Around Lincoln's Inn

Just because I had a request for it.... here are some initial images from around Lincoln's Inn, near High Holborn. More to come soon... It's a really beautiful part of London with some scenic old buildings (many now converted into law offices and the like) but what got me this time was the great big park in the middle of it. It was here that I settled myself down and sketched what caught my eye: a man watching pigeons wistfully, a row of jolly London taxicabs, and this one man sitting with his friend looking pretty sad. He was telling her something and she was just patiently listening, not really bothered or worried... just listening. This time around I really felt like being loose and dirty - lots of textures, lots of crumbling ink lines against the rough paper. As for the image of the rooftops, it just seemed like a poetic subject to me - silent watchers of the human drama from high above it all... I love the rooftops in London because they give great opportunities to indulge my love of abstract shapes and textures (this drawing is essentially just a series of rectangles set off against each other with different textures and shading). The cathedral dome in the background hopefully lends an air of old world dignity to the rather working-class subject matter...

Hit the Ground Running

While in London I'm hitting the ground running with a little illustration contract for Goodenough College, an academic residence in central London catering to graduate students and their families. This is the cover for their upcoming yearbook. They liked it so much they immediately asked me to provide illustrations of the College for a series of fridge magnets! Never done those before but there's a first time for everything!... This is done in my usual way when it comes to more detailed illustrations: first I draw the subject by hand in my sketchbook with my brush pen, then scan it in and manipulate it, colour it and add textures on my Macbook Pro. In fact this illustration is a composite of three separate sketches: one of the College building, one of the seated couple, and one of the man talking on the phone. Clever viewers will notice I plucked him from my Russell Square drawing (below) ;) For more illustrations like this please visit my website: www.tompokinko.com.

Around High Holborn...

My girlfriend works around Gray's Inn near High Holborn St., downtown London. This is a lamppost I sketched in a small park in Gray's Inn Field on our morning walk to her work. Also included here is a sketch of two men in a pub (The Penderel's Oak - also on High Holborn). I think I captured the contrast in their faces (and characters?) well enough...

First Week in London

Even though my base is Montreal, I travel a lot and bring my sketchbook with me. Starting now, I am spending the next three months living with my girlfriend in the heart of London, UK, so will be adding new sketches from London every week or so. Our place is a quaint one-bedroom flat five minutes from Russell Square (see my R.Square sketch of the businessman - many of them here in London! - relaxing while talking on his mobile). These, then, are the first few sketches from London. As you can tell I have been visiting here and there, keeping an eye out for what I think are exciting visual and design possibilities. I also try to tell a story where I can. I rarely try to capture a touristy scene. Rather, I'm more interested in exciting shapes, textures, and lines, and the way things of the natural world (perhaps a neck line, or the deep shadows within a dark pub) create things of visual interest. Inevitably I draw a lot of interiors... Lately I've been drawn to ever smaller things, like the abstract patterns created by dark patches underneath bush-like trees (where the light doesn't hit) or within confines like windows or corners, vaulted archways... etc. I try to heighten these contrasts by using the brush pen very thickly there. I almost always depart from what the scene actually looks like for the sake of heightening the contrast and making interesting abstract shapes. A good example is the drawing of a wooden bench in front of bushes and trees in the quiet little Heathcote Quad, London House, a part of the building where we are staying.

Drawing from a trip to Toronto

I know this is a late posting... from a trip to Toronto last year. I like this drawing because it evokes some of the hustle and bustle, not to mention glass and concrete jungle aspect, of the big T.O.

More Drawings From Montreal

These drawings were both done around the Ste Catherine Street area... the first of a man rushing down the street wearing a pretty distinctive Canadian winter coat and the second of a student on the metro.

Jeff Healey

One summer night in 2005 during the Montreal Jazz Festival I was sitting with my friend Paul at Cafe Delifrance listening to a great after-hours jam by Vanessa Rodriguez, who plays an amazing Hammond B3, when suddenly none other than the late (great) Jeff Healey showed up and asked to be part of the jam. I don't know where he came from (I think he was sitting at one of the back tables all along) but he soon proceeded to play some INCREDIBLE guitar licks in his trademark fashion with the guitar sitting face-up on his lap. I drew him while he was in the middle of what was an AMAZING live set... we were seated literally a couple of meters away from Jeff Healey! Incredible.

"Carve" Drawings from Montreal Part II

More of my urban drawings for "Carve" Magazine. I particularly love the drawing of the lamppost on Ste. Catherine Street - one of our most famous (or infamous, depending on what you're looking for) streets. (also: you can see the Pentel brushpen I use for most of my drawings these days in the drawing of the salt n pepper shakers).

"Carve" Drawings from Montreal Part I

These are from a series of drawings I made of my home city of Montreal, published in a local poetry magazine called "Carve." I just love the black and white of a Pentel brush pen - I use this almost exclusively nowadays in my sketchbooks.

Get Your Box On...!

This was done as an illustration on card stock for someone who is both a) a boxer and b) a fan of Thomas Hobbes. I call it "Boxing Leviathan."