40th Worldwide Sketchcrawl – Quebec Style

Last weekend was the 40th Worldwide Sketchcrawl and a group of sketchers in Quebec City participated.  We were blessed with great weather, had a great turnout,  and we had a great time… except I lost my entire watercolor kit.

DanielVincent

Daniel Potvin (blue shirt) and Vincent (tan shirt), one of his students.

Our numbers increased significantly this time around for the simple reason that Daniel Potvin, an enthusiastic sketcher, who happens to teach animation at Université Laval, brought some of his students – a group of very talented folks.

We met just inside the St. Jean Gate, in Artillery Park.  Both of these are tourist hotspots so there were lots of people around.

Yvan

Yvan did welcoming duties while sketching the St. Jean gate.

Yvan took up station and offered a welcome to everyone as they arrived.  We agreed to meet for lunch at 12:15 and so we each went our own way to hunt down the ideal sketching subject.  I was looking for shade.  (Note to self.  Next time do a formal group photo as the group has gotten too large to cover them all with a snapshot.)

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CelinePierre

Celine and Pierre sketching the Kent Gate

With lots of sketching behind us, we broke for lunch and gathered under a large shade tree.  Some brought lunches, some went foraging at the many food vendors in the area.  We talked, shared sketchbooks, ate and generally had a mini-sketching party.  It was great!

Natalie

Natalie sketching the Kent Gate tower.

Eventually, we decided that we should sketch some more and so we did.  I was pretty beat by that time and I suspect others were as well but heck, it was a great day and so we sketched.

Claudette

Claudette sketching on Rue d’Auteuil.

In the end, it was a big success, we got to meet and talk with some new sketchers and we all took home great sketches to remind us the day.

One complete failure on my part was that I got no good photos of the spread of sketches, laid out during lunch.  The problem was that they were part in the sun and part in the shade, with leaf shadows all over them.  I’ll have to do better next time.  This time around, you should be able to see (real soon) at least some of those sketches on the Worldwide Sketchcrawl site.

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Couldn’t resist this. It was at least 15-feet high and part of summer festival. S&B Zeta (5×8)

Somewhere, between the old city and home, my entire watercolor kit fell out of my sketching bag and I lost it.  Anyone who finds a green case with a watercolor palette, some Escoda travel brushes, water bottle and misc….it’s mine (grin).  Here are the sketches I did during the event.

This is a Celtic Cross in Artillery Park. 3x5 and done with a Pilot Prera.

This is a Celtic Cross in Artillery Park. 3×5 and done with a Pilot Prera.

 

Church next to Kent Gate.  S&B Zeta (5x8), Pilot Prera.

Church next to Kent Gate. S&B Zeta (5×8), Pilot Prera.

 

Sketching Between Rain Days

We’re still getting more rain than we should and certainly more rain than I want.  But we got a weekend that only started under rain and high winds.  We ended up with slightly damp conditions and warm temperatures.  There was this scary yellow ball in the sky.  Not sure what that was but it seemed harmless enough.

Yvan and I took advantage and we went to Artillery Park, an area in old Quebec City that has a bunch of old military buildings and fortifications.  It’s also where a munitions factory operated until 1964.  Now the large buildings are museums surrounded with park areas, cannons and high walls – a great place to sketch.  And we did.

I sketched a building called Redoubte Dauphine.  It’s an impressive structure and I set up at the base of it, sitting on the edge of a parking lot.  I sort of botched the perspective by placing a couple lines incorrectly.  As I didn’t want to restate them in their correct locations, I made the best of it and finished it with the wonky angles.  Do me a favor and squint a lot when you look at the sketch.  Maybe you won’t notice (grin).  The sketch was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook with a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray.

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It was very hazy and cloudy so I decided to return to add color/details, when there was some sun to provide contrast.  I packed up and went looking for Yvan.  I located him, sitting high above me on a wall.  In fact, I noticed that you can see him as a tiny orange blotch on the right of the photo above.  He was sketching something and I thought it’d be fun to do a quick sketch of him.  I did it in my Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) with a Pilot Prera and Platinum Carbon Black.

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I climbed the hill you see in the first sketch and entered a tiny park area associated with what was once an officer’s quarters.  I liked the shape of the end of that building and so quickly sketched it.  Same small sketchbook; same pen/ink.

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2013-06-29OldBuildingSiteThe eastern edge of Artillery Park is bordered by an old rock fence.  On the other side of it there’s a grand old apartment building that’s no longer inhabited and, sadly, it’s crumbling from neglect.  It pokes its second story above the rock wall and I liked the view, of the back of the building and so I sketched it.  Same sketchbook, same pen, same fun experience.  Every sketching day is a great day.

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