Spring Has Finally Sprung

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Larry Marshall

A week or so ago I walked to Bassin Louise, which is the part of our port area where private owners keep their boats. All winter they (the boats) sit on land, wrapped in their cocoons of blue plastic. When spring does arrive there’s a mad dash to get them in the water so their owners can enjoy them during our all-to-short summer.

During my visit I noticed two things. There were no boats in the water in spite of it being May. In fact, in shaded parts of the port there was still ice in the water. At the time it occurred to me that sailors may be the only people more frustrated with our lack of spring than we sketchers.

It does seem that we’re finally getting hints that winter isn’t going to last forever and I’ve managed a flurry of outdoor sketching activity this week. I decided to head back to Bassin Louise to see how the sailors were doing. When I arrived I saw that a few boats had been put in the water – maybe a dozen of the couple hundred that will eventually fill the harbor. I’m not sure the lock that lets them exit into the St. Lawrence River is functional yet but there were people working on sails, polishing chrome, etc.

While my face is incapable of launching a thousand ships, I thought that maybe my imagination might get one of them moving so I sat down to do a quick sketch of one of the boats moored in the harbor. It’s seen here, heading out into the St. Lawrence.

Stillman & Birn Gamma (9x6) softcover, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Gamma (9×6) softcover, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Rain In The Alleyways

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Last Sunday was our May sketchcrawl through the alleyways of Limoilu but things didn’t go as planned. My first sketch was interrupted by rain, big drops hitting the sketch before the ink had dried that created ink splats to form on the page. A quick run to the coffee shop where Yvan and Ginette shaking off their own rain.

This was Ginette’s first sketchcrawl and we had a great time getting to know each other as we sat in the cafe, sketching people. Clearly she was the highlight of this sketchcrawl as it just went downhill from here.

We are almost desperate to sketch outdoors and the sketchcrawl was supposed to be our first outdoor sketchcrawl of the year, so when the rain stopped we headed out again to do the proverbial try, try again. Same results, and in my case it was worse – another sketch ruined. We decided to pack it in and that was probably a good thing because almost immediately the rain started coming down in buckets.

Stillman & Birn Delta (8x10) softcover, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

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

The attempts to sketch alleyways put me in the mood to try again as in Quebec City alleyways provide large shape-clusters that are both appealing to me and challenging, particularly all the stairways going up the back of the structures. So, when the weather turned nice on Wednesday, I headed out to sketch. Here are two sketches I did that day. They don’t have any color on them because I forgot to put my watercolor kit in my bag. Hope you like them.

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

Baseball Season Doodling

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Larry Marshall

It’s baseball season and that means watching the Blue Jays, win or lose. But I confess that I’m not good at watching TV without doing something else at the same time. I’m writing this as I watch the Jays about to take on the San Francisco Giants in inter-league play..

Most of the time, however, while I’m watching the game, I’m doodling. Sometimes it’s from imagination, sometimes I’ll doodle from an image on my cell phone, sometimes I’ll find something around the house to draw, and sometimes I’ll just practice drawing ellipses, do hatching or shade odd forms. Anything to move a pointy device across paper.

I don’t normally scan those doodles as they never really amount to much but once in a while I like to share such doodles as a contrast to my more finished sketches. Here are a few I did while the Jays were losing to the Dodgers.

First Outdoor Sketch Of The Year

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Larry Marshall

We’ve completed the first week of May and we have yet to see our first 60F temperatures in Quebec City. In fact, they say, it may freeze tonight. But, we now have several crocuses peaking out of the ground and that’s a good sign. I think they’re teasing but Mr. Weatherman says it may hit 70F later this week so I guess spring has finally sprung.

A couple days ago, however, it did get into the 50s and so I headed out to do some sketching. I wore gloves, jacket and sweater and it wasn’t too bad as I sketched this building, though by the time I got to adding color, I was ready to move around to warm up. Here it is, though, my first outdoor sketch of 2016.

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

May Sketchcrawl Down Limoilou Allies

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Some of the most fascinating parts of a city are behind the scenes, the back doors if you will. In parts of Quebec City, most notably Limoilou, these are accessible to the artist through the ruelles or allies. Most parts of Quebec City don’t have them but Limoilou has them and that’s where we’re headed for our next sketchcrawl, on Sunday May 8th. For details of the event, head to Croquistes de Quebec website for details. If you need motivation, here’s a wonderful video that the Ottawa Urban Sketchers did when they did an similar sketchcrawl. See you there.