Sketching at Chute Montmorency

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Chute Montmorency is a large waterfall just east of Quebec City. It’s a major tourist attraction, a mini-Niagara Falls I suppose. It has all the tourist amenities. Large facility at the base of the falls greets tourists and there’s a large parking lot to accommodate a constant parade of vehicles.

There’s also a tram and a smiling attendant with their hand out. You can pay the price or you can climb a veritable labyrinth of stairs up to the top of the falls. We did neither.

Locals, wanting to get to the top take a metro bus that drops them near the top and next to a hotel that sits at the tram terminus. There’s a wonderful boardwalk that tourists walk along to the falls and it provides spectacular views of the falls as well as the St. Lawrence River. We took the bus.

I met my sketching buddy, Claudette, on the bus and we walked the short trail down to the west end of a large pedestrian bridge that runs right across the top of the falls. The views are pretty spectacular from there. So, what do a couple of urban sketchers do? We set up at the end of the bridge and drew the bridge. We’ll draw the trees, beautiful canyon, and the falls themselves some other day. I guess it truly is a mindset as both of us did this without much thought.

I decided to work in a small format as I’ve been doing a series of smaller sketches. I got out my little Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and started drawing. Claudette did likewise with her 5×8 Strathmore 467-series sketchbook. These are beautiful, brown-covered watercolor sketchbooks, though they are in landscape mode which is not idea in my view.

It seemed that we both finished our linework about the same time as I noticed that she was getting out her watercolors as I reached for mine. She had hers. I did not. I’d left my watercolor kit sitting on my desk.

While disappointing, it allowed me to stand up and move around, giving my old knees a stretch. Then I sat down and did a quick, small sketch of Claudette working on her sketch. Obviously, I added color to my sketches when I got home.

Claudette composed an interesting view of the bridge, sort of zooming in on just the entrance area. I decided to capture more of the entirety of the scene. I like hers better. I always do.

We wandered up Avenue Royale which is a very old street lined with older, though often completely renovated houses. These are majestic houses with lots of what my dad used to call ‘gingerbread’ trim, large front doors and porch areas.

We only found a few dozen things we wanted to sketch but it was time for lunch. Feeling recharged by good food and conversation, we returned to the falls area and I sketched this little snack kiosk, again in my 3×5 watercolor book. Then, we hopped on the bus and came home. Paraphrasing the Terminator…”we’ll be back.”

Capturing The Motion Of A City

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I’m primarily a building sketcher. I don’t have to worry much about my subject walking or driving away. But I’m also an urban sketcher and things do move in cities. Trains, planes, and automobiles are constantly on the move, as are buses, construction equipment, and parade floats.

How do you capture complex objects that won’t sit still? You can use photos but I’m not that fond of sitting in my office drawing pictures. To be honest, I have difficulty drawing from photos. I’ve spent enough time field-sketching that I just ‘see’ so much more in real life than I can see in a photo.

I did a spur of the moment experiment and I thought I’d share it with you. I was walking along ‘my’ river and at one point there’s a train bridge that crosses the river and heads into the downtown train station.

As luck would have it the train from Montreal pulled across the bridge and stopped. It does this because it has to wait while they throw a bunch of switches so it can back through a wye (trackage to turn a train) so that, ultimately, it can back into the station. In less than a minute the train backs out of the scene.

I decided to sketch it so I got out my Stillman and Birn Zeta (5×8) and a pencil. That’s right, a pencil. I quickly drew a long box to represent the train, the slope of the nose of the train, and several lines indicating where the major parts of the bridge intersected with the train. Then, the train was gone.

I got out my pen and started drawing the bridge. I thought my brain was going to melt at times while trying to figure out all the angles of the steel-truss bridge but it was also fun. I left the site with a bridge with a big, long empty box inside it.

When I got home I sifted through my photos, surfed the internet, and ultimately found a picture of the ViaRail train engine, taken from its left side. This gave me all the detail information I needed to complete my sketch. I did have a bit of difficulty envisioning the proper perspective but most of what I needed to add were squarish panels, so it wasn’t too bad. I liked the result. I have captured a train.

I suppose an urban sketcher purist would take issue with my use of a photo this way but, to me, the hard part of this sketch was done on site and I am now looking for other ways to capture moving objects. Next stop…to sit across from a metrobus stop, drawing a bus; the buses arrive/depart every 10 minutes. Only a few seconds per bus but there are lots of buses. Wish me luck (grin).

Taxi Guys Need A Place Too!

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Firemen have their firehouse. Policemen have donut shops. Sketchers have libraries, coffee shops, and street corners. And taxi cab drivers need a place too. In Quebec it looks like this:

At least the one not far from my house looks like this. I’m not exactly sure what they do in there but they have a washing machine outside. I suspect it’s something of an oasis that lets the drivers get out of the car once in a while. The bright yellow building and the orange background wall conspired to insist that I draw them, and so I did. Stillman & Birn Zeta (5×8) using a Uniball Signo UM151 pen. It’s hard for a fountain pen guy to admit it, but I love these pens and their waterproof ink.

Small Sketch Series Continued

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I’m continuing to fill my small Moleskine watercolor book with sketches. Doing a bit of experimenting, having a lot of fun. I do enjoy this format, though I wish the Moleskine was in portrait format. As you’ll see, most of the sketches I’ve done are in portrait format. Personally, I’m still waiting for Stillman & Birn to do a 3×5, small sketchbook with their great papers, preferably their Beta or Zeta papers.

Until then, here’s a few more small sketches.

This young woman was stoking the fire of an outdoor oven associated with a historic Jesuit mill in the Quebec area. Most of the time she was chopping wood but I did this quick sketch of her tending the fire.

Part of the Charlesbourg library roof is grass covered and you can walk up there. From there you can see another wing of the building which sports this tower. I sat, on a very windy day trying to keep my sketchbook from blowing away as I made this sketch.

A somewhat different lamp that I found in Charlesbourg. Just a quick ink sketch that took only a few minutes.

Part of the Quebec skyline. This was an experiment in quick-sketching using J.Herbin 1670 ink, followed up with a waterbrush to spread the ink a bit. In spite of my typical penchant for straight lines and detail, I liked this one a lot.

For some reason, ferry passengers seem in constant motion during the 10 minute trip from one side of the St. Lawrence to the other. These two actually stood still for a couple minutes as I sketched them.

The people who get to sit on this terrace are lucky indeed as the house is high on a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence.

I’m a big fan of the complex chimneys on many of the downtown buildings. I couldn’t resist trying to capture the detail of this one.

This is one of three navigational bouys that sit in the Canadian Coast Guard park associated with their Quebec City installation.

This is one of a brace of entry markers at the entrance to one of the local parks.

Sketching In A Target-Rich Environment

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Every year Quebec City holds the Festivale de Nouvelle France. It is a celebration of the French landing here and setting up shop. It’s a celebration of French culture. It’s a celebration of traditional foods. And it’s a heck of a good excuse for adults to dress up in costumes and roam the streets of old Quebec.

It’s also a great opportunity for sketchers who want to sketch people dressed as peasants, royalty, pirates, military, indians, and vendors. I was a peasant myself – a peasant with a pen and a sketchbook.

I’m not very good at this kind of sketching. Generally your subject is in a crowd of people and you have only a very short time to capture their geometry. Once done, you’ve got a variable, though always short period of time, to fill in the details from a subject that’s moving constantly, often away from, blending back into the crowd. Here are a few of my attempts; it sure was fun.