Larry D. Marshall's Blog, page 47

The Spires of Quebec City

If you follow my blog you know that there are a lot of pointy things that rise up from the citiscape and that I love to draw them.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the old city area where there seems to be more churches, tall fountains and statues than there are people.  I’m trying to work my way through some severe back pain that’s limiting my ability to sketch (can’t sit on my stool as it’s too low), but I found a bench facing a nice stack of those pointy things and I drew this.  The statue is in front of the old post office and I’m looking west, towards City Hall.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10)

Five Years A Sketcher, I Am

Tina Koyama just did a blog post about completing five years as a sketcher.  It reminded me that I’ve been sketching for five years as well so I thought I should do a short post about that fact.

When I began as a sketcher I couldn’t draw anything.  I’d read Danny Gregory’s Everyday Matters and bought into the idea that being good wasn’t important; the process of doing it was what was important.  This was an important epiphany for me at the time because I’d been convinced that I had no “talent” for art.

These days I know that “talent” is something you create by passion and persistence; you’re not born with it.  Anyway, I started drawing cubes and doing simple drawings of things.  I started posting a few things on Russ Stutler’s sketching site, which is where I first ‘met’ Tina.  At that time I was drawing on photocopy paper and throwing the results away when I was done.  Someone on that group explained what a bad idea that was and that I should keep my early sketches.

This was my first location sketch. It’s dated Oct 2011.

I wish I had some of them to post here but instead I’ll post the first location sketch I did (Oct 2011), a window manikin (I figured she wouldn’t mind me sketching her) and one of my first building sketches (done in Oct 2011 from a photo).  I’ll add to this the last location sketch I did just a few days ago.  Hope you can see a difference as there have been several thousand sketches done in between these.  With a bit more persistence, maybe I’ll improve by the end of year six.  In any case, sketching has improved my life so much that it doesn’t really matter.

This one was done Sept 2016

 

The Tribulations Of An Urban Sketcher

I love sketching on location.  Most of what I do is done outdoors, but sometimes Mother Nature throws up some roadblocks, or at least speed bumps.  As we head into autumn I’m reminded that she ultimately wins and that I’m forced to spend several months each year where I have to find indoor venues for my location sketching.

Our last sketchcrawl was one of those times where I fought Mother Nature and, at best, I achieved a tie.  Most people didn’t even show up for this sketchcrawl.  Yvan and I were there and a couple other diehards put in an appearance, but we started off with a threat of rain, followed by some rain.  It was short lived but then it became cold and very windy.

Before the rain I drew an ice cream parlor on Terrase Dufferin, the large boardwalk that runs in front of Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City.  Compared to the rest of the day, I was quite comfortable while doing this sketch.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Then the rain came.  We ducked under an overhang associated with the Frontenac and waited for it to stop.  When it did I sat down next to the overhang to draw one of the light fixtures on the building.  I won’t be showing you that one because as the wind came up it blew a big pile of rain off the overhang and onto me and my sketchbook.  The sketch became an abstract of ink blotches before my eyes.

I decided to head up to a small park just west of the Frontenac.  It’s high on a hill that provides some unique views of Quebec, including the back side of a church from above its roof line.  I decided to draw it.

That would have been a better idea for a day when it wasn’t so cold and windy.  I was completely exposed to both.  I tried…I really did.  My sketching got faster and faster.  My sketching got less and less detailed.  And I got colder and the wind got windier.  Everyone else left because it was crazy to be sketching in that weather.  I wanted to finish.  Mother Nature decided the end of this sketch.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Pilot Falcon, Noodlers Polar Brown

The Public Pool In Limoilou

I walk a lot which means that I know every park within a couple hours walk of my house because I often take a break in them.  One such park is in Limoilou and it has a public pool.

I was sitting in the park, resting my bones when I decided that it was worthy of a sketch.  It’s not the best composition ever put to paper and it was done quickly, but it was fun so I share it here.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Heading Towards Autumn As A Sketcher

This time of year is crazy for me.  It’s entirely self-inflicted, though our orbiting world has some play in the matter.  You see, we’re hurtling towards the Autumnal Equinox.  Now, if you live in Arizona this probably means nothing to you but if you’re a sketcher, living in Quebec City, it means everything.

The Autumnal Equinox means my days as a street sketcher are numbered because it will soon be too cold to sketch outdoors.  It’s leaning that way already.  And so, each year, without intention, I become frantic to “get out there and sketch.”  I can’t help myself.  There are also the “We gotta go _fill in the blank_ before it gets too cold to do so” events and this adds short trips to hither and yon in an attempt to keep up with an Earth that’s flying along at 108,000 km/h.  How’s a guy to keep up?

