Gord & Jay went LIVE!

Man, after some incredibly frustrating technical issues, we finally got our Google Hangout going last night and we ended up having a good time with it. Here's the YouTube video of that momentous occasion...

And who know, we might do some more of these things!

Here's a few show notes too:

• All of this was, of course, to coincide with the 31 Day Drawing Challenge. Go check it and join in!
• Ladies and Gentlemen, the Quokka.
• Those elusive Staedtler blue pencils! Come on Galway!?!
• The return of Loviatar.

 Back soon!

Gord & Jay go LIVE!

Hey folks, we just wanted to give you all the head's up that we will be hosting an informal live drawing and talking session on Google Hangouts this very evening. This is to coincide with the 31 Day Drawing Challenge currently running through the almighty Galway Pub Scrawl. You can find all of the pertinents about the challenge here, and do feel free to join in if you are so inclined!

Today's topic is directly inspired by one of Gord's recent personal projects - depicting unusual animals beginning with a particular letter. So Gord will be working on an animal beginning with the letter C, Jay went with the letter Q for some silly reason... what a chump.

We're welcoming people that want to join in on the video chat, so don't be shy, come have a laugh and do some fun drawing with us too.

Hope to see everybody there later!

Gord & Jay Talk Art Episode 11: Composition

WE'RE BAAAAaaaaaaaaCK!!

Did you miss us? We missed us. We missed you!

In this episode, Gord & Jay talk about all that has been happening over the last while since the last podcast. Here's the shownotes for your ease of use...

• Jay mentions his new found love of Instagram. Here's his one.
• Gord talks about his painterly selfie, his Alphabet Animals and his Mighty Druss.
• Jay Talks about his recent Dryad 8-page comic, and the Alanna story before that.
• Chris Riddell gets a mention (..again? Sheesh!), as well as Eric Canete.
• The Galway Pub Scrawl 31 Day Drawing Challenge is near!
• Jay alludes to his 100 Heads in 100 Days project from a few years back, here's the video he made of it.
• Jay mentions this face reference library tome. It's rather decent.

And that's about it! So here's all of the download deets you need-

You can right-click here to download the episode.

Or you can go to our iTunes channel (be kind and subscribe, rate and comment!).

And the music was supplied, once more, by Jay's brother (recently a daddy for the first time, Congrats!), Ryan Penn.

Tally Ho, we say!

SketchCast #2 is here!

Hey folks, Gord and Jay are back with another edition of everybody's favourite alternative to the regular Gord & Jay Talk Art Podcast, it's the Gord & Jay SketchCast!

For those that don't know, the SketchCast is different to our usual Podcast in that it's just basically the two of us having a chat while we draw. It's much more laid back in this way and there's no real theme or topic to stick to. It's just good, clean, healthy art discussion. And here it is...

You can right-click here to download the episode.
Or you can go to our iTunes channel (Why does nobody rate and comment, darn it?!).

Apologies for the audio in this episode, there was a glitch. It may have even been a Gremlin. Possibly a Ghost in the Machine. We've got Steven Spielberg and Sting looking into it, anyway.

All of the musical additions in this episode are by Jay's crazy talented musician brother, Ryan Penn. Thanks Ry-Pie!

Jay draws naked ladies...

Hey folks, Jay here. As I mentioned in Episode 10, I've been really enjoying my Wednesday night Life Drawing class, and I promised I'd show some of the recent results. So here they are:

As you can see, I'm hanging on to that brown toned paper system for my very life! I used to use a white gouache for the highlighting, but I'm trying out various white pencils to see if there is another way to do it. And I have plenty of white pencils to choose from...

Catcha on the soundwaves!

Gord & Jay Talk Art Episode 10: Conventions

We've made it to double figures! Aren't we awesome! Yes. Yes, we are indeed.

So Episode 10's meaty topic is Conventions. We talk about our experiences while attending them and how they may play a part in what we have planned for the future. Here are the show notes:

• Gord's Robot Monster Girl can be found here.
• Jay's first 4-page The Circle story can be found here.
• Becky Cloonan's fantastic 'Wolves' one-shot comic can be found here and here.
• Jay mentioned Mike Allred. He wrote and illustrated Madman, amongst many other things.
• Use extreme caution when attempting to pronounce Bill Sienkiewicz' surname.
• Here is the Slaine convention sketch Liam Sharp did for Jay.
• Paper Wings host Lora Innes' webcomic is called The Dreamer. It is beautiful!
• Gord's 'Spotlight Artist' for this episode is the great Dave Mckean.
• Jay uses Illustrator CC for all of his logo work. He is not in any way affiliated with Adobe or its subsidiaries. But he thinks he should get a free month for all of the public praise he gives them and their products.

The three artists Jay interviewed are-

• Ruth 'the Champion' Campion.
• The always delicious Patrick Gavin.
• Katie Creaven. She's okay we guess.

and here's the important stuff like where to download the episode...

You can right-click here to download the episode.

