Quick Thumbnails Are Fun

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Larry Marshall

When I took Liz Steel’s Foundations course she sat down at one location and showed us how she occasionally draws half a dozen thumbnail sketches of different scenes in the area. I didn’t give it much thought as it always seemed to me that urban sketching was more about making a choice, drawing it immediately, and moving on, making thumbnails somewhat redundant.

Shari Blaukopf talks about thumbnail value sketches in her new watercolor landscape course on Craftsy. I think this is a more typical use, with the end result being a watercolor painting using one of the thumbnails as the basis for the painting. Again I thought it not for me.

But I’m still entrenched in my mustache notebooks and when I was out walking the other day I decided to do a bunch of thumbnails as I walked around Quebec City. The notebook is 4×6 but the thumbnails were typically half the page so they were quite tiny. I used a mechanical pencil to do them. And you know what? It’s FUN!!!

Obviously this isn’t great art; that’s not the goal. But it’s really fun to spend no more than a minute or two scribbling down some lines that kinda-sorta looks like the scene before you. Maybe I’m supposed to be having deep thoughts during the process but, frankly, nothing could have been further from my mind. Or maybe it’s that my mind couldn’t have been further from the process. I was just scribbling.

I’ll be doing more of these but I probably won’t be using a pencil. I’m not an eraser guy so I don’t need to use pencil and I simply prefer ink because it doesn’t smear as my hand moves across the paper. Thanks to Liz and Shari, even if I didn’t get the msg the first time around.

Oh, and I did do a more formal sketch of one of these. This one was done in a Stillman & Birn Gamma (10×7) with my Namiki Falcon.

Sometimes It’s All About The Shape

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Sometimes, as I walk around my city I find a building or scene that I think will make a nice sketch. Sometimes it’s a thing, like a boat, a car, fire hydrant or maybe a statue in a park.

But sometimes, it’s a shape that grabs my attention. That was the case as I was walking near the marina. There are several large tugboats there and I noticed that one of them had an array of pipes and nozzles that, from the diameter of the feed pipes, must be capable of dispensing more than a little water onto a fire. I couldn’t resist; I had to draw it. Done small, in my little mustache book, I really enjoyed doing this little sketch.

Urban Sketching On A Rainy, Windy Day

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Larry Marshall

What’s an urban sketcher to do when the weather turns bad. One thing is to go with other sketchers to a cafe where you can sketch and talk about sketching, pointy devices and anything else that might interest the group.

That’s what we did on Thursday. We drove to a great cafe and bakery on Ile d’Orleans. Called La Boulange, it’s a grand old house that’s been converted to a cafe. Great place to sketch in good weather and bad as there are lots of great scenes to sketch outdoors when weather permits.

On this day Yvan and I rattled on about fountain pens while Fernande and Claudette had fun drawing a family. Looking through a passageway from the bakery to the restaurant tables, I saw this scene.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6x8), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

There’s More To Urban Sketching Than The Sketch

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Studio artists get their enjoyment from two sources. They can enjoy the creatiive process or they can enjoy the creation itself. Urban sketchers enjoy these things too but for them there are other options. Maybe it’s a special place or just a nice, sunny day that brings them joy during a sketching session. Maybe it’s the comaraderie of drawing with a group of friends. But sometimes the most enjoyment comes from the people you meet.

That’s how it was this day as I was wandering around Quebec’s port area. I sat down to do a quick sketch of a guy who was fishing. In my mind it would be a quick, inconsequential 2-minute sketch, maybe less.

The young fisherman had an even younger person hanging out with him. The little guy saw me as I began the sketch and came over to take a look. He said nothing and went back to the fisherman. He returned a minute later, looked at my sketch and said, “Il est mon frère!” He was excited that I was drawing his brother. He ran back to tell his brother. Lucky for me his brother was more interested in fish than drawings of himself or I would have lost my model.

The little boy, probably no more than 5-years old, started pointing at the sketch. “His shirt should be red,” and he pointed at the shirt sleeve. I was using pen in my cheap book and had no intention to add any color to this little sketch but he persisted. “The chair is blue,” and he pointed at it.

Succumbing to my audience turned co-creator, I got out my watercolors and a waterbrush. I plopped some red on the shirt, blue on the chair. Buoyed by my response he started pointing to other things, telling me what color they should be. I told him that the paper wasn’t very good for color and he seemed to understand, though I think he was a little disappointed. But I thanked him for helping me with the drawing and he was pleased.

Saying goodbye, I walked away with a memory of the day I sketched with that little boy.

Cheap mustache notebook, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black – done with the assistance of a new friend

Sketching Rue Champlain

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Larry Marshall

The tourist season is heating up and places to put my tripod stool are already getting harder to find. But I love the hustle and bustle of tourist season. And there’s no place with more hustle and bustle than Rue Champlain, the street that runs along the St. Lawrence River and wraps around old Quebec. This is where the cruise ships dock and where the ferry shows up every half an hour with another pile of tourists, each wandering around while looking up to see the buildings high on Cap diamant, the location of the walled city. Lots of outdoor cafes, stores, and historic buildings give them plenty to do.

I was there on Wednesday and decided to draw one of my favorite buildings. It looks like something from a fairy tale, with larger buildings on either side of it, squeezing it into its tall, thin form. I wanted to sketch it with its windows bulging out from the pressure but decided that reality was good enough. Instead I did the black window thing and I don’t think I like that approach very much. Live and learn.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10x7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black