featured interview in The Main

Thanks very much to The Main writer Kelli Sturkenboom and photographer, Charlotte Guirestante-Ghomeshi, for the featured interview! You can read it here.

THAT LAUGH! - reference sculptures

Meant to share this with you all and then (I admit) I totally forgot about it, even after customizing a box for it and everything. While I was making the painting 'THAT LAUGH!', I had made small head sculptures of Daffy and Porky to draw them from tricky angles. With Daffy, I was trying to figure out what his bill would look like in an oblique angle (not often seen in cartoons). With Porky, I cheated a little bit - Porky doesn't actually have much of a neck, but in the painting he does, even though you don't see it.

color studies and tonals - THAT LAUGH!

 Here are the tonal thumbnails (painted digitally) I made for the ‪#‎painting‬ 'THAT LAUGH!'. From this, the next step would have been the color studies  below. The thumbnail on the bottom left had the best balance of darks and lights.

 Final tonal study. Available here.

Here are the color thumbnails I made for the ‪#‎painting‬ 'THAT LAUGH!'. From this, the next step would have been the color study. I like to see multiple options on the same page for contrast. For the color study, I took the clouds from the one on the bottom left and Porky and Ludwig from the one on the bottom right.

The final color study. Available here.

THAT LAUGH! essay

Last month, I finally completed a painting I started last year which I had been laboring over in between other projects called: THAT LAUGH! (see previous posts). The painting is about psychological repercussions generated by some of my all time favorite cartoon characters. You can read the full story behind the idea for the painting below:

One of my strongest most undeniable influences is the LooneyTunes. Their madcap hysterics brought about more enjoyment and laughter in me than any other cartoons I can think of.  

Daffy Duck from the franchise is my favorite cartoon character of all time. Both his blitz beginnings and conceited conduct arrested my young developing mind. When I discovered Woody Woodpecker afterwards, I enjoyed his early disposition much better: a brash bird with far too much energy. Over time, I found he became heavily gentrified and his cartoons became tamer. Screwy Squirrel is a short lived brain child of one of my heroes, the late great Tex Avery.  Only appearing in five official cartoons and discovered by me while exiting my teens, the character is lesser known to many and has the most abusive antics of the three.  

These cartoon characters didn't just make ME laugh - they had prominent laughs themselves! Woody Woodpecker's laugh is indelible - if you've heard it once, you know exactly who it belongs to. Daffy's 'WOO-HOO-HOO-HOO' laugh is manic and memorable. Screwy's laugh is not as renowned - but certainly taunting. The idea of combining the three of them into a homage painting united by their wacky laughter sat in my conscientiousness for over two years before I would begin the painting. 

But the laughter these characters generated in their cartoons was always at someone else's expense.

 

Far later in my development, I realized Daffy Duck, Screwey Squirrell and the early Woody Woodpecker were not just pests - they were bullies.  Each of them exerting a combination of physical, verbal or psychological abuse on their chosen victim the whole time LAUGHING while doing it.

But why do we have such vicarious desires over such disrespectful behavior in the first place? The answer I believe is because cartoon characters exemplify our inner selves. They perform acts we would love to do - but could never get away with. It's important to note, behavioral traits (both good and bad) in cartoons characters are inspired by real people.

As much as I admired Daffy, Screwy and Woody's frantic antics, I developed a sense of sympathy for Porky Pig. In cartoons, he would frequently appear timid, ambivalent and taken advantage of. I also think the act of being bullied, is something generally everyone can relate to. Perhaps on both sides of the spectrum. (Myself, I admit, there are times I wasn't exactly an angel to my sisters growing up .)

 Many an animated cartoon would end with a character literally 'going crazy' - in some cases even incarcerated -  by the antics of another.  In the painting, Porky has been driven to the point of madness where he now must seek help from his abuse. The act of confessing maladaptive struggles to a psychiatrist was nothing unfamiliar with me either. Myself, having undergone therapy sessions on two separate occasions before the ripe age of sixteen.

 A conversation in late July 2014 with one of my best friends and concept artist, Tony Mitchell, reminded me that pink is the official color of anti-bullying. This sprang from a campaign started by two males while in High School (coincidentally from my province of birth and development, Nova Scotia) who organized a pink shirt wearing rally in support of a younger student bullied on his first day in school for wearing a pink shirt to class. With that information, I thought it would be appropriate to work the color pink into the image somehow. Porky is already  a pale pink - so that worked out conveniently. His three oppressors in the clouds are cast by an eerie pink light and their taunts at full spectrum. Also, Ludwig Von Drake (who plays the psychiatrist in the painting) dons a pink shirt.   

I think both cartoons and psychology have interested me because cartoons have influenced the behavior of generations of children in ways no one ever really intended. I've forged not only a sense of desire and empathy for cartoon characters I grew up with, but some of my fondest memories to date. Perhaps there's something very unsettling about that. I've  accumulated real world emotions over characters that don't even exist. There is a part of me that tries to battle the reality of knowing I can never actually meet them. And for me, painting them is an act of spending time with them.

