Larry D. Marshall's Blog, page 90

Quebec: Spring 2014 Worldwide Sketchcrawl

April 19th was the date of the 43rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl.  Selecting an appropriate location for this spring event is tough for us in Quebec City because we typically have to wear heavy coats and learn to shiver.  This year has been particularly bad in that regard so we decided that holding the sketchcrawl at the Quebec Aquarium, where we’d have the option of indoor or outdoor sketching, was a good idea.  As it turned out, it was.

While I announced the beginning of the outdoor sketching season in my last blog post, it was too cold for me to want to sketch outdoors at the sketchcrawl, though a few of the participants braved the cold to sketch the walruses and seals that were in outdoor enclosures.  I found the nice warm buildings to be the place I wanted to be.

One thing we didn’t count on were the crowds.  It was Easter weekend and there were hundreds of people at the aquarium, having come from Montreal and elsewhere because of the long weekend.  This made it hard to get access to the exhibits and you had to like lots of kids looking over your shoulder while you sketched.  I always like that but admit that the crowds made the day a bit stressful.

Our aquarium, however, is wonderful.  Not only does it have the typical fish swimming behind glass but there is a multi-story HUGE aquarium with fish who pose for sketchers.  I think I’m going to get an annual membership so I can go back when it’s warmer (lots of outdoor sketching opportunities) and where I can go during the week to sketch a lot of the inhabitants.

I started the day by sketching a surgeon fish and leopard shark.  I wish they were better but they were fun to do.  Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, Pilot Prera and Lex Gray ink.

I spent a lot of the morning just looking as I hadn’t been to the aquarium for many years.  That was probably a mistake as the crowds started to build about the time I was ready for lunch.  After lunch it was near impossible to sketch leisurely.

But lunch time it was and while eating I had a great view of rocks, trees and a trail that went by the large window I was sitting next to.  Once my face was fed I sketched the rocks, creating this vignette.

A couple of us found a spot on the upper floor of the large aquarium and we tried to sketch the fish as they cruised by in front of us.  I found it a bit difficult but lots of fun.  What kind of sketching isn’t fun?  It was a fun end to a great day.

 

 

Finally – Outdoor Sketching

Quebec City + April 18, 2014 =
Larry FINALLY gets to sketch outdoors!!

It warmed up all the way to 44F on Friday and there was little wind.  I found myself sitting in front of the Quebec Parliament building and while the sketching was quickly done, it felt GREAT to be outdoors while sketching.

I started by drawing the right spire of the parliament building itself.  I followed this with a lamp post and then did the sketch of a large fountain featured in front of the building.  Done on cheap brown paper, the Lexington Gray feathered a bit, even when using my fine nib Pilot Prera but I was having so much fun that it hardly mattered.

I was cooling down but I did a very quick sketch of the St. Louis Gate, through which rue St. Louis passes into the old city.  By the time I finshed, the 44F temp had taken its toll and I needed to move.  Nevertheless, I officially decree that the Quebec City outdoor season has begun.  The fact that it’s too cold to sketch outdoors today is irrelevant.

Sketching Brownian Movement

Anyone who has taken a basic chemistry class has been taught about Brownian movement.  Blame Robert Brown for that as he’s the guy who first saw small particles, suspended in a liquid, dancing around randomly, a result of many collisions with unseen and inumerable numbers of atoms that vibrate constantly.  It took Al Einstein to explain what was going on but Bob saw it first.  Timing is everything and Bob is forever famous for it.

So, what’s that got to do with sketching?  Well, I went sketching today.  I went to the mall because every Easter they have a bunch of cages with farm animals that thrill the kids to no end.  I figured that sketching kids and animals would be a good idea.  Little did I know.

This year they did things a little different.  Instead of several cages and fenced areas, they had one fenced area.  I’d guestimate it to be 15′ x 25′.  They added to this area a dozen or so goats and sheep.  They threw in a couple small pigs and a gorgeous Alpaca for variety.  What a great opportunity for a sketcher.

But throw into this area a dozen or so little kids chasing the animals around, and the animals chasing the kids around.  Add to this mix a bunch of parents, explaining to their kids that they wouldn’t be eaten and that instead, maybe they should try to feed the animals.  And what do you get – Brownian movement.  Everything within that fenced area was in constant motion.  Maybe not random motion as the goats figured out pretty quickly which kids had food and were in chase of them.  Everything was moving, except for the big parent-like entities that stood around, blocking the view.  Not such a great opportunity for a sketcher.

Toned paper. Pilot Prera & Lex Gray ink.

And so it went today as I went to sketch animals.  Instead, I drew these two animals, that were happy to move more slowly, content not to be chased or do any chasing.  And when I finished I realized I’d never sketched this kind of trashcan before so I’ve added it to my collection of trashcan sketches.  Not such a bad day afterall.