So, we’ve been day-tripping and I’ve been sketching and the days have become so full that I don’t have any time to even scan my sketches, let alone write blog posts about them.

So I apologize for my lack of presentation but rest assured, I’ll make up for it as things slow down a bit.  In the meantime, here’s a rather quick sketch I did of a cute little storage building (not sure of its orignal purpose) that lives in the Parc des governors in Quebec City.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10)

A Bit Of The Chateau Frontenac

The symbol of Quebec City is the Chateau Frontenac.  I call it Hogwarts as that’s what it reminds me of, when I don’t see it as a tourist attraction.  There’s a large terrasse that runs along in front of it and Chantal and I were sitting there, taking a break from a long walk we were taking.

We decided to draw.  It would have been impossible to draw the entire Frontenac as we were far too close to even see it in it completely, so Chantal drew one of the towers while I drew this portion of it.  I did it fast enough that some wonkiness (as Liz Steel calls it) was baked into the result and I confess that I like that.  Hope you do too.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Platinum 3776

Parc Cartier-Brebeuf On A Sunday Afternoon

While my daughter was visiting we were at Parc Cartier-Brebeuf, a park near my house.  It’s on the St. Charles River and was the spot where Cartier overwintered during one of his trips to what is now Quebec City.

While Chantal and Jodie talked, I did this sketch of the information center of the park.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Platinum 3776

The Doors Of Quebec City

I’ve long thought that I should do a series of sketches of Quebec City doors.  We have many stately, carved or otherwise detailed doors and a set of detailed sketches of them would be nice.  This is one of those doors, though this was done rather quickly as I leaned against a wall on a windy day.  It is the entrance to the Tetu estate home, an 1800s home in the old city.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Esterbrook J9550

Family Day At Cap Tourmente

The Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area is a great place to get out into nature.  It’s a place with lots of short hiking trails through several habitats and, if you go during the week and outside ‘goose season’ it’s largely devoid of humans so it’s QUIET.  We city-dwellers don’t get quiet anymore and I think it affects us more deeply than we think..if we think about it at all.

I mentioned goose season.  Cap Tourmente is a major stop-over area for migrating geese.  In October/November and thousands of geese aggregate there during their journey south.  It’s pretty cool to see them turn a marsh white with their presence and fill the sky in squadron-like fashion.  But geese bring with them hundreds of humans, filling over-flow parking lots with their pollution devices and that pretty much ruins the experience for me.

But on this day, we were there on a Monday, out of season.  The day was delightful.  We watched a lot of young hummingbirds at feeders, enjoyed the presence of a young porcupine, saw egrets, blue herons, marsh and red-tail hawks, and we even saw the Perigrine Falcons that nest in the cliffs that overlook the refuge.  They told us to beware of bears but the only ones we saw were on the beware of bear signs on the garbage cans.

It wasn’t a sketching day but I couldn’t resist the urge so I did this little landscape while wife and daughter were off investigating the building featured in this sketch.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Esterbrook J9550

We stopped for lunch and sat near the information center because there is a gaggle of picnic tables there and we were the only ones using them besides a few tussock moth caterpillars.

Once we were sufficiently nourished we decided to head out in the opposite direction, but I spent 2-3 minutes doing this really quick sketch of a copse of trees.  Not much but it was still good fun.  The washable ink made it even more fun/quick.

Mostly, this day allowed us to fill up on quiet and that’s worth doing.  Give it a try, it’s refreshing, particularly during an election year.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (3.5×5.5), Pilot Metropolitan, J.Herbin Cacao de Brezil washable ink.

Liz Steel’s New 5-Minute Sketching Book

There are many sketchers who have helped me climb the treacherous learning curve that comes with wanting to learn to draw, but Cathy Johnson, Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel have provided the most advice, inspiration and models for who I want to be when I grow up.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet and sketch with Marc Taro Holmes but I’ve never met Cathy or Liz but I feel I know them well because of the internet.  All three are ever-present when I’m sketching.

If you’re a sketcher you know Liz Steel but if you’re an economist following an errant URL from Google, Liz is one of the most prolific purveyors of sketching information on the planet.  She blogs incessantly, has several online classes that are among the best, and she has a new book coming out called 5-Minute Sketching: Architecture.  It won’t be available until October 1st but you can pre-order it as I just did.  You won’t be disappointed.

While I’m at it, Liz’s new course, SketchingNow Buildings: Essential Concepts for Sketching Architecture will be starting September 7th.  Her courses are packed with information, in video and written form so if you’re struggling with drawing architecture, this 6-week course is for you.