Larry D. Marshall's Blog, page 36

A Great Day At Miriam’s Cottage

What’s your ideal sketching day?  I think mine is spending the day at Miriam’s cottage.  Miriam’s cottage is an idyllic place on a large island in the St. Lawrence River, near Quebec City.  She’s got a wonderful artist’s cottage, a huge barn full of sketchable stuff, and a chunk of land you could get lost in as long as you didn’t run out of paper.  All of that would be great enough but there’s also Miriam, who is an inspiration.

She approaches art the way we all did as kids.  She’s very much a “let’s try this” and “just have fun” kind of gal.  Her house has one wall with animal heads looking down on the proceedings.  These are not just any old animals either.  There’s a unicorn among them and all are made from paper mache.  In her loft there’s an full size man done using similar materials.  She draws with abandon and with considerable skill, choosing her tools on a whim.  It’s hard not to be humbled and harder still not to be thrilled just to be there.  Her dog Nikki is a joy and he loves to sit at a sketcher’s feet, apparently enjoying our silence, or maybe the scratching of a pen on paper.

Yvan and I went out to visit her a few days ago.  It was a rainy day but we were able to find cover and did some drawing.  The first drawing I did was this one.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (8.5×5.5), Pilot 78G, diluted DeAtramentis Document Black

Yvan was drawing next to me and I grumbled about how hard it was to draw this simple scene because nothing on this old barn was in alignment as it should be.  He took that as an opportunity to give me an art lesson and we had a great conversation about lines, squinting, and my problems with both things.  It was perfect.

I got out my little S&B Epsilon (3.5×5.5) book and drew this small sketch of the pool shed, trying to keep what Yvan had talked about in mind.  Then it was time for lunch so we headed to the deck, put up an umbrella over a table and ourselves and then spent an hour or so eating and enjoying each other’s company.  Miriam’s sister, Sarah, joined us.

The rain stopped and we decided that we should walk a bit so we headed down the hill, down the road and ended up at low tide next to the St. Lawrence.  In this location, huge rocks are exposed at low tide and we got the bright idea to try to do a drawing, in spite of the fact that it was threatening more rain.

I only had my little sketchbook with me and a Pilot 78G but that was enough.  I sat down behind where Miriam was sketching and drew her and the surrounding rocks.  I had no color with me but it didn’t much matter because I had to rush the last few lines because the rain had started to fall again.  I added the color when I got home.

We climbed the hill back to Miriam’s place and all agreed that we were going to have to do this again…and maybe again.  It was, indeed, an ideal sketching day.

Maison des Jésuites de Sillery

**ed note: It’s 60F outside right now, on July 12th.   The weather oscillations are crazy this summer, and I use the word “summer” a bit loosely.  Today, however, I speak of a better day, as in July 6th when we had to sit in the shade to draw at the Maison des Jésuites de Sillery.

There are a lot of tiny museums scattered around the Quebec City area but none better hidden than the Maison des Jésuites de Sillery which, not surprisingly, is in Sillery, a burg of Quebec City.  This house, which is now a museum, sits on the site of the first Jesuit settlement in Nouvelle France dating back to the 17th Century.  The museum is interesting and we sketch there once in a while.

It is a bit out of the normal path for tourists but there are tourist flyers available that list it as a good place to visit.  In any case, visit we did, last week.  It’s on a residential street below a cliff face, creating a really nice place to visit and with all the rain we’ve gotten, the area is green, green, green.  I took up residence under a railroad bridge, which provided both a good view and shade.  Gotta have shade.

I wasn’t all that thrilled with the result.  I was trying to get way from pale washes and I got heavy-handed without any idea what I was doing.  So, here it is, such that it is

Quick-Sketching A Larger Scene

It’s well-known that I’m a slower than molasses sketcher, but I am making a concerted effort t speed things up.  The big problem is that when I do everything else goes downhill and I get frustrated.  Such is my life but I keep trying.

A few posts ago I talked about some sketching I’d done one morning, including a quick sketch from a photo of a scene not far from my house.  I decided to go to that location and do it again.  Here it is, this one done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (8.5×5.5) and with a dab of color added.

A Sneak Peak At Stillman & Birn Nova Paper

Did you get excited when Stillman & Birn announced their new Nova series of sketchbooks?  I sure did.  Most people know that I’m a fan of S&B but, like everyone else, when I wanted to draw on toned paper, I was stuck with 60-80lb paper with little or no sizing.  This stuff was ok for line sketching but any attempts at watercolor and the paper buckled, pigments dulled as they were sucked into the paper, and you couldn’t manipulate the watercolors the way you can on a better paper.

But one day I got a call from S&B, asking if I’d like to try out their new toned paper line.  I pondered my answer carefully.  Microseconds went by as I came up with my careful worded response.  “Heck yeah!  Bring it on.”  And they sent me some single sheets of their tan, gray and black papers.

Which brings us to now.  These papers will change the way watercolorists think about toned papers for two reasons, both having to do with the fact that physically these papers are like S&B Alpha white and cream papers.

They are much heavier than other toned papers.  I don’t have any data on these papers, but they are the same thickness as Alpha paper, suggesting they are around 100lb (150gsm).  In any case, the extreme buckling I’ve experienced from other toned papers just doesn’t happen.

The papers are properly sized, so you can actually work watercolors on them.  Those who have experienced Alpha papers know that large-scale wet-n-wet is probably not the idea approach but these papers can handle a fair amount of water.  The pigments can be moved around.  You can charge into another color. You can lift pigments from these papers.  The colorsl remain bright on these papers.

