A Slow-Sketcher Approach To Bird Sketching

Posted on by

If molasses could sketch, it would do so at the same rate as I do.  This is a problem mostly when I try to sketch crowds of people, highway traffic, bee hives, and… BIRDS!

I love birds but gosh they won’t sit still.  Audubon had a solution.  It was called a shotgun, but I’m an urban sketcher and, even if I were so inclined, me thinks the authorities might frown on that method.  So what can a molasses sketcher do?  Ah HA, says I.  A solution I have found.  Here’s what you do:

1) Get a 12″ x 12″ piece of 3/4″ pine.  Home Depot is a good source.
2) Using a scroll saw, cut out the profile of the bird you want to draw.
3) Paint it in suitable colors.  I recommend Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds for color reference.
4) Drill a 1/2″ hole in the bottom edge of the cutout.
5) Shove a 1/2″ dowel into the hole.
6) Go to your garden and shove the 1/2″ dowel into the ground.
7) Get a nice cold drink, a lawn chair with a glass-holder, and sit down in front of your bird.
8) Draw your bird as slowly as you like.  Life is sweet.
Monologue A6 sketchbook (4x6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Monologue A6 sketchbook (4×6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

The Willingness To Learn

Posted on by

ddd

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” ― Albert Einstein

It’s said that we old folks don’t learn as quickly as young kids.  Our brains are pretty firmly wired, it’s said, while kid brains are just gathering steam when it comes to wiring.  Whether that’s true or not is above my pay grade.

What I do know is that a kid’s willingness to learn, and to be thrilled by the activity, is boundless.  Watch any kid learning to walk.  How many adults in the same situation, after having fallen a gazillion times without moving three feet, would say “It’s too hard” and sat down on the floor, asking for the TV remote.

I’m writing this because I just witnessed the cutest example of a child’s joy from learning.  A tiny tot, probably no more than a couple years old, was walking along the sidewalk.  She proudly made her way along, expending a great deal of energy to maintain her position ahead of mom.  You could tell she was working hard.  Heck, her poor legs were soooo short.

She got to a place where the sidewalk had been cracked and lifted by a large tree root.  Her side of the sidewalk was three to four inches below where she needed to go.  Undaunted, she carefully put her left foot on the higher level and stepped up to the higher level.  Then she stopped.  I guess she was thinking because the next thing she did was jump.

That’s right.  Standing in place she just jumped up, coming down in exactly the same place.  She took a step and jumped again.  Another second of pause and this time, apparently realizing she needed to do something more than just jump upward, she took a step and leaped up and forward.  When she came down she immediately looked up at her mother with a big smile on her face.  Next time she’d be ready for the cracks in the road.  She needed no class, no teacher.  All she needed was desire and a bit of persistence.

I think this is how we learn art, or should.  We’ve got to jump, then jump again.  Are you jumping?

Group Sketching Without The Group

Posted on by

Can you have a group sketching event without a group?  I wonder.  This was attempted, it seems, last Saturday in Quebec City.  According to the published schedule of Collectif des ateliers libres en arts visuals de Québec, a local portrait group, we were all supposed to meet on Terrace Dufferin at 10AM.  I was there.  Yvan was there.  But nobody else showed up, not even the guy who was supposed to coordinate the event.

So, our group was small, but our will was mighty.  It was a very hot day, one of the few we’ve had thus far but Yvan and I found some shade, sketched and enjoyed each other’s company.

I need practice drawing stuff where I have to look up and so I did a sketch of the old postal building that sits at the end of Terrace Dufferin, with a bit of an information kiosk in the foreground.  It’s an odd view and only part of the building but it turned my crank so I put it to paper.  All in all, we had fun, though this is tourist season and we sort of got overrun.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9x6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

One of the really fun things about being a street sketcher is the audience, particularly the kids.  Kids are curious about anyone who draws.  They relate to it.  Kids are also afraid to engage with adults so they have to be invited, with smiles and words.  I smile.  I say hi.  And before you know it, we’re engaged in conversation and they are a breath of fresh air.  Unlike adults, they don’t tell you you’re sooo talented.  They don’t tell you about how they’d like to do art but they don’t have the time/patience/ability.  Instead, they tell you that they draw too.  They ask you if you like it.  They want to know how the paint thing (waterbrush) works.  Maybe I like them because I think about art on this level.  I don’t know.  I share with you a photo of me interacting with some kids on this day.  I didn’t know Yvan had taken this photo but I’m grateful that he did.

photo: Yvan Breton

photo: Yvan Breton

Sketcher Gets Rained In

Posted on by

On Thursday, I headed out for a sketch walk and it was kinda cool.  There hasn’t been much summer in July for us.  I was sort of wishing I’d grabbed a jacket but I figured the walking would warm me up.  Then it started to rain and I decided otherwise.

Monologue (4x6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Monologue (4×6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Following a short run while wishing I had my raingear, I ended up in a small coffee/tea place on 1st Avenue.  I was the only one in the place.  It was not the most arto-genic place I’ve been in but it was dry so I ordered a coffee and took a seat near a window, which didn’t provide a very inspiring view either.  Sigh.

Monologue (4x6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Monologue (4×6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

I drew this teapot that was sitting in the window.  I drank some coffee and followed up with a poor sketch of this funny-looking lamp.  When the coffee was gone and the rain had let up, I decided to head home.  There’s always tomorrow.

More Backdoor Sketching

Posted on by

I’m spending more and more time looking at the backs of buildings.  If I’m not careful someone will call the cops on me.  But there are some areas where these views open onto main streets and so opportunities to be driven nuts drawing porch railings and stairs do exist in Quebec City.  Here’s one example.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9x6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black