Canada Cold Is Different!

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Today it was miserable cold in Quebec City and the last few days have made getting my walking exercise done without turning to ice very difficult. My Arizona cowboy blood doesn’t help the matter.

Today I walked to the library to sketch people with Claudette. With the wind chill, the temperature was -40F and by the time I got there I was on the verge of turning to ice and what I found was Claudette, standing outside the library which was closed due to holiday schedule.

We went to a nearby cafe to sketch instead but, truthfully, I was too cold to sketch. I never did remove my coat and my fingers never did warm up sufficiently that my pen-driving turned to normal.

Lots of people say “it’s cold” and because the word is a relative term, everyone believes they understand what’s being said. In my experience, though, people who believe that ‘freezing’ (32F) is cold don’t understand Canada cold and what it means.

When I came home from my experience with ‘cold’ today, an email I received was timely. It came from Alan Norsworthy, a resident of Ontario and someone experienced with Canadian cold. Here’s his story about sketching in Canadian cold:

I had read about how you stopped sketching outdoors as the winter approached and on New Years morning a friend and I were standing in the freezing cold waiting for a sunrise that never came. It is part of my ‘First light’ challenge for photographers (but that’s another story)

As we waited and slowly froze I decided to sketch the scene I was about to photograph. I opened my bag pulled out my sketchbook and fumbled for a pencil.

As my fingers numbed I grabbed my TWSBI fountain pen and began sketching in the lines…. Six lines later my pen stopped, the ink frozen !

My friend laughed as I put it all away and my thoughts turned to you (editor’s note: he’s talking about me here) … “no wonder he heads to an indoor spot” I thought … And smiled

Later in the warmth of a local cafe we laughed about it and I opened my bag to let my pens thaw out. Then I finished the sketch witb a new toy, a Pentel Pen Brush that i had received from the same friend, he said I need to expand my vision.

There are some who sketch in the cold, but when ‘cold’ means your ink and watercolor water freezes, you don’t. So we go indoors but I cancelled a sketching session tomorrow simply because it’s so cold right now that I don’t even want to walk to that indoor venue. It’s supposed to ‘warm up’ on Saturday, with the highs predicted to be -20F so maybe….

Here’s Alan’s sketch, deftly drawn with his Pentel Brush Pen. I’m still trying to figure out how to control this great sketching tool. Thanks to Alan for sending me his story.

Just Say No: Resolve Not To Resolve

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Larry Marshall

This is the time of year when everyone starts talking about New Year’s resolutions. “I’m going to lose 20 lbs.” “I’m going to exercise more this year.” “I’m going to be nicer.”

A few decades ago I realized that all this is just “talk” and that, most the time, the smart money is on people forgetting all about their resolution within a week or so of making it. That’s why we’re all fat, don’t exercise enough, and not very nice.

But not me. Year after year I keep my resolution – 100%. That’s because I resolved not to resolve anything, and it works every year. Pretty cool, eh? So, think hard about what your New Year’s resolution will be. I think there are two ways to go with this, unless you’re just blowing smoke during resolution season in which case, just keep talking about how serious you about sticking to your resolution “this year.” Otherwise, read on.

Option One

Do like I’ve done. Resolve something that is self-fulfilling, and/or automatic. How about “I’m going to breathe every day” or “I won’t change my gender during the whole year.” Well, that last one might not work for some people but you get the idea. Then, like me, you can proudly crow to everyone you meet, “I kept my New Year’s Resolution. How about you?” This accomplishes nothing, of course, but at least you can be confident of success… sort of like Congress saying they did nothing because that was their goal.

Option Two

This is the alternative for those of you who actually want to change something in their life, whether it be to lose weight, take up a new hobby, learn to play an instrument, or whatever. This is the hard alternative of the two but it does pay dividends.

To do Option Two get a small notebook and for each of the first 30 pages in that notebook, write a number from 1 to 30 at the top of the page. THEN, do whatever your resolution demands, EVERY day, for 30 days. It takes that long to develop a habit, to integrate it into your life, and to find out if it’s actually something you want to do. Giving up after a week cuz it’s too hard or rationalizing your way out of something hard by saying “I don’t like it” is not an option here. Each day, after you’ve done whatever it is your resolution requires, make a note of what it was you did that day. Keep it up for 30 days.