Or you can go to our iTunes channel (be kind and subscribe, rate and comment!).

We use music and sounds by Setuniman, FreqMan, indigosierra, Goup_1, FoolBoyMedia, Timbre and Jay's brother, Ryan Penn.

Gord & Jay Talk Art Episode 9: Rigs

This episode is a monster! We didn't intend it to be, we promise!
But if there's a lesson to be learned, it's that bringing up the subject of tools and materials makes Jay rather talkative. Better watch for that in the future...

Anyway, here's the show notes from Episode 9.

• Gord mentioned a few pieces he's been working on, including his renditions of Jekyll & Hyde and Druss.
• Jay spoke of the two (1 & 2) bookmarks he made for his brother Daniel. The Stronghold fanzine can be found here, and The Other of One is here.
• Gord has a small, yet still substantial, hoard of these Staedtler Mars mechanical pencils.
• When shopping for fancy new artistic implements, Jay chooses JetPens for all of his obsessive needs. Here's the pencil sharpener he's a little too crazy about.
• Jay can very often be found every second Monday evening at Galway Pub Scrawl, he will also be attending the Mach 21st Dr. Sketchy event (which Jay got the theme complete wrong, it's Gotham Villains, sorry Scarlet) and will be running around at the 11th Annual ITZACon at NUI Galway. He'll be drawing things and selling prints and original art and generally causing a disturbance.

Here are the usual important bits about the podcast-

You can right-click here to download the episode.

Or you can go to our iTunes channel (be kind and subscribe, rate and comment!).

The intro music is by Setuniman, all of the rest is by Jay's brother, Ryan Penn. He'll do, we suppose...

On a serious note, as we discuss at the end of the episode, we are dedicating this particular podcast to the memory of the great Terry Pratchett. He will be missed in no small way by any of us involved or interested in the fantasy genre.

Talking... AND drawing?!?!?!

As was briefly discussed in Episode 8, the two of us thought we'd try our hands at doing a more loose podcast while we were drawing away. With no particular theme in mind, we'd just talk about what we were doing as we were doing it and get into some general art discussions when the thought struck us.

The resulting recording is the...

We had oodles of fun doing it, and we're going to make it a semi-regular thing on top of the usual, more structured podcast.
So here it is for your listening pleasure-

You can right-click here to download the episode.
Or you can go to our iTunes channel (be kind and subscribe, rate and comment!).

And as promised in the sketchcast, here are the accompanying pieces we were working on.

GORD

Picture 1: Them's a lot of stones to render.

Picture 2: Coming along...

JAY

Picture 1: A pretty typical warm-up page.

 

Picture 2: Working out a thumbnail

 

Picture 3: Getting the figure roughed in.

We're currently toying with the idea of doing these sketchcasts with actual, running video and doing it live. But we'll see how it progresses from here.

Enjoy.

Gord & Jay Talk Art Episode 8: Discipline

Here we are again for Episode 8 of what is rapidly becoming a fan-favourite podcast among people who are, in fact, Jay & Gord... we just love it.

We talk about a whole mess of things in this episode, so let's get straight to the show notes, shall we?

• Here's an early Picasso. Not too shabby!
• Mattisse... meh.
• The fantastic Chris Riddell, who is very prolific but maintains a really consistently high skill level.
• He worked on 'The Edge Chronicles' with PAUL Stewart.
• Here is some of Peter Mohrbacher's Angelarium work. Jay particularly likes Hod.
• Peter does a webcast thingy with the also awesome Sam Flegal, called One Fantastic Week. It's a great show and very informative.
• Here is PJ Lynch again, and here is the art class he often gives. Jay will put his piece from the day up on the Facebook page soon.
• The mighty Bill Watterson!
• The third of our challenges is for folks to try their hand at rendering this guy. So get drawing!

And here's the usual round-up stuff:

You can right-click here to download the episode.

Or you can go to our iTunes channel (be kind and subscribe, rate and comment!).

We use music and sounds by Setuniman, WebbFilmsUK, venicesurf, northern87 and indigosierra. We continually thank them!

Gord & Jay Talk Art Episode 7: Reference

In this episode, we get into the thorny issue of the use of reference for artists. It's a touchy subject, but we manage to get through it without calling each other names.
Here are the show notes from the episode.

• You can see both Gord and Jay's community challenge entries over on the podcast's Facebook page.
• Here be the mighty Druss!
• This is PJ Lynch, and here is the art class he often gives.
• Jay mentioned a few artists, including Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta and Donato Giancola.
• Here are those Tombow pens again, and this is the Bristol Board Jay likes to use.
• Here's the whole Nick Simmons plagiarism thing. It's pretty funny.
• The artist in spotlight for this episode is the great Calum Alexander Watt. If you haven't seen his work already, you simply must go check him out!

And here's the usual round-up stuff:

You can right-click here to download the episode.

Or you can go to our iTunes channel (be kind and subscribe, rate and comment!).

We use music and sounds by Setuniman, venicesurf, northern87 and indigosierra. We continually thank them!