Sketching The January Thaw

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Like much of North America, we experienced very cold temperatures for a few days. Following that, however, we’ve experienced weather that made it seem like May here in Quebec City. It rained, it got warmer (40F a couple days). Excepting this has turned all of Quebec City into a lumpy skating rink, it’s been wonderful.

I was supposed to meet Claudette at a cafe for our weekly sketching session and I arrived about 10-15 minutes ahead of her. Rather than going inside, I found a place to stand out of the light rain that was falling and drew the exterior of the cafe. When she arrived we went inside and I added color to my sketch and added some other ‘stuff’ to the page. Done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) with a Pilot Prera.

While Claudette was finishing up a sketch I looked outside and saw this lonely street lamp, its feet stuck in heavy, dirty snow and it’s head bent over as a response to the rain. It seemed so forlorn so I sketched it. This was done in my el cheapo 3×5 notebook.

We finished up and Claudette and I headed off in different directions. I walked down St. Jean street, heading towards the old city and it was wonderful. The rain had become nearly a mist and it was warm enough that I could actually remove my gloves. I saw that as a ‘sign’ and as I walked past this building, with its amazing roof, I ducked into a little alcove out of the rain and did this quick sketch of it in my S&B Alpha (4×6). I added the color to this little sketch when I got home but, for me, this sketch was pretty special as the winter cold has prevented me from sketching outdoors. It was, indeed, a great day.

Quebec Sketchcrawl: Musee De La Civilisation

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Saturday, January 25th is the date for the 42nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl. It’s very cold in Quebec City this time of year so we’ll be having our sketchcrawl indoors at the Musée de la Civilisation. We’ll be at the museum from 10h to 16h, breaking for lunch at mid-day. Bring a lunch or buy it at the museum but we’ll gather at the museum cafeteria around 12:30.

Participation, of course, is free. Normally, entrance to the museum is only available from 10h to 12h but the museum has generously offered free admission to all participants regardless of your time of arrival. Just let them know that you’re with the sketching group. Coat check is also free.

It should be a great day as there’s plenty to tempt you to put pen to paper. While a bit bizarre, the Haiti In Extremis exhibit offers some macabre sketching possibilities.

The newly refurbished and expanded Native American exhibit is also full of goodies to sketch, from snowshoes, utensils, weapons, carvings, paintings, mannikins all waiting for interest a sketcher.

There is a large computer games exhibit and while it’s mostly a bunch of boxes on which you can play video games, there are a number of possibilities for sketching as well, including a full-sized sculpture of the lead character for the Assassin’s Creed III video game.

There are also a lot of interior architecture possibilities as the building itself has a lobby area that is an architect’s dream. I still need to do some sketching there.

Of course the star of the show right now is the Paris: 1899-1914 exhibit. Here you’ll find a room filled with old camera and movie projector equipment and ongoing movies from the period.

There are a lot of sculptures, busts, and vases if that’s your preference. You’ll also find a number of early vehicles, including a steam-powered car.

The exhibit also holds a lot of very large posters as well as floor-to-ceiling projections of photos, taken in Paris in the 1900s. I did this sketch from one of those.

And, of course, a Paris exhibit wouldn’t be complete without pieces that represent the cabaret scene of the era. Lots of great stuff to sketch in that part of the exhibit.

In short, you won’t want to miss this sketchcrawl as we’re going to have a ball. I hope you’ll join us. And from the organizers, Yvan Breton and Celine Poulin:

———————EN FRANÇAIS———————

Bonjour chers croquistes,

La prochaine sortie de croquis du 42^e Sketchcrawl à Québec aura lieu au chaud du Musée de la Civilisation samedi le 25 janvierprochain.

Nous nous retrouverons à partir de 10h (accès gratuit).

Pour plus d’information, voir l’annonce à la page suivante :

http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=11293

Au plaisir de faire du croquis en votre compagnie.

Yvan Breton et Céline Poulin

Sketching An Inuit Art Piece

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Quebec has a rich Native American community, from the Shawnee who helped Pre-Canadians fight Americans during the war of 1812 to the Inuit (Americans might still call them Eskimos) who manage to live in the very cold northern parts of Quebec.

Our Musée de la Civilisation has a large permanent exhibit dedicated to Native American history and art. This is a beautiful piece of wood and soapstone carving. It’s about two feet tall and the soapstone face has a long tail on it that allows it to sit in the hollow of the tree trunk. It’s quite stunning and I didn’t do it justice.

Done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) with a Pilot 78G, followed with Albrecht-Durer watercolor pencils and a waterbrush.

Sketching Quebec’s Past

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Our Musée de la Civilisation has a permanent exhibit of Quebec artifacts. They are organized roughly along the lines of Quebec’s history, starting with the results of archeological digs and then progessing through 400 years of its history. Celine Dion is somewhere near the end of the exhibit.

I thought it might be fun to sketch a few of these antiquités and this is the result. Done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) using a Pilot Prera (Platinum Carbon Black) and a Wahl-Eversharp flex nib pen (Noodler’s Lexington Gray).

Sketching Haiti Skull Art

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Larry Marshall

There is an exhibit at our Musée de la Civilisation right now called Haiti In Extremis, at least that’s what it says on the wall as you enter. I think it may be Latin for “weird stuff from Haiti” but I’m not very good with Latin. Anyways, this is an exhibit of art that has a heavy emphasis on scaring bad spirits away from the places that display it, so much of it is designed to be scary. Another component of the art is that the sculptures are composed of old car parts and other assorted junk. I’ll be honest. It doesn’t appeal to me.

But I was sketching at the Musée last Sunday with Yvan, Claudette, Pierre and Celine. We had a ball and several of us sketched what amounted to a human skull, perched on the base from some sort of rack. The skull was draped with a shawl and fake hair added to one side. This ‘unit’ was stuck on top of a television set. Don’t ask me why or what as I might not say the right thing.

But as with all sketching, it was an interesting challenge and lots of fun. Here’s my depiction of the piece, though I omitted the television set. Done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (6×9) using an Wahl-Eversharp gold nib pen (love the flex in this pen) and Noodler’s Black, which smeared a bit when I added color (watercolor pencils/waterbrush).