I started testing by doing what I typically do with toned papers, draw with pencil or fountain pen.  Very quickly I realized that  this was lots of fun but not really a challenge for these papers.  They were almost screaming “put some water on me,” and so I did.

I’d like to provide a detailed, blow by blow on the process of getting used to these papers but, for me, it was like working on my typical Alpha and Beta papers.  If anything, I might have used a slightly thicker mix to achieve the results you see but I’m not even sure that’s true.

Above you can see a bit of buckling. I soaked the area inside the building outline and applied the color wet-n-wet. Because the exterior remained dry this small amount of buckling took place. What I did here simply would not be possible with other toned papers I’ve used.

 

 

 

Stillman & Birn says that actual sketchbooks with Nova papers will be available sometime in August.  I don’t know if that means softcover, hardcover, or both but I know I’m going to get in line to get some.  Stillman & Birn will shake the world of toned papers with these sketchbooks.  Thanks, S&B.

 

 

 

 

 

A Sketcher Version Of Morning Papers

Julia Cameron popularized the idea of “morning papers,” suggesting that writing three pages of text about anything every morning would improve your creativity.  I did this for a while but it was at a time of my life when I was writing for several hours of every day and it just became another job I had to do.

The idea of thinking about creativity every morning, though, makes a lot of sense.  My sketching buddy Yvan starts his days by drawing something from his imagination and he recommends it highly.  I don’t have any imagination so that is difficult for me.

Instead, I often get up, get a cup of coffee and play, watching YouTube videos, Craftsy courses, or maybe I’ll flip through an art book or three.  And when I do these things I generally end up with a pointy device in my hand as I try to emulate some of the stuff I see.

This is a significant part of how I learn and improve (I hope) my sketching.  The sketches I post on this blog aren’t about learning; they’re the result of using the skills I have to produce a sketch.  While the sketches I create while learning aren’t much to look at, they are the real engine of my progress.  Anyways, I was doing this sort of thing this morning and thought it might benefit some to pull the curtain back and talk about one aspect of my “process,” such that it is.

My buddy Yvan had sent me a sketch he’d done on the river and it caused me to pull up a photo of the scene I’d taken recently.  I’m interested in doing larger scenes quickly so I grabbed a piece of photocopy paper and started scribbling.  Here’s the result.   Now I’ve got to go on site and draw it again.

The smaller sketches at the bottom of this were to see how it might look with a gray ink (right) and a look at whether I could use watercolor on photocopy paper. Bad idea

Sketching In The Flowerless Flower Garden

It seems as though we won’t be having a summer this year.  Lots of rain and temps cool enough that we’re back to wearing jackets to go sketching.  Pretty odd for July, even in Quebec City.

We headed to a large garden in Ste-Foy last week for a sketching session.  Reports said the rain wouldn’t start until late afternoon, though it looked as though it could rain at any minute.  We’re getting used to the dull days, though, so we didn’t think much of it.  The garden brought reality home to roost.  There were so few flowers, so little growth.  The trees and grass were all very green, probably because of the rain, but the garden plants looked like it was April.

Everyone cast around for something to draw and I started by drawing on of my fellow sketchers.  I admit my heart wasn’t into it but a quick sketch was done quickly.  After this I got up and started wandering the grounds, around and around I went.  Nothing inspired.

There were some people weeding some large beds and they had a small garden vehicle in support.  I decided “why not” and sat down to draw it.  A woman came over and asked if I wanted her to move the vehicle, thinking I wanted to draw the garden, but I explained that I was going to draw the vehicle.  She laughed, probably thought I was nuts, and I set to work.  Here’s what I came up with.  Not a Rembrandt but it sure was fun to draw.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5×8), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Looking Up To Draw

I do almost all of my sketching on location so I’m very comfortable doing so.  There is one circumstance, however, that I find challenging.  Looking up at the subject to be sketched always seems harder than it should be.  I don’t know if there’s something about the upward-looking angle or the fact that I have to bob my head through a much larger angle between subject and paper.  In any case, getting the proportions and perspective correct is always harder.

We were sketching at the train station, though, and I drew this portion of one of the buildings.  Quebec is blessed with these sorts of rooftops and so looking up is is worth the effort.

Happy Canada Day

There’s supposed to be half a million spectators on hand at Parliament in Ottawa for today’s Canada Day celebration.  I’m glad I’m not there.  On the other hand, living in Quebec City means I experience hardly a peep in celebration.  It’s sad.

But I’m here, an ex-American, proud Canadian, waving the flag.  Happy Canada Day everyone.

New “Sketchbook” From Ottawa

When I was in Ottawa I visited a stationary/card store because, well, that’s what I do.  It was a delightful store, though their pricing on fountain pens was really high ($68 for a Lamy Safari) but it costs nothing to look.  There were several things I wanted to buy but I guess I was in a “do I REALLY need that” mood and I didn’t buy most of them.  The one exception was this tiny notebook made by Clairfontaine.  It contains really smooth, thin paper that’s not idea for drawing but gosh it’s cute.  I had to have one.

I’ve only done a couple sketches in it but it’s fun to draw this small on occasion.  I think I’ll get $4.00 worth of fun from it.

A Weekend In Ottawa – Part 2

The day of my daughter’s graduation we did some more shopping and returned to Andrew Haydon Park.  It was still windy and still stormy but we like this park because there are a lots of geese and you can see the St. Lawrence River from there.

As a chipmunk foraged around us, I drew this sketch of a spit of land that sticks out on the other side of the marina associated with the park.  I forgot to include it in yesterday’s post.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (8×5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black