Sketching Marais Du Nord, Quebec

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Marais du nord is one of my favorite places in the Quebec City area. It’s only a few kilometers out of town but when you go there, you leave the hectic, noisy city behind and enter the world of chittering squirrels, bird noises and, most of all, the silence and peace that comes from being close to nature.

Marais du nord (north marsh) is situated within and around a large expanse of marshland between Lac Delage and Lac St. Charles and is maintained by a consortium of concerned citizens who decided that too much of the land around the lakes was being bought up and developed. They took on the Herculean effort of convincing the government to give them money and developed the “park” (I’m not sure whether park or reserve is the better word) to maintain the marshland and to provide hiking trails, bridges, overlooks and benches for people wanting to get away from the city for a while. A lot of Quebec kids are getting to see nature up close because of Marais du nord.

Chantal and I headed there for the day, mostly to clear our heads with a bit of hiking, lunch in the woods, and maybe, just maybe, to find some mushrooms to sketch. She has a “mushroom book” in which she sketches mushrooms and the mushroom diversity at Marais du nord is extraordinary.

It was a glorious day, though it was cut a bit short by threatening clouds that dumped a few tons of water on us as we sat in the car. Sometimes things do work out and we guessed right this time. Nevertheless, we got some hiking done and found some of those mushrooms.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Because this was a hiking trip, the notion that I would spend a couple hours doing a landscape was out of the question. Chantal is patient but there are limits. There were mushrooms to find, afterall. I saw this lack of time as an opportunity to force myself to put into practice some of the stuff that Marc Taro Holmes is trying to teach those of us taking his Craftsy Travel Sketching in Mixed Media course.

I’ve been doing a bunch of quick, single-line sketches, trying to capture a scene quickly and simplifying by elimination of details. My typical sketching style makes it hard for me to capture a chunk of nature quickly; nature is just too darn complex. So I decided to see if I could grab a scene quickly. I didn’t use the single-line approach but worked VERY loose and quick, for me, and in 10-12 minutes I’d done this drawing. This was nothing short of a miracle for me as I can burn an hour drawing a single tree. The bridge would have taken another hour. I did several of these quick sketches during the day and I was generally pleased with the results. Maybe Marc’s right and that by the time I’ve finished up a few dozen of those single-line sketches I’ll have figured it out.

10-12 minute sketch in Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Namiki Falcon & Kuretake #13 brush pen.

Marc Taro Holmes Comes To Visit

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I’m fortunate to have some sketchers that I can sketch with regularly but I confess that sometimes I feel isolated from things like urban sketchers, as we have no regional group here. So when Marc Taro Holmes said he’d like to come to Quebec City to sketch, I was pretty excited. I’m a big fan of his and have learned a lot from his book and from his Craftsy courses.

He and his wife Laurel were to arrive Sunday morning and so I was sitting outside their hotel, waiting for them to arrive. It seemed natural that I should sketch the hotel while I waited.

With that done, I did this quick sketch of a bronze bust of a famous Vietnamese guy, whose name eludes me.

I was getting a bit worried because they were very late in arriving. As it turned out, most of their hold up was due to problems finding a place to park. By the time they did show up, I’d done this sketch of a lamp post. It’s amazing how much you can find to draw without moving.

As Marc and Laurel had driven from Montreal, they needed a break before we headed out sketching and so we headed for a coffee shop. Anyone who has met Laurel and Marc know they are very laid back, and absolutely wonderful people. We talked about sketching, did the typical kibbitz about some of our sketching kit and then I made my confession.

“Marc, I’ve got a problem. We’re going to sketch in places where I can sketch any day of the week. I can’t look over Marc Taro Holmes’ shoulder any day of the week. It’s going to be hard for me to sketch today.”

I’m pretty sure Marc thought I was kidding but…well, I wasn’t. As it turned out, my statement was prophetic. While I was embarrassed that all my pen could produce was babble, and precious little of that, I learned so much from watching Marc draw and from our conversations. This is the only sketch I managed to produce while Marc produced four 16×20 sketches during the day. It was a bit embarrassing.

Marc, doing his thing on the terrace near Chateau Frontenac

The conversation stuff was another “problem.” Marc can talk while he draws; I cannot, and our conversations were near nonstop. In spite of me dropping the sketching ball, the day was very special to me and I hope Marc and Laurel enjoyed themselves in Quebec City. Thanks, Marc, for a great day. I promise to sketch more next time.

Here’s the ‘thing’ Marc was doing. He spent the day working with dip pens and doing magic

Not Quick Sketching, But Quicker Sketching

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I’ve been following Marc Taro Holmes’ new Craftsy course and as a result of that I’ve been doing a lot of his ‘single-line drawing’ sketches. This is an exercise with two purposes – to get your hand to loosen up and to simplify what you are drawing. It’s like doing push ups so you can hit a baseball. It’s not the way to do most drawings. It’s also not the equivalent of a blind contour drawing as you’re looking at what you’re drawing.

