April 10, 2009
There are now prints available in the Etsy shop. Click here or click on the A Winsome Portrait icon.
March 8, 2009
I've recently been featured on the excellent children's book blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Bookmark this blog, it's very good. Thanks Jules!
Here is a new portrait keeping with the literary theme:
And a new painting:
January 17th, 2009
Happy New Year! I recently finished a painting commission. The only criteria for this one was a music theme and no figures in it. I'm quite happy with the result.
I also added quite a few drawings to the Drawing section. Here is one, and all the other ones are in the Drawing section.
And finally my favourite etching of the year. I was really happy to learn aquatint. I really like the effect.
December 16, 2008
Brand new website! I believe this is version 5.0 now since 2004. I've added two new sections: Miscellaneous where you can see some of my art commissions and 3D things, and A Winsome Portrait mini-site, which is coming soon. In the meantime, A Winsome Portrait is still at my Etsy shop. Enjoy the new website et Joyeux Noël!
December 07, 2008
This piece is based on the idea of Rwanda being the "le pays des mille collines" (the country of a thousand hills) and having a strong culture of dance. For the Artfully Unforgotten project that partnered with Parsons this semester.
November 23, 2008
Read a short interview with me here.
October 20, 2008
Joel and I just went on a little daytrip to Sleepy Hollow, NY yesterday. Check the blog for photos and more details, but here is a little sketch I did of Philipsburg Manor:
I've always liked the idea of ghost trains, of these huge machines coming at you but going right through you. Here is an illustration of just that:
September 1, 2008
What a summer it's been! This has been one of the best summers in a long time. There was a lot of chilling with Joel and working for Pat was a treat. Here are a few end of summer pieces. First, two vignettes of a boy's life:
And two sketches of children:
Look for an overhaul of this website coming this semester. I might actually learn the proper way to make websites!
July 19th , 2008
Jackdaws are a common European bird related to the crow and is sometimes represented in Celtic traditions. One Irish tale recounts how the jackdaws tried to enter a town in Kerry, Ireland, but were refused permission by a king, on the advice of a druid. However, the king relented when the jackdaws found missing magical rings that protected all of Munster against a Fomorian attack.
Here is a boy riding off into the sunset on his rocking horse. This piece was a commission for my online shop A Winsome Portrait.
July 6th , 2008
I forgot to post another of my final projects. We had to design a book and I decided to design a children's book about tea from around the world named Around the World in TwenTea Days. Joel wrote the text and it's nothing short of brilliant, and then I jazzed up the book with diecuts and popouts and such. The book isn't available online but here is a summary of the illustrations:
Also, a sketch of Mount Vernon from the road trip I took in May.
June 21th, 2008
Here is another final project from school. The scene is contained within a box that is 4 inches deep, but the idea was to give the illusion of depth. The box was a pain to make, but I had way too much fun drawing all the characters!
June 12 th, 2008
I've just returned from an extended vacation/roadtrip with my father, which took us down to Virginia and back up through New England and then ended up back home in Ontario. Needless to say, I am well relaxed.
Here are a few sketches from the trip. Check out the blog for a few more.
Also, here is a 3D portrait of Stevie Nicks from a few weeks ago.
May 10th, 2008
Finally more than one image update at a time! The first is a painting based on the creature Afanc; a celtic creature that came to be thought of as a giant beaver and caused the flooding of a village.
Next, a lovely château.
These two were used as a promotional piece, and I believe a story might be developing around these two images.
April 19th, 2008
Also, here a few line drawings I did for a colouring book. The themes were Celebrities, Breakfast and Candy. For celebrities I wanted to illustrate a few pre-teen hearthrobs I had crushes on. See if you can recognize them
April 14th, 2008
Inspired by the Little Mermaid folktale:
March 30th, 2008
Geomancy is a type of fortune-telling that involves drawing lines in the ground. You never know when you'll encounter a geomancer.
March 17th, 2008
The invicible young hound Failinis "shines like the sun on a summer day and before whom every wild beast falls to earth powerless" is the subject of this new painting.
March 11th, 2008
Sketching for fun is quite liberating and I don't do it often enough. Last night I put my assignments on the back burner and worked in my sketchbook. Check out the blog for another one.
February 9th, 2008
Here is another portrait in the Sketch section; this time of my brother Jean-Marc, the family's one and only engineer.
January 22nd, 2008
Second semester at Parsons has begun today, but I'm going to make an active effort this semester to update the portfolio on a regular basis. Here are two portraits in the Sketch section.
Virginia Woolf
Tennessee Williams
January 18th, 2008
A kelpie is a Scottish mythological creature most often thought to be a malevolent horse that entices travelers onto its back and then rushes into deep waters to drown them. Take a look:
January 12th, 2008
During my vacation, I stopped by St-Joseph's Catholic School in Bowmanville, ON to teach the 3rd graders how to draw faces in proportion. They seemed to enjoy this and the end products were much better than I had expected. Below are pictures of me teaching and a drawing that one of the kids gave to me.
January 11th, 2008
Happy 2008! After having spent the past 2.5 weeks back in Northern Ontario, I'm back with a few more things that I've finally had time to scan.
First is a landscape I painted of the side of the house I grew up in. I thought our basketball hoop looked quite lonely all buried in the snow.
Also added to the Colour section is a skateboard deck which I painted with oils.
And finally, an extremely LONG scroll drawing that was due on the very last day of the semester. The actual scroll is 10ft long.
December 17th, 2007
Here are a few of the biggest enterprises I've undertaken this semester.
The first is a long, long painting of a Feast. Don't forget to scroll!
The second is the dummy of my children's book Growler the Reluctant Guard Dog. There are two colour interiors inside.
Also, I've added the Growler character sheet to my Sketch section
December 16th, 2007
Here are two bug images.The first was an assignment for Kafka's Metamorphosis.
And the second begs the question: if you were a giant roach, where would you feel comfortable hanging out?
December 14th, 2007
I've added a quick portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in the Colour section.
October 26th, 2007
It's been awhile I know. I'm midway through my first semester at Parsons in NYC, and so far I love it. But they have us working our tails off so this is really the first chance I've had to update the website.
First is a drawing of a bucking Bronc in the Sketch section.
Next, two sequential paintings also involving a bucking horse.
Also, I've designed a series of promotional stickers for myself which are available for purchase:
Despite my busy schedule, I've been keeping the Blog updated with more schoolwork and sketches
July 3rd, 2007
I've redone the website with a slightly different format, namely with the adding of shopping buttons! You can now buy prints and originals directly through Paypal.
Also, there's a new one in the Sketch section. I didn't set out to draw a likeness, but I guess when Dennis Quaid is the subject there's no helping it.