-Jono Doiron

 

'THAT LAUGH!' - color study & tonal study

Both the color study and tonal drawing to the painting 'THAT LAUGH!' are now available on my online store. If you would love to own a piece of the development, and an original at an affordable price, this is a great way! https://jonodoironstudio.storenvy.com/

 'THAT LAUGH!' color study:
-acrylic on illustration board
-8"x10" (image dimensions: 6.75"x8.25")
-signed and dated in graphite pencil on lower right corner. 

-Title and color study stated in lower left corner
-includes a certificate of authenticity

buy this painting

'THAT LAUGH!' tonal study:

-graphite on off white acid free archival paper
-9"x12" (image dimensions: 8.25"x9.75")
-signed and dated in graphite pencil on lower right corner.
-includes a certificate of authenticity
buy this drawing

THAT LAUGH! - f-i-n-a-l-l-y done!

At last - as promised, the final painting 'THAT LAUGH! revealed if you weren't able to see it in person this past weekend at the YES Montreal Art Expo. It's been quiiiiite a journey with this painting!

 'THAT LAUGH!'
acrylic on wood panel
20"x24"

 Screwy Squirrel

Woody Woodpecker

Daffy Duck

Porky Pig

Ludwig Von Drake

THAT LAUGH! - last laugh

This is an excerpt from my latest painting called 'THAT LAUGH!'. It is a visual feast of terror, laughter and anxiety and I can't wait to show it to you all! Come chat with me at the YES Montreal Art Expo, March 20-21st and to see the painting in person. (I'll post the final painting in it's entirety after the event.) I will have many other works on display and for sale too. http://www.yesmontreal.ca/en/artists/library/1345

And the laughter continues...

Hope you all had a great weekend! Here is more development from the 'THAT LAUGH!' painting still in progress...

THAT LAUGH! - more laughter

I've been concentrating all my efforts on the 'THAT LAUGH!' #painting once again since I finished my piece for the skateboard art show next Saturday. Here is more of the daunting detail:

THAT LAUGH! - more progress

Sorry for the lack of posts, my friends. Here is some more progress from the 'THAT LAUGH!' painting.

Still blocking in the base colors here. The lightning will be painted over. It is painted here so I know where to blend the highlights in the sky. Since the lightning has to fit around the text (the laughter that will be painted last), I can't arbitrarily paint it anywhere. If you look close you can see the pencil outlines of where I retraced the characters.

THAT LAUGH! - transfering the painting

I took the final drawing, scanned it, enlarged it in a digital file and got it printed at the exact size of the surface I would be painting it on. 

Next, I added graphite to the back to transfer the image on the panel once I added the neutral base tone. I recommend buying a 4B or 6B graphite stick - if you use a pencil, it's going to take you forever. Also, be generous with coverage so you can see your lines easier.  (Which is the reason why I recommend darker lead.)

Doing it this way LITERATELY saves me hours of time by not having to calculate the drawing at a larger scale. AND - you can just retrace the drawing if the guidelines get lost while you're painting!

THAT LAUGH! - color study

Here is the rough color version completed with acrylic on illustration board. Some things will still change in the final, but this basically sets the palette.
This study will be available on my online store once the final painting is complete: 
http://jonodoironstudio.storenvy.com/

THAT LAUGH! - color thumbnails

Here is more progress on the #painting 'THAT LAUGH!'. These are some color study thumbnails. Which one do you like best? Just like the tonal study, I decided to make a color study with traditional media too. (Unlike what I usually do, which is make a digital mockup and then just print it out for reference. Doing it that way saves more time, but after doing the tonal in pencil, doing the color solely digital felt like a cop-out to me.)

THAT LAUGH! - completed tonal study

Tonal study is all done! Here is a much better image of the top half of the drawing for the #painting 'THAT LAUGH!'. 

This drawing will be for sale once the painting is completed for anyone interested. To be contacted once it's available, please send me an E-mail with your request. 

THAT LAUGH! - tonal studies

Been juggling a few things at the moment. Here is more progress of the #painting 'THAT LAUGH!'. I'm doing a detailed pencil study of the image first this time. Some of my favorite artists work this way and I had wanted to do one for a while. (The last time I've done a tonal study in pencil, I was in College.)

Final tonal thumbnail selected to expand upon (digital).

You may notice I switched up the drawing of Screwy Squirrel (the character on the far left). Showed the image to a friend of mine who suggested all the characters should be laughing as the intent and title suggests - apposed to Screwy who (previously) was repeating a phrase. Thought that made sense, so I redrew him. (You can compare with previous images in the earlier posts below.)

Tonal study in pencil. (Still working on it.) The final drawing will be available for purchase on my online store once the painting is completed.
  

THAT LAUGH! - more delight

Here is some more development on the painting 'THAT LAUGH!'. Next step is the tonal study. (I bet you're wondering what's so funny?)

Tight rough/final rough drawing.

Corrections on the back of tight rough drawing.

Final line drawing. I will blow this up to the same dimensions of the painting and use it to transfer the composition.