Larry D. Marshall's Blog, page 94

Sketching Haiti Skull Art

There is an exhibit at our Musée de la Civilisation right now called Haiti In Extremis, at least that’s what it says on the wall as you enter.  I think it may be Latin for “weird stuff from Haiti” but I’m not very good with Latin.  Anyways, this is an exhibit of art that has a heavy emphasis on scaring bad spirits away from the places that display it, so much of it is designed to be scary.  Another component of the art is that the sculptures are composed of old car parts and other assorted junk.  I’ll be honest.  It doesn’t appeal to me.

But I was sketching at the Musée last Sunday with Yvan, Claudette, Pierre and Celine.  We had a ball and several of us sketched what amounted to a human skull, perched on the base from some sort of rack.  The skull was draped with a shawl and fake hair added to one side.  This ‘unit’ was stuck on top of a television set.  Don’t ask me why or what as I might not say the right thing.

But as with all sketching, it was an interesting challenge and lots of fun.  Here’s my depiction of the piece, though I omitted the television set.  Done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (6×9) using an Wahl-Eversharp gold nib pen (love the flex in this pen) and Noodler’s Black, which smeared a bit when I added color (watercolor pencils/waterbrush).

 

Canada Cold Is Different!

Today it was miserable cold in Quebec City and the last few days have made getting my walking exercise done without turning to ice very difficult.  My Arizona cowboy blood doesn’t help the matter.

Today I walked to the library to sketch people with Claudette.  With the wind chill, the temperature was -40F and by the time I got there I was on the verge of turning to ice and what I found was Claudette, standing outside the library which was closed due to holiday schedule.

We went to a nearby cafe to sketch instead but, truthfully, I was too cold to sketch.  I never did remove my coat and my fingers never did warm up sufficiently that my pen-driving turned to normal.

Lots of people say “it’s cold” and because the word is a relative term, everyone believes they understand what’s being said.  In my experience, though, people who believe that ‘freezing’ (32F) is cold don’t understand Canada cold and what it means.

When I came home from my experience with ‘cold’ today, an email I received was timely.  It came from Alan Norsworthy, a resident of Ontario and someone experienced with Canadian cold.  Here’s his story about sketching in Canadian cold:

I had read about how you stopped sketching outdoors as the winter approached and on New Years morning a friend and I were standing in the freezing cold waiting for a sunrise that never came. It is part of my ‘First light’ challenge for photographers (but that’s another story) 
 
As we waited and slowly froze I decided to sketch the scene I was about to photograph. I opened my bag pulled out my sketchbook and fumbled for a pencil. 
 
As my fingers numbed I grabbed my TWSBI fountain pen and began sketching in the lines….  Six lines later my pen stopped, the ink frozen ! 
 
My friend laughed as I put it all away and my thoughts turned to you (editor’s note: he’s talking about me here) … “no wonder he heads to an indoor spot” I thought … And smiled
 
Later in the warmth of a local cafe we laughed about it and I opened my bag to let my pens thaw out.  Then I finished the sketch witb a new toy, a Pentel Pen Brush that i had received from the same friend, he said I need to expand my vision.

There are some who sketch in the cold, but when ‘cold’ means your ink and watercolor water freezes, you don’t.  So we go indoors but I cancelled a sketching session tomorrow simply because it’s so cold right now that I don’t even want to walk to that indoor venue.  It’s supposed to ‘warm up’ on Saturday, with the highs predicted to be -20F so maybe….

Here’s Alan’s sketch, deftly drawn with his Pentel Brush Pen.  I’m still trying to figure out how to control this great sketching tool.  Thanks to Alan for sending me his story.

 

Just Say No: Resolve Not To Resolve

This is the time of year when everyone starts talking about New Year’s resolutions.  “I’m going to lose 20 lbs.”  “I’m going to exercise more this year.”  “I’m going to be nicer.”

A few decades ago I realized that all this is just “talk” and that, most the time, the smart money is on people forgetting all about their resolution within a week or so of making it.  That’s why we’re all fat, don’t exercise enough, and not very nice.

But not me.  Year after year I keep my resolution – 100%.  That’s because I resolved not to resolve anything, and it works every year.  Pretty cool, eh?  So, think hard about what your New Year’s resolution will be.  I think there are two ways to go with this, unless you’re just blowing smoke during resolution season in which case, just keep talking about how serious you about sticking to your resolution “this year.”  Otherwise, read on.

Option One

Do like I’ve done.  Resolve something that is self-fulfilling, and/or automatic.  How about “I’m going to breathe every day” or “I won’t change my gender during the whole year.”  Well, that last one might not work for some people but you get the idea.  Then, like me, you can proudly crow to everyone you meet, “I kept my New Year’s Resolution.  How about you?”  This accomplishes nothing, of course, but at least you can be confident of success… sort of like Congress saying they did nothing because that was their goal.