At the end of that 30 days the activity will be something you’re doing every day. You might still want to stop doing it because you’ve decided that you really didn’t want to become an underwater basket weaver but you won’t be able to say “I don’t have time for this.” You’ve just spent 30 days doing it – you have the time. It’s likely that you won’t be able to say “This is too hard” as you will have done ‘it’ enough that you will have made considerable progress in the endeavor, enough that you can see the results. And most important, it will have become a habit in your life, not just a spoken, vague goal.

BTW, this is how I started sketching. I decided I want to try it but wasn’t sure I could. In fact, long ago I was told I had no talent for art but I’m old now and don’t have any elders to pay attention to anymore. But I also realized that it would be hard as I couldn’t even draw a darn cube without it looking like it’d been run over by a truck. So I set the 30-day goal and I drew a lot of bad cubes for 30 days…until I saw that I was improving. At the end of that 30-days my cubes were pretty darn good and and I’ve been sketching nearly every day since.
So, what’s your New Years Resolution? Option One, Option Two, or are you just talking. In any case,

Happy New Years, Everyone

Playing A Bit With Color

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

A couple days ago I posted a couple pen and ink graphics of some spiffy clothes with people in them. One of them was this guy, Connor, from the Assassin’s Creed game. My one disappointment was that his costume is blue, tan and brown and the local color is lost in a pen and ink sketch.

So, I decided to play yesterday. The first thing I did was to print my sketch on some cheap paper. That was a mistake and I wish I’d used better paper but we live and learn. The next step was to apply some color, which is where I learned about my first mistake as I couldn’t move the color around at all as it soaked immediately into the unsized paper and was stuck. I also couldn’t put multiple layers as the paper started coming apart when I tried. Nevertheless, it was fun and I liked the results. I know nothing of the Assassin’s Creed game but I sure do like the costume.

Sketching Pirates and Assasins

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Larry Marshall

For some, drawing people is seen as the pinnacle of art. Not for me. I like doing portraits, as long as they’re portraits of buildings. I like clothes on people and find capturing all the folds and pleats to be a near impossible task given my limited drawing abilities. But, it’s winter, and there are more people inside buildings than buildings inside buildings and if I’m going to have to draw from photos, why not something I don’t normally draw?

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10x7), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

And so it is…winter, and I’ve decided to draw a few more people than normal. I decided to draw this pirate from a book. He was fun and ample proof that I still have much to learn about pen and ink, particularly shading with ink.

I went to the Musée de la Civilisation on Friday and met up with Yvan and Claudette. I decided to draw “Connor”, the protagonist in the 3rd Assassin’s Creed video game. The museum has a life-size statue of him at the entrance to a video game history exhibit. As he has a great costume, I may have to sketch him at least once more. I might even do him in color as his tunic is tan but his coat is Revolutionary War blue, and he’s got leather chaps and a red belt with gold trim. Video game designers have good tastes in clothes, if nothing else.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

A Bit Of Christmas Sketching

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Larry Marshall

It seems that some sketchers become very active during holidays and get togethers. I seem to be just the opposite and when a holiday rolls around, I find it hard to find either time or inclination to sketch.

That’s not to say I don’t sketch at all. During the two days around the Christmas holiday, I did four sketches but for me, that’s a lull. I thought I’d share a couple of them with you. They’re nothing special but they reflect the laid back way my family celebrates.

Books are a big part of our gift-giving as we all love them. The result of this, of course, is that we spend time on Christmas day listening to music and reading. Within the limits of my very limited sketching ability this is what my daughter looks like when she’s curled up at the end of the sofa, big comforter wrapped around her and her face in a book. I don’t think her nose is really that long (grin).

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4x6), Pilot Prera

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Pilot Prera

Christmas movies are a tradition too. We watch them, ad nauseum, throughout the holiday season. There’s Elf, Santa Clause, Santa Clause 2, Santa Clause 3, Miracle on 34th St (the old and the new), It’s a Wonderful Life, Heloise at Christmas… well you get the picture. Here’s another picture. It’s a sketch I did during one of those movies. The real thing rests on top of our Christmas tree.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4x6), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

In conclusion, I don’t think there could be a more laid-back Christmas than ours but we enjoy each other’s company and not having to go anywhere. And, between all the eating of too much of too many things, I did a bit of sketching. I hope you enjoyed your holiday as much as we did ours.