Canson watercolor paper (6x9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Canson watercolor paper (6×9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

It’s taking me a while to get so I could do it, and I’m far from doing it well, but this exercise is really opening doors for me. I struggle with the fact that my typical “style” is rather tight and SLOW. Sometimes I want to capture something without spending a lot of time. Sometimes I want to capture a LOT, and don’t have the time given my style. So developing an alternative is useful to me. Note that I didn’t say replacement.

Anyways, I’m starting to try to bring some of that more loose, quicker approach into my sketching and here’s an example. Not a single-line drawing by any means but one done more loosely and more quickly than is my norm. New adventures.

It was done on the same 6×9 sheets of cheap watercolor paper that I’ve been using for my single-line exercises. BTW, Marc’s course is spectacular, providing more bang for the buck than most courses. I highly recommend it.

Jupon Presse On Rue St. Jean

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Larry Marshall

We’re getting bonus summer here. Maybe it’s payback for the lousy June and July we had 🙂 In any case, I’ve been taking advantage of it and doing a lot of walking and sketching.

I found myself on Rue St. Jean, one of the iconic streets that lead from the old city through, coincidentally, the St. Jean Gate. A few blocks from the old city is an old church and an accompanying cemetery with headstones that date back into the 1700s. This was the ‘edge of town’ cemetery back then, I suppose.

It has become a park, as the graves were all moved at some point, though many of the original gravestones remain, it’s where downtown people go to eat lunch and enjoy the trees and park benches. I was going to draw some of the old head stones, but as I rounded the end of the church I saw this store across the street from the church. I’m sure I’ve walked under those awnings a bunch of times but I’ve never noticed them. From the cemetery the store was hard to miss and I found the place really cute. So I drew it.

ps – I was asked the other day what watercolors I use. I use Daniel Smith and love them. I wish they’d pay me to say that but they don’t. You can get their color chart here.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6x9), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Sketching In St. Vallier

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Last Wednesday several of us drove to St. Vallier at the invitation of Louise Denault, one of our sketching buddies. This was very exciting because St. Vallier is a beautiful place, with a wide variety of sketching locations.

4x6 toned paper, Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Carbon Black ink

4×6 toned paper, Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Carbon Black ink

I took advantage of the fact that, for once, I wasn’t driving and so I did some quick sketches along the way. The bumps in the road added to the scribbly nature of the sketches but it was fun anyway.

We picked up Louise at her house and headed to a side road overlooking the valley and its agricultural fields. Everyone set up next to a wheat field with the expanse of the valley behind it, but I walked down the road to sketch an outbuilding I’d seen as we arrived.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Claudette and Louise came to where I was sketching just as I was finishing and we walked back to the group together. It had been determined that it was time for lunch and that we would head back to Louise’s house for lunch.

As everyone else was packing up I looked out at the valley and decided it would be an opportunity to do another one of those one-line sketch drawings and so I did one. I did ‘cheat’ a bit and lifted my pen a couple times to keep the drawing a bit cleaner, but by the time everyone was packed I’d done the sketch, added some darks, and was slopping paint on the piece of cheap Bristol on which I did it. I mention this last thing because it was a mistake. I thought I’d grabbed a piece of watercolor paper but instead I was trying to herd water on a piece of slippery, coated paper and I was using a waterbrush to do it. That was exciting. But this was a few minutes of fun and the result isn’t horrible (grin).

6x9 Bristol paper, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

6×9 Bristol paper, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Lunch was to die for, and if I’d eaten one more bite that might have happened. Louise provided quite a spread, with a beautiful salad, lots of cheeses, smoked sturgeon, quiche, baguettes, and wine… lots of wine. I was stuffed. And then Louise mentioned the pies…two pies. And, of course, we had to try both of them 🙂

Louise’s house is amazing but it’s the backyard, with its gardens, gazebo and view of the St. Lawrence that is the real jewel and we were eating in said gazebo. I’m used to a protein bar and a coffee when I go sketching. This was different, a really good kind of different 🙂

And now that we were done with lunch, it was time to get out sketching again. So, barely able to move, I left the gazebo completely delier, my new French word for the day. It means to be loosened up, and boy, was I loose. Any looser and I would’ve fallen down. I needed a nap.

Off we went, to a small nature park not far from St. Vallier. It was a parking lot, picnic tables, some trails and a gazebo set up for bird watching along the coast. Most of us decided to draw the gazebo. Here’s mine.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

It was a great day but by then we were all pretty worn out and called it a day. Thanks to Louise for all her hospitality, her zucchinis, and that fantastic lunch.