Option Two

This is the alternative for those of you who actually want to change something in their life, whether it be to lose weight, take up a new hobby, learn to play an instrument, or whatever.  This is the hard alternative of the two but it does pay dividends.

To do Option Two get a small notebook and for each of the first 30 pages in that notebook, write a number from 1 to 30 at the top of the page.  THEN, do whatever your resolution demands, EVERY day, for 30 days.  It takes that long to develop a habit, to integrate it into your life, and to find out if it’s actually something you want to do.  Giving up after a week cuz it’s too hard or rationalizing your way out of something hard by saying “I don’t like it” is not an option here.  Each day, after you’ve done whatever it is your resolution requires, make a note of what it was you did that day.  Keep it up for 30 days.

At the end of that 30 days the activity will be something you’re doing every day.  You might still want to stop doing it because you’ve decided that you really didn’t want to become an underwater basket weaver but you won’t be able to say “I don’t have time for this.”  You’ve just spent 30 days doing it – you have the time.  It’s likely that you won’t be able to say “This is too hard” as you will have done ‘it’ enough that you will have made considerable progress in the endeavor, enough that you can see the results.  And most important, it will have become a habit in your life, not just a spoken, vague goal.

BTW, this is how I started sketching.  I decided I want to try it but wasn’t sure I could.  In fact, long ago I was told I had no talent for art but I’m old now and don’t have any elders to pay attention to anymore.  But I also realized that it would be hard as I couldn’t even draw a darn cube without it looking like it’d been run over by a truck.  So I set the 30-day goal and I drew a lot of bad cubes for 30 days…until I saw that I was improving.  At the end of that 30-days my cubes were pretty darn good and and I’ve been sketching nearly every day since.

So, what’s your New Years Resolution?  Option One, Option Two, or are you just talking.  In any case,

Happy New Years, Everyone

 

 

Playing A Bit With Color

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

A couple days ago I posted a couple pen and ink graphics of some spiffy clothes with people in them.   One of them was this guy, Connor, from the Assassin’s Creed game.  My one disappointment was that his costume is blue, tan and brown and the local color is lost in a pen and ink sketch.

So, I decided to play yesterday.  The first thing I did was to print my sketch on some cheap paper.  That was a mistake and I wish I’d used better paper but we live and learn.  The next step was to apply some color, which is where I learned about my first mistake as I couldn’t move the color around at all as it soaked immediately into the unsized paper and was stuck.  I also couldn’t put multiple layers as the paper started coming apart when I tried.  Nevertheless, it was fun and I liked the results.  I know nothing of the Assassin’s Creed game but I sure do like the costume.

Sketching Pirates and Assasins

For some, drawing people is seen as the pinnacle of art.  Not for me.  I like doing portraits, as long as they’re portraits of buildings.  I like clothes on people and find capturing all the folds and pleats to be a near impossible task given my limited drawing abilities.  But, it’s winter, and there are more people inside buildings than buildings inside buildings and if I’m going to have to draw from photos, why not something I don’t normally draw?

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

And so it is…winter, and I’ve decided to draw a few more people than normal.  I decided to draw this pirate from a book.  He was fun and ample proof that I still have much to learn about pen and ink, particularly shading with ink.

I went to the Musée de la Civilisation on Friday and met up with Yvan and Claudette.  I decided to draw “Connor”, the protagonist in the 3rd Assassin’s Creed video game.  The museum has a life-size statue of him at the entrance to a video game history exhibit.  As he has a great costume, I may have to sketch him at least once more.  I might even do him in color as his tunic is tan but his coat is Revolutionary War blue, and he’s got leather chaps and a red belt with gold trim.  Video game designers have good tastes in clothes, if nothing else.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

A Bit Of Christmas Sketching

It seems that some sketchers become very active during holidays and get togethers.  I seem to be just the opposite and when a holiday rolls around, I find it hard to find either time or inclination to sketch.

That’s not to say I don’t sketch at all.  During the two days around the Christmas holiday, I did four sketches but for me, that’s a lull.  I thought I’d share a couple of them with you.  They’re nothing special but they reflect the laid back way my family celebrates.

Books are a big part of our gift-giving as we all love them.  The result of this, of course, is that we spend time on Christmas day listening to music and reading.  Within the limits of my very limited sketching ability this is what my daughter looks like when she’s curled up at the end of the sofa, big comforter wrapped around her and her face in a book.  I don’t think her nose is really that long (grin).

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Pilot Prera

Christmas movies are a tradition too.  We watch them, ad nauseum, throughout the holiday season.  There’s Elf, Santa Clause, Santa Clause 2, Santa Clause 3, Miracle on 34th St (the old and the new), It’s a Wonderful Life, Heloise at Christmas… well you get the picture.   Here’s another picture.  It’s a sketch I did during one of those movies.  The real thing rests on top of our Christmas tree.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

 In conclusion, I don’t think there could be a more laid-back Christmas than ours but we enjoy each other’s company and not having to go anywhere.  And, between all the eating of too much of too many things, I did a bit of sketching.  I hope you enjoyed your holiday as much as we did ours.

