A Quick Monument Sketch

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Our sketching group arranged a tour of the architecture school. Sadly, they don’t teach drawing with pointy devices anymore. Everything is 3D graphical presentations, a shift that James Richards (an architect) says, in his great Freehand Drawing and Discovery, generates a lot of work for him as he’s often hired during planning/pitch sessions because he can do freehand sketches of proposed ideas.

But we live in a “latest must be greatest” world. Like the trains and warehouses we dismantled when gas was cheap when we ‘knew’ that continuous streams of trucks on the road were ‘best’, I suspect architects will start learning to draw by hand again after there is a generation of ill-equipped architects who can’t.

The tour was fantastic as the architecture department is in one of the old “seminaire” buildings, with vaulted ceilings, Hogwarts-like staircases, and small doorways with, in some cases, the old steel doors you only see in medieval movies.

I got downtown about 15 minutes before we were supposed to meet so I sat down and drew this sketch. There’s a large statue in the square and it’s surrounded by a granite fence on three sides and at each corner one of these smaller monuments.

cheap brown sketchbook, TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

Once Upon A Time We Had A Zoo

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Larry Marshall

There was a time when Quebec City had a zoo. It was a good zoo. It was a place where you could go to not only commune with animals but also to walk the large, wooded grounds and have a picnic. Then a really dumb, and completely unavoidable political decision, was made and we no longer have a zoo.

What do you do with a huge tract of land that had a bunch of moats, fences, and buildings scattered all around it. What Quebec did was fence off most of it and turn the front section into a small park to serve the population in the northern portion of the city. It’s a beautiful park, with waterfalls scattered along the small river that runs through it. It’s also just a short bus trip from my home.

My daughter and I went there. She took her Kindle. I took my sketchbook. We had a grand day, enjoying one of the first days where we could be outside without coats. I chose this scene. The small building used to be one of the administration buildings of the museum.

cheap toned paper sketchbook, Pilot Prera, Noodler’s Lexington Gray

Trial By Pencil: A Sketcher’s Tale

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Larry Marshall

I’ve mentioned that I’m trying to figure out how to use a pencil and I’ve posted a couple drawings that I’ve attempted with them at our Musée de la Civilisation. I’m using rainy days to continue that practice.

I decided to attempt to draw one of the gorgon heads that were found in Pergamen. Guestimated to have been made prior to 129AD, they’re one of the few things older than I am so I thought it fitting that I should draw one. Gorgons, if you’re unfamiliar with them, are minions from the underworld. They have large eyes and are said to have snakes for hair. The one I drew also has a large chip out of its chin.

This was a lot of fun but also took me a long time. Mark me down as the slowest pencil driver on the planet. Done on bristol paper I enjoyed the smooth surface. It reminds me of my beloved Stillman & Birn Zeta paper. I used a mechanical pencil and some Faber-Castell 9000 pencils.

While I’m at it I’ll post this little sketch of a hanging towel. I do a lot of these little doodles while I watch my Blue Jays lose. Pencils are fun. Pens are more my style.

Rocks In My World

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Larry Marshall

One thing I want to do this summer is draw rocks and trees. I struggled with both subjects last year so they became part of my ‘figure it out’ list. There aren’t a lot of rock piles in the middle of our city but there are some, scattered around in our parks as points of interest.

As I was walking home I sat down in a park and drew these. Note little bits of green on the foliage. We’re just starting to see leaf buds bursting and even our grass is starting to green up. It’s a welcome sight.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9x6), TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

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

Sketching Parliament

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9x6), TWSBI Mini, Noodler's Lex Gray

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

The Quebec provincial parliament building is huge. The front of the building is actually the narrow side of the building and yet it’s a couple blocks long. When it gets a bit warmer I hope to find a view where I can capture the entire face of the building.

On Tuesday, though, the temperature was border line so I decided just to draw the main tower over the entrance. Even so, by the time I’d finished the ink sketch I’d cooled down enough that I felt the need to move so I quickly dashed on some color when I got home. It was good to see the sun while sketching. It’s been a long time coming.