 

A Sketcher’s Audacity To Try

With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything. - Napoleon Bonaparte

So there I was, a street sketcher, faced with a room full of plaster casts.  No buildings to sketch.  No cars.  Not even a single fire hydrant to sketch.  So, with all the audacity I could muster, I decided to draw Napoleon Bonaparte.  And he was right; audacity did let me try.  However, my limited skill limited my ability to do it.  Such that it is, here is my pen and ink drawing of General Bonaparte, drawn about 10″ high using a couple Pilot Preras and Lexington Gray.

One thing that might interest to some is that I have diluted Lexington Gray about 50% with water and use this for most of the early ink work.  I follow this up with normal strength Lex Gray.  This approach seems to have some potential beyond my use of it as a quick-sketching approach.

Danny Gregory is also right.  Sketching is all about the process, not the end result and I had a lot of fun doing this one.

 

Funky Sketcher Or Just In A Funk

The last couple weeks have been tough on my psyche.  My clock says its spring.  I should be able to sit in the sun and sketch.  But Mom Nature is still playing tricks on me and that has put a damper on my sketching enthusiasm.

Has this happened to you?  I’ve managed to keep a pen in my hand, sketching in museums and at indoor ‘still life’ sessions, but it’s the tantalizing thought of sketching outdoors that has caused my funk.  The temps get just warm enough that I think I can go out.  I do and it doesn’t take a long time to realize that an extended, sit-down sketching sessions is just not possible because it’s not quite warm enough and it’s only the walking that is keeping me warm.  If only I liked to sketch from photos.

Got on a bus at a turnaround point. Was the only one on the bus, so I sketched the area behind the driver. Pilot Prera.

Doesn’t everybody sketch earbuds? Pilot Prera.

So, my sketching has become a long series of small quick sketches, some done outdoors but often done while I’ve been bored by TV.  Here are a few of those sketches.  All of these were done in my cheap 3×5 notepad.  Pen is noted.  I guess I’m slowly starting to do a bit of sketching outdoors but ‘slowly’ and ‘bit’ are the operative words.  Will it EVER warm up?

Just some doodles. Pilot Prera

A streetlamp in Place D’Youville. Pilot Prera.

A garbage scene. Color added before scan. Hero 578.

Got to a lunch appt. a few minutes early. One of the food court kiosks. Hero 578.

 

 

 

Mountain Equipment Co-op Seat-In-A-Sack

All summer I wander the streets of Quebec City, carrying my messenger bag of sketching stuff.  It’s what I do.  I love it.  But to wander for two to three hours with art supplies hanging from your shoulder causes me to be more than a little bit concerned about weight.

So, while my Walkstool is my normal butt-holder, and while it’s lighter than most tripod stools and provides me with a comfortable (most don’t) and stable (most aren’t) throne, I often leave it behind (bad pun intended) just to lighten the load.

When I’m without it I search for, and rarely find, park benches or other seating provided for the many tourists who are wandering with me.  More often than not, however, I end up sitting on concrete steps, stone walls, or on the grass which is ok, but often hard in all senses of that word.  It’s also the case that I have have an ongoing dispute with Mother Nature over these seating areas as she likes to dump her morning dew over everything and/or she rains on my parade route, leaving these seating areas, even those park benches, wet and uninviting.

So, it was with some excitement when my sketching buddy Yvan showed up with this gizmo.  It’s sheer genius and made for sketchers like me.  It’s got a simple valve that you use to blow it up, providing a ripstop nylon surface on the top and a rubberized, tough fabric on the bottom.  What could be better?

I’ll tell you what!  It’s a pad like this that ends up this small and that is easy to get back to this size.  Unlike so many of these ‘see how small the bag is’ products, this bag could actually be smaller and still accommodate the seat so you don’t have to beat yourself up to get it back in its sack.  Mountain Equipment Co-op, my butt thanks you.

Sketching With The Three Musketeers

 Snow has started to melt but it’s still piled high, so Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (the Three Musketeers) decided to meet and draw indoors at Celine’s house.  She has a studio full of plaster casts that provide fodder for sketching fanatics.  They invited me, d’Artagnan, along as the token anglophone of the group.

We had a great time sketching, looking at art books and talking about our upcoming road trip to Ottawa’s National Gallery.  More on that later.

I sketched a couple smaller, painted plaster figurines in a Stillman & Birn sketchbook using a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray ink.  Faber-Castell Albrecht-Durer watercolor pencils were used to add a hint of color.  I love these pencils more everytime I use them as you can completely eliminate the lines made by the pencil.

It’s not location sketching but it’s sure good practice and goodness knows I need that.