 

 

 

 

A Visit to Bugel – The Bagel Maker

In my continuing quest to eat my way through Quebec City, sketching as I go, Claudette and I visited Bugel – Fabrique de Bagels, a small place that makes some of the best best bagels I’ve ever tasted.  Situated at 164 rue Cremazie, it is hidden from the main traffic corridors but the locals know it well.  Besides, there are a great used bookstore across the street that has a lot of art books I can’t afford, but looking is free.

It was a nice way to spend the morning, though we had to cut it a bit shorter than our normal sessions as had things to do before Christmas eve.  Claudette managed to sketch a bunch of the patrons, many of whom were running in to pick up orders and each time someone came through the door, we’d get a blast of Quebec air, which kept us quite alert.  This is the time of year where I conclude that I will be permanently ‘cold’ until sometime in June.

Here’s my sketch.  The funny thing on the side is the stained glass address that rests above the door.  You might be able to make out the 164 (backwards) but it was really a failed attempt on my part.  Too much of an afterthrought.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Pilot Prera, Kuretake brush pen

 

A Merry “Sketcher” Christmas To All

I thought about sketching the proverbial Santa Claus for this post but geez…that red suit and white beard are everywhere.  The world doesn’t need another.  But you can hardly imagine a case where there would be too many fire hydrant sketches in the world and this acts as a great stand-in for Mr. Claus, don’t you think?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

dd

Sketching At Paillard In Quebec City

The first restaurant I sketched was the new Paillard in one of the Quebec City Malls.  You can read about it in a post about the brown-paper sketchbook, if you like.  This one has few walls and I sketched it while standing outside the restaurant.

But there’s another Paillard that is more famous, if restaurant fame is measured by being part of tourist’s agenda items when they visit Quebec City.  This one, the original Paillard, is in downtown Quebec City, the “old” city, on rue St. Jean.  This is not a really old cafe where poetry was read and music played in the 60s like Chez Temporel.  In fact, when I came to Quebec City long ago to do a post-doctoral fellowship, the location of Paillard was a grocery store ‘down the street’ from my apartment and I shopped there regularly.

But in the intervening years I moved away and Paillard took the place of the grocery store. It has become a ‘hot spot’ for tourists.  It’s a large, brightly-lit and roomy melange of a bakery and a café.  Their pastries are wonderful but the real star is their frothy coffee drinks, including one of my favorites, the bol de café au lait.  I’m mostly ignorant of differences between latte, cappuccino, and the other frothy drinks are but in the case of café au lait  I think it’s heaven.  While I normally drink my coffee black, I’ll break with tradition for a bol de café au lait.  It’s strong coffee with lots of frothy milk added to it and I add a bit of brown sugar to the mix.  But it’s the bol part of the equation that’s important…it comes in a soup bowl so you get a lot of it.

I’m rambling.  Sorry.  Claudette and I went to sketch Paillard the other day and we had a great time.  I got my bol de café au lait and a muffin.  She was less of a cochon (pig) and got a regular café au lait.  We were there early and pretty much had the place to ourselves.  There were a couple people sitting behind me and Claudette started sketching them.  With no people in my sight line I drew food and chairs and tables.  Ultimately I did quickly sketch a woman who was ordering something, maybe her own bol de café au lait .  Here is my tribute to Paillard.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), TWSBI MIni, Platinum Carbon Black

A Little Bit Of Paris

If you’ve been following this blog you know that I’m spending some of my winter sketching time at our museum and its Paris 1900 exhibit.  This week I decided, without giving it sufficient thought, that I should sketch a huge black and white photo that’s projected on a wall.  It must be 12-14 feet tall and shows an indoor shopping area that, I understand, still exists today.

So I opened my Stillman & Birn 6×9 Zeta sketchbook, grabbed my TWSBI Mini, and started drawing.  Somewhere in the early stages I realized that I’d either chosen too large a subject, a sketchbook that was too small, or the TWSBI nib wasn’t fine enough.  Maybe the problem was a combination of all three of these things with a dash of my penchant for drawing everything.  Leaving stuff out is hard for me.  Whatever the reasons, the result was like the proverbial 10-pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound bag.

But I persevered because the process itself was fun – it’s always fun.  Lots of stuff to organize, proportion, and to draw.  I’m not sure what the woman in the middle was doing or carrying but you can see that several men were looking at her.  While the photo was a bit vague in its over-sized presentation, there was a large ‘something’ flowing out from her hands.  Maybe it was a shawl, a scarf or maybe a smoke bomb (grin).  It was impossible to say.  But I thought a bit of color would help center their gaze, and maybe yours.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black