Just a quick reminder that Saturday, January 25th, at 10AM will begin a grand day of sketching as we celebrate the 42nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl at the Musée de la Civilisation. It’s free to all but bring sketching materials and a lunch, though the museum will be most happy to sell you food as well. You can see details here, in my original post about the sketchcrawl. See you there.
Tag Archives: Location Sketching
Sketching At The Library
It’s turned bitter cold again, killing hopes of a mild winter. And at -33F I headed off this morning to meet Claudette at the library. Somehow the walk was longer than normal. I wonder why.
Done in Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) sketchbook, Pilot 78G and Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink
But we had a lot of fun sketching people at the library. Library people tend to stay put a bit longer than museum people so there’s a better chance of finishing a sketch before they wander off. I’m not much of a people sketcher but I thought I’d share a couple of the sketches I did this morning. It’s ok to laugh… honest. I wonder if the sleeping kid would have been embarrassed to know that he was snoring and that people were looking at him.
A Walk With The Gods
The search for places to sketch in winter is continual here in Quebec City, so when Yvan said “Why don’t we go to Pavillion Laurentienne to sketch?” everyone immediately responded with “Sure!” Only later did we ask “What is Pavillion Laurentienne and what can we sketch there?”
Pavillion Laurentienne, as it turns out, is a relatively new building on the Université Laval campus. It’s used for conferences and larger meetings. What’s interesting about it is that it’s got a very large lobby area with a bunch of large plaster casts of statues that live in Europe somewhere. Another way of looking at them is that they’re big white naked people, though one of them, out of modesty no doubt. has a small sheep wrapped around his shoulders.
Yvan got permission for our motley crew to show up today to sketch. Sunday is certainly the day to go as except for the security guard, we were there alone, hanging out with the white naked people. It was a very meditative atmosphere.
Here’s a loose sketch of part of the lobby area. I did all these sketches on Canson Ingres papers that seems ideal for pen and ink drawing, though it’s too thin for watercolor.
Sketching statues is certainly not my forté but I sure had fun today. This guy’s name is Marcellus, though he and I never had a real conversation. His neck isn’t really that long – I was being “artistic,” I guess (grin).
I was getting a bit tired at this point, so I had some coffee and some great conversation. I decided to draw an arm and, I’m afraid, I worked one beat too fast and the poor guy’s hand looks like it went through a meat grinder, though in this case I guess it would have to be a plaster grinder. In any case, the result left something to be desired, as did my second, hand attempt. I guess I was just tired from trying to keep my gut sucked in around these well-muscled white guys.
All of these sketches were done with a Pilot Prera with either J.Herbin Lie de thé or Noodlers Lexington Gray ink. As we left for the day most of us agreed that we’d have to come back.
Sketching The January Thaw
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
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 42e 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 :
Au plaisir de faire du croquis en votre compagnie.
Yvan Breton et Céline Poulin