011 and dated each canvas with the corresponding dates I painted them on.



42"x48", acylic on canvas.

And here are some of my favourite apples:

sketchbook 01/28/11

Another pen spread from Dufferin Mall. I thought a bit of water from boiling some beets would add a nice touch to the spread. I was wrong.

I'd also like to thank Reana who sent me a black S.K.B. SB-1000 pen which this spread was drawn with. If you don't know, this pen is used by James Jean, a extremely talented artist. It took some getting used to but I'm liking how it feels in my hand now.

sketchbook 01/26/11

My first post for the new year.
Stay tuned for some more stuff in the near future. I've been working on an acrylic painting that hopefully I'll be uploading in the next two weeks.

sketchbook 12/21/10

Laura Crickett

A friend asked me to draw her portrait as a gift for her parents. I had a bit of trepidation starting this drawing because my track record with drawing friends and family isn't that great. But I have to say I'm OK with the end result. I hope Laura is too!

sketchbook 12/18/10

I find it really difficult sketching family. This is another attempt at sketching my dad. Some parts are bang on, yet others are so far from what he really looks like. However, there is some overall resemblance.

Christmas Sale of my giclée cafe drawings

Tis the season! Wouldn't this make a great present?!!
I had a few giclée prints left over from my art shows this past summer, so I thought I'd put them up for sale here on my blogger site.

Here are the details of each print:
- They are all printed on German Etching paper (same texture and feel like the original watercolour paper I painted them on).
- measurements: 12x9 inches. with a .25 in. white border.
- number of prints available:
Darkhorse: 1
Rooster: 1
Naco: 2
I Deal:1
NIche: 3

Each piece is stamped with my wood chop and signed.
Each giclée is $90 CDN + shipping.

If you're interested in one or more, please email me..

Thanks for your continued support.

Merry Christmas all.
WIl

sketchbook 11/24/10

sketchbook 11/15/10

sketchbook 11/11/10

Jerry and Jiles were my models for my 15 min. breaks at Starbucks.

sketchbook 11/9/10

Some more acrylic painting practice in my sketchbook. I find the smaller area of my sketchbook elicits a much more looser approach to laying down the paint. That's what I wan with my larger scale stuff, but it doesn't happen that way for some reason. I'll keep on truckin'.javascript:void(0)

sketchbook 11/8/10

I'm still working on the large acrylic painting, but it's discouraging to see that what I want and envision in my mind's eye is not coming out on the canvas. So in the meantime, I'm drawing more people in my sketchbook. It's what I need at this point in time to allay the fears that I have about my lack of artistic abilities.

sketchbook 10/5/10

Another acrylic trial, this time in my sketchbook. I basically manhandled the acrylic paint for this spread. I'm looking forward to the day when I could lay down some acrylic on the first or second pass and make it look like the way I envisioned it in my mind.

My next big test is an acrylic painting I plan to do of the Rooster Cafe, the last cafe drawing I did, but this time on an 2x3 foot canvas. Frightening and exciting all at the same time!

Acrylic trial

Here's the final painting by itself. Hopefully you could get a closer look at it when it's not group with the other stages.


My first attempt at a full acrylic painting. I included the different stages of its development. I decided today to buy a palette knife, so you could see how that was used on the last stage of this drawing. Although my desire to apply paint with the knife really goes against entire painting, but like I said, it's an experiment.

I have decided to work at a larger scale from this point on so my uploads will be far more infrequent because it just takes more time to complete a larger drawing/painting.

Queen West Art Crawl Art Show 2010

Well the Queen West Art Crawl Art Show is over for another year and it being my second art show that I've been in since I started this crazy journey as an artist, I have to say it was inspiring and humbling all at the same time. I met a lot of terrific people who I was privileged to have stop by my booth and chat for a while. I also met a lot of talented artists who gave me a bit of insight into this art game and its rules (or no rules, to be precise). Hopefully I'll be seeing all the people and artists I met this year, next year!

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Stephen Job and Stephen and Christy Richards for liking my art so much that you thought it'd look good in your respective homes.

The last 4…

In 5 hours I'll be getting up and starting my trek to the Queen West Art Crawl Art Show. These are the last 4 image/type vignettes I've been working on for the last little bit.

I had to use a different part of my brain to produce these images, for the most part which were from my imagination. I didn't realize it would have been so tough, but I guess sketching from real life and sketching from the imagination come from two different sources of the brain… at least for me.

I'd like to hear what your thoughts are for the "Spinning a Yarn" image. I just "finished" it a few minutes ago but it doesn't feel as completed as the others. Feed back would be appreciated.

Thanks all.

Urban Chariot

Here's number three of my image/type images for the show. I'm gunning for 10 pieces before Sept.18th. Panic has descended onto the Wong household.

sketchbook 09/31/10