Andrew Dorland: A Graphic Tale

     “The usual kind of culprit was comics,” laughs Andrew Dorland, also siting Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons amongst his long list of popular cultural influences. But Andrew was also influenced by the great Renaissance artists and the Pre-Raphaelite movement of romantic art. Andrew gave an analysis of how the chiaroscuro effects used dramatically by the 16th Century artist Caravaggio influenced the graphic art of his time and carried through to present day comics. “DaVinci’s grotesque stuff is just like comics too,” says Andrew.

You can see his work HERE

     Originally from a suburb of Holland Landing, farmland area near Barrie, Andrew came to Thunder Bay to study business at Lakehead University. He got his business/administration degree, then worked briefly in a tattoo shop in Toronto, became a stock broker and then headed back into his art. Back in T. Bay he does some bookkeeping to pay the bills.

     Andrew sees a good deal of irony in that his father wouldn’t allow him to study art at university; for the biggest influence on Andrew’s artistic bent came from his father. Although a pilot by trade, Andrew’s father was also a part time painter, taking on the occasional commission to paint airplanes when he wasn’t painting landscapes as a hobby. He taught Andrew perspective tricks, like drawing the typical train tracks receding towards the horizon line.

     Parents rightfully worry that their kids will go down a path that could lead to misery and the sad stereotype of artists suffering in poverty is a reality for some. However circumspect Andrew is about the art scene he knows he would love to be making a living as an artist if he could. As a result you can find him and his buddy comic artist, Kyle Lees, working away at the Country Market Saturday mornings at their vendor’s booth on the second floor where they refer to themselves as the Octilius Studio. They are soon to be joined by fellow comic and graphic novel artists Bry Kotyk, Christopher Merkley and Colin Rackham.

     Andrew is not entirely new to the game of the comic book world. He’s worked for one of the larger comic publishers and done illustration work near Barrie for a small publisher, illustrating children’s books and activity cards. He jump started his desire to be an artist by producing his own comic book series, Scarabs.

     Scarabs is a 22 page comic. It takes Andrew about twelve to sixteen hours to draw a page which produces a comic in just over two months. Once the artwork is done a entirely new workload takes over involving the layout, design and publishing that follows.

     “I’ve illustrated children’s books in the past and it’s nice to just hand over the illustrations and be done with it,” he says. “That said, I’ve got a large oil painting that seems to be taking me forever.”

     Andrew is realistic about what success is. “Success is having the money and time to create the things you want too create. I believe everyone has a drive to create in their own way and being able too do that full time is success.”

    “I'm currently finishing up the next few issues of the Scarabs Comic, but as far as projects goes I'm working on a number of pitches for comic publishers including an Irish Mythology themed story that I'm sure people who like fantasy stories will like. It will be my largest challenge too date as I'm painting each page.”

     The influences of popular culture upon Andrew is not total. “Sure, I’m very influenced by popular culture but I really try and avoid bringing too much of it consciously into any story I create. The Scarabs Comic is all psychological and at least fifty percent based on incidents of my own life. The story is very heavy emotionally so I think by adding some Egyptian gods and fantastic looking creatures I give the reader a "safe" separation too absorb the message.” 

     Andrew also acknowledges that trying to win over an audience with the pizzaz of detail, dramatic settings and violent action, like special effects in a movie, does nothing compared to how interesting characters can grip the reader. Referring to his Irish mythological tale Andrew says, “Having a true understanding of what these characters would do and what drives them is the most important thing.”
      Andrew has some big ambitions, hoping to work with a large publisher who takes an interest in Andrew’s story ideas. Being realist he says he’s trying not to get attached to his ambitions. He’s aware of the old adage of keeping expectations low, but he’s certainly not going to avoid doing his best to make a go of it.

The Art of Jasper Schmidt

Constraints aren’t Jasper’s problem. She’s dealt with limited space in her childhood and currently takes great advantage of her living room, packing and unpacking her supplies. As a third year student at Lakehead University in the visual arts program Jasper creates large works with expansive themes of home and place in colourful yet muted tones. Her paintings are currently on display at Espresso Joya at 8 Cumberland St. South.

     A major source of inspiration for Jasper are maps. Jasper employs these everyday functional tools in her paintings to cleverly suggest connections with the intimacies of home life. And not just her own home life, the paintings will soon become mapped portraits for others as well. Having taken on a commission she has found a unique way to generate an income.

     In her younger days, painting at home was too messy for Jasper’s family and she didn’t have a lot of room for it, but she organized with a closet dedicated to art supplies. Her painting journey really began at LU. Previously she had only worked with watercolours and fell in love with acrylics when she was first introduced to them. 

     Jasper’s desire to have the acrylics mimic watercolour effects rather than the plastic look acrylic can sometimes generate, lead her to work the acrylic into raw canvas. Priming a canvas with gesso makes the surface hard, smoother and more resilient. It’s not generally recommended to paint on raw canvas unless treated properly. Most of Jackson Pollack's paintings, worth millions of dollars, are falling apart. Museums and galleries spend millions on restoration, especially contemporary works of art as they contain the most volatile of materials often with no concern for the works longevity. In some museums you can actually see a line of paint dust on the floor beneath a Pollock due to the paint slowly disintegrating. 

    However, if done correctly with sealants and coloured gesso, watered down in order to keep the elasticity of the canvas, the benefits of painting into raw canvas can result in effects that are much harder to achieve with a completely primed canvas.

     “I’ve had quite the journey with painting,” states Jasper. “My beginnings weren’t very hands on.” She first took architecture at the University of Manitoba. “It really opened my eyes to what I really wanted to do. Ideally I would like a job that is very very hands on, whether working in wood – fine carpentry or furniture…. I found my niche in painting and along the way became interested in maps, personal maps, and map-like shapes that people might recognize… the tryptic [for instance] is all Canada.”

     This large triple painting and sectional “map” of Canada actually isn’t as jumbled as it looks. There was a lot of preplanning and projection involved. This tryptic inspired follow-up paintings where Jasper included significant places in her life which she highlighted; her childhood home, favourite lakes, babysitter’s house, friends homes, and more. So when you view the paintings you may now be aware of why it is you find her work somewhat familiar.
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.