Sketching in 1900s Toronto

While there is evidence that spring will arrive, it’s not here yet and so as I watched Murdoch Mysteries I thought, why not go to Toronto in the 1900s and do some sketching.  Isn’t that why they give me a pause button?  Sure it is.

If you’re unfamiliar with Murdoch Mysteries, it smacks of P.G. Woodhouse farce while depicting the Detective Murdoch, of the “Toronto Constabulary” as he uses his brilliant mind and impeccable manners to solve crimes.  Set in the early 1900s, the staging is a sketchers dream.

Here’s my initial attempt at capturing just a bit of the ‘action.’  Done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) using a Pilot Prera and Lex Gray ink.  This was lots of fun.  Maybe I should head to CSI: Miami.  I bet it’s warmer there.

How Do You Use A Pencil?

Long before I decided to learn to draw I was a fountain pen guy.  I’ve always loved the feel of a nib running across paper.  So when I started trying to learn to draw, I used a fountain pen.  It’s still my tool of choice some two years later.

Some would argue this is a good thing as it forced me to look a lot and draw a little as erasers weren’t part of the process.  I think this is true and that it has helped me acquire a rudimentary ‘artist’s eye’, though that eye is still ill-developed.

But at the same time, I missed out on the more typical starting point for someone learning to draw – graphite or charcoal.  The pencil remains a very popular drawing tool and I’m completely ignorant of its uses.  I do carry a mechanical pencil but it’s full of 3H or 4H lead and I use it just to draw a few guidelines to block in a drawing and I quickly switch to pen for the rest.  So I’ve decided that I need to learn a bit about 2B, HB, and 4H pencils and how to rub them around to create value.  I also need to learn what you do with a kneaded eraser.  It’s a very clumsy process.  But I’m trying, mostly with little scribbles and doodles.

Monday I went with Yvan to the nearly hidden ‘museum’ at the university.  It holds the contents of the long defunct natural history museum, the university insect collection, and roughly 300 plaster casts.  These were given to the university sometime in the 19th Century, when art departments thought it wise for their students to learn to draw.  When they decided that you didn’t need to draw to be an artist if you were going to paint with a roller, spatula or by throwing paint at the canvas, all the casts were, well, cast off.  Only the insight and diligence of Madame Wagner, the curator of the ‘museum’, saved them from becoming so much broken plaster.

And so little old me has access to some 300 plaster casts of hands, feet, ears, noses, busts of famous people, and many, many full-size statues.  It makes even this street sketcher say KEWL!  I chose a poet named Benivieni as my first subject.  It wasn’t due to any affinity for him as I have no idea who he is but I liked his hat (grin).

Here’s my first attempt at doing a bust with a pencil.  It’s not perfect but it does, sorta-kinda, look like him so I was both surprised and happy.  I do have to work more on that ‘artist’s eye’ as seeing the half-tones is a challenge, but I think I’ll go back next week.  Those art students don’t know what they’re missing.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×12) with pencil.

Biding My Time Til Spring

Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day but Quebec City is still waiting for spring.  It is the case that Mother Nature gave us clear skies today but, like my attitude toward politicians, I’ve taken a ‘fool me once…’ point of view of Ma-dam Nature.

And so as I wait for her to stop playing with my sensibilities, I’ve look for places and things to draw.  I’m not much of a people sketcher as they just don’t interest me very much but what’cha gonna do when the snow is falling and the temps are below freezing.  I quick-sketch people.  It’s fun but the results somewhat embarrassing (grin).

Here’s a couple sketches from a recital I attended recently.  They were done in a Strathmore ‘toned gray’ sketchbook with a Pilot Prera.  If there’s shading it was done with waterbrushes with a few drops of ink added to them.

The larger one was an attempt to capture audience and musician but time ran out and the cellist walked away before I was done so he and the cello remain unfinished.  Such is life of a real-time sketcher.

I include this tiny sketch because I thought it funny.  Not sure what I was thinking.  Well, actually I do.  These legs were attached to a trombone player and between her being short, the woman sitting in front of me being tall and her music stand, these legs were my only connection to the “action”, seen between two member of the audience.

A couple days later we were invited to a read-thru rehearsal for a play by the Quebec Art Company.  Yvan does the marketing posters for them.  I found this a near-impossible challenge as the actors were moving around on stage almost constantly and my people art ‘vocabulary’ is insufficient to draw people who are changing their positions every few seconds.  I took advantage of one guy who was supposed to be dead (spoiler alert – he wasn’t) and drew him but, as you can see, I resorted to drawing some of the props.  I did a fantastic chair but I won’t bore you with chair and sofa drawings (grin).   These were done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) using Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray.

All in all, it’s all good.  The more I move pointy devices across paper, the better I get at it.  Working at different speeds is like cross-training and all speeds seem to benefit.  Still, I’m hoping spring comes